Mohammad Asif blew England away on the second morning of the npower Test series, as the hosts lost their last six wickets for only 17 runs at Trent Bridge.

After Eoin Morgan and Paul Collingwood had put on a record fifth-wicket stand yesterday, England collapsed to Asif’s wicket-to-wicket seam and swing under heavy cloud cover.

The result was an unwelcome conversion of an overnight 331 for four into 354 all out 45 minutes before lunch.

The only good news for England was that their pace attack would also get the chance to operate in perfect conditions - and in their first eight overs, they had Pakistan 16 for one.

Asif (five for 77) had caused havoc with a spell of four wickets, all lbw, for eight runs from the Radcliffe Road end.

Morgan and Collingwood could add only six between them to the 213 they had racked up together by stumps last night.

Morgan had an early let-off when Mohammad Aamer (three for 41) had him edging to first slip - where Imran Farhat put down a straightforward catch.

There was to be no reprieve for Collingwood, though, when Asif pinned him lbw just on off-stump - a fact confirmed via the decision review system.

Collingwood (82) did not appear convinced it was worth risking England’s final DRS opportunity, and so it proved.

There was no such option available to Morgan when Asif struck again four overs later. But no review would have saved him anyway, because Asif straightened a ball dramatically off the pitch to do for the left-hander, who had mustered only five runs off 34 balls this morning yet still finished with 130 off 216 - thanks to 19 fours along the way, as well as the memorable straight six which brought up his hundred.

The double departure left a decidedly awkward task for new batsmen Matt Prior and Graeme Swann to try to get England up towards 400, with Asif already in full flow.

Swann was lucky on nought not to become Asif’s third lbw victim, Tony Hill presumably judging he had got just outside off-stump - a fact which could not be verified by video replay.

But Prior soon became the next unfortunate casualty, run out after Swann sent him back attempting a third run - Aamer’s accurate throw doing the rest.

It was a self-inflicted blow England could not afford, and it quickly became apparent they did not have it in them to recover.

Swann was eighth out, lbw pushing forward to Asif - who was on a hat-trick after James Anderson shouldered arms and was struck on the pad next ball.

Number 11 Steve Finn survived initially, only for Umar Gul to swing a full-length delivery past Stuart Broad’s defences for the final wicket and a third for no addition to the total.

The cloud cover was not shifting, and Pakistan therefore knew they were in for a struggle to make a competitive reply.

That was more evident still after Anderson had Salman Butt poking past his front pad to edge an outswinger behind to go for just a single.