England lose to Pakistan A

England lost to a buoyant Pakistan A at Bagh-e-Jinnah by six wickets just before tea on the third day. Pakistan A’s hero was undoubtebly Hasan Raza, the captain, scoring a magnificent unbeaten 71, but Shahid Yousef also made a valuable contribution scoring a determined 57.

This completed a woeful day for England. Michael Vaughan’s injury had put him out of the first test and his bowlers were unable to bowl out a team on a green wicket and in the process got carted all around the ground by nightwatchman Shahid Nazir, who set the day’s tempo with a blistering 43 from 31 balls.

The only positives that England could take from the match would be Andrew Flintoff taking three wickets and Steve Harmison’s hostility in his opening spell, dealing out two painful blows, one of which struck Imran Farhat, the Pakistani opener and caused him to retire.

England was in trouble from the beginning of play with the Pakistani nightwatchman Nazir, although he had been struck by Harmison, smashing the England bowlers for four fours and two sixes, the last sailing over helpless fine-leg’s head. He eventually saw his off-stump knocked back by a toe-crunching yorker from Flintoff, but his cameo of 43 had already demoralised England.

Flintoff claimed his second when Faisal Athar, 8, mistimed his pull and provided the bowler with a simple catch, making Pakistan 103-3. The Pakistanis were still confident of winning the game though, and they drew closer and closer to the target with Raza and Yousef plodding along without too many problems against England’s flat seam attack.

Giles looked impotent too, and was being scored off rapidly by Raza. By now, there was little energy in the England team, and with most of the players away practicing, Mat Maynard, the England assistant coach, was played as a substitute fielder when Andrew Strauss had to leave the field with a slight niggle.

But even Maynard couldn’t inspire the team, and with Raza and Yousef scoring continuously and relentlessly throughout the rest of the morning session and notching up a 50 run partnership in the process, England seemed to be in deep trouble.

In the afternoon, things didn’t get any better for England. Udal and Collingwood were largely ineffective with the ball, and there seemed to be no penetration in any of the England bowlers apart from Flintoff, who trapped Yousef lbw with a leg stump yorker to claim his third wicket of the innings.

It wasn’t long until tea when Pakistan A scored the 18 runs required after Yousef was out and England’s disastrous 3 days were complete. With Michael Vaughan missing the first test and the confidence gained from the Ashes almost gone, England’s preparations for the series have been dealt a heavy blow.

England 126
Shaun Udal 23, Ashley Giles 21
Mohammad Asif 7-62, Shahid Nazir 2-18

Pakistan A 138
Hasan Raza 34, Amin-ur-Rehman 32
Matthew Hoggard 4-39, Ashley Giles 3-14

England 256
Paul Collingwood 61, Andrew Strauss 56
Mansoor Amjad 5-97, Mohammad Asif 3-44

Pakistan A 246-4
Hasan Raza 71*, Shahid Yousef 57
Andrew Flintoff 3-67, Matthew Hoggard 1-50

Pakistan A win by 6 wickets
Man of the Match– Hasan Raza