England face uphill struggle

England of late are not used to this. Having their backs against the wall, batting their guts out to salvage at least some pride from a series they can’t win is more like what their opponents have experienced over the last 2 years. But fantastic hundreds from Mohammad Yousuf and Kamran Akmal, and nearly another from Inzamam Ul-Haq have left England under the kosh for day 5.

Pakistan began overnight on 446-5 with Yousuf approaching a double century. Along with Akmal, Yousuf had laid the foundations for some attacking batting today, and that is exactly what we got.

The pair began with a degree of caution, but soon cut loose, punishing England’s bowling on a still flat track. Yousuf brought up his double hundred with a square drive off Flintoff, who has usually been the man to rescue England from this sort of situation. After hitting a sublime six off a helpless Shaun Udal, the Hampshire bowler got England’s first breakthrough the almost a day, Yousuf holing out to mid-on in pursuit of the team’s cause.

This brought Inzamam Ul-Haq back to the crease, and he continued where Yousuf left off. Resuming on 35, he quickly imposed himself on the England attack, while Akmal at the other end was playing some shots fellow wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist would be proud of. When the captain became the third person to hit Udal for six, he brought up his 8000th run in test cricket, becoming only the second Pakistani after Javed Miandad to do so. Soon afterwards he reached another landmark achievement – 1000 runs this calendar year.

Akmal perished soon after reaching his 150, perishing at midwicket, England’s skipper holding the catch which gave Andrew Flintoff his first wicket of the innings. This brought Rana Naved to the crease, to partner his skipper who was looking for a quick hundred before the end of an extended morning session.

Rana, more than capable with the bat, played just about perfectly given the situation, even getting in on the maximums act, with a big blow off Hoggard. Inzamam scored at over a run a ball this morning, but some might say his quest for a hundred, which would have been his third in a row, was selfish, but it was in vain in the end, as he was dismissed in a way that has caused him much ridicule in the past, run out. On 97 he set off for a single that was never there, a direct hit from Michael Vaughan did the rest. As he did at Faisalabad he declared there and then, leaving England one over to negotiate before lunch.

In another piece of Faisalabad symmetry, Trescothick was out to Akhtar in that first over before lunch. Akhtar beat him all ends up, leaving the umpire with an easy lbw decision to give. At Faisalabad Vaughan fell cheaply soon after lunch, and that was this case again here. Shoaib has bowled slower balls frequently throughout the series, with a reward, but he foxed Vaughan with one, and a tame lob to the bowler was the end result.

With both openers gone, a lot of pressure fell on to the shoulders of Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood. They had been in competition before the first test but now they had to work together to save England. They both played their natural games, and runs came at a good rate, at one point Bell was 33 off 34 balls. After the pair saw out much of the afternoon session, with the only alarm a difficult return catch put down by Rana, another Shoaib slower ball caused an incident, but unfortunately it was because the ball accidentally slipped out as a beamer, striking Bell. Shoaib, understandably was very apologetic, and luckily for England Bell was fine to continue.

The inevitably truncated evening session proved fruitless for Pakistan’s bowlers, the closest they came to a wicket was Bell driving a slower ball just ahead of Yousuf at cover. Bell brought up his 50, a valuable innings under pressure, and Paul Collingwood made good headway towards his second of the match, finishing unbeaten on 37.

Bell and Collingwood may have played well, but they and the rest of the line-up will have to dig deep to save England from a 2-0 series defeat. Tomorrow should prove to be an interesting display, if more because of the cricket on offer than the importance in the context of the series.

England 288 all out
Paul Collingwood 96, Michael Vaughan 58, Marcus Trescothick 50
Shoaib Malik 3-58

Pakistan 636-8 dec.
Mohammad Yousuf 223, Kamran Akmal 154, Inzamam Ul-Haq 97
Matthew Hoggard 2-106

England 121-2
Ian Bell 60*, Paul Collingwood 37*
Shoaib Akhtar 2-34

England trail by 227 runs