December 2, 2005	Friday	Shawwal 29, 1426

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LAHORE, Dec 1: Unbeaten centuries by Mohammad Yousuf (183) and Kamran Akmal (115) virtually assured Pakistan of winning the three-Test series against England after Thursday’s proceedings at Qadhafi Stadium in the third and final Test. Inzamamul Haq’s side won the first Test at Multan by 22 runs while the second Test at Faisalabad ended in a draw with Pakistan having a slight edge.

On a day completely dominated by Pakistani batsmen who finished with a handy lead of 158 runs, nothing went right for the hapless England who will have to bat much better than the first innings to save the Test in the remaining two days.

England, bowled out for 288 runs in their first innings, endured one of their worst days in the field in recent times as they could manage to take only the wicket of night-watchman Shoaib Akhtar while Pakistan accumulated 261 runs in 75.4 overs, a loss of 22.2 overs. So far 54.2 overs have been lost in three days.

The umpires, for the third day running, offered batsmen to go off due to fading light. Pakistan batsmen, however, decided to stay on but after four short-pitched deliveries from Steve Harmison, the umpires called it a day to save possible injury as one of the deliveries almost decapitated Kamran’s head.

Nothing went right for the tourists during the day after Shoaib posted his highest Test score (38) with two huge sixes and four boundaries before holing out to Shaun Udal off Liam Plunkett.

Inzamam, who was forced to retire on Tuesday after he was struck on the right forearm by a vicious Steve Harmison delivery, did not come after the fall of Shoaib Akhtar. The Pakistani skipper was listed to bat after the fall of the sixth wicket. Luckily for Inzamam he was not called upon to bat giving him more time to recover from the injury.

The pitch continued to play easy and Pakistan batsmen were only troubled when England’s pacers tried to bend their backs with short-pitched stuff.

None of England’s paceman or out of his depth, veteran off-spinner Udal could make any impression on Yousuf and Kamran in their unconquered sixth wicket stand that had so far realised 199 runs.

Yousuf completed his 14th century in style hitting Udal for a straight driven six and immediately bowed towards Makkah.

During his marathon innings, Yousuf also hammered 21 fours off 335 balls and hardly played a false stroke.

Kamran Akram survived some anxious moments in his 90s and was dropped by Marcus Trescothick in slips on 95 off debutant Plunkett.

He celebrated the escape to hoist his second Test century cracking the same bowler with a crashing cover drive.

The diminutive wicket-keeper, who at times outscored his more illustrious partner, faced 195 deliveries and smashed 10 fours, majority of them driven through cover.

Kamran’s batting wagon-wheel showed that he scored almost 85 per cent of his runs on the off-side.

At times it appeared that Michael Vaughan and his boys had thrown in the towel and were just going through their paces praying Pakistan batsmen do something silly.

To their utter frustration nothing of that sort happened as the day wore on.

England now face two testing days with almost no chance of victory.

At best the visitors could deny Pakistan winning the Test and confirming their undeniable superiority in the series.

Test cricket in the past has produced some unbelievable results.

Yet after three days’ play and considering England’s present plight it will need a mini-miracle to suggest visitors win the Test to square the series.

 

S C O R E B O A R D
ENGLAND (1st Innings) 288 (P.D. Collingwood 96, M.P. Vaughan 58, M.E. Trescothick 50).
PAKISTAN (1st Innings, overnight 185-4):
Shoaib Malik c Plunkett b Hoggard	0
Salman Butt c Jones b Plunkett	28
Asim Kamal lbw b Hoggard	5
Mohammad Yousuf not out	183
Inzamamul Haq retired hurt	35
Hasan Raza c Flintoff b Harmison	21
Shoaib Akhtar c Udal b Plunkett	38
Kamran Akmal not out	115
EXTRAS (B-1, LB-9, W-7, NB-7)	21
TOTAL (for five wkts, 127.4 overs)	446
FALL OF WKTS: 1-0, 2-12, 3-68, 4-180, 5-247.
TO BAT: Rana Navedul Hasan, Mohammad Sami, Danish Kaneria.
BOWLING (to-date): Hoggard 18-4-58-2; Flintoff 29-8-66-0 (7nb, 1w); Harmison 33.4-3-115-1; Plunkett 24-1-95-2 (3w); Udal 15-1-71-0; Collingwood 6-0-22-0; Bell 2-0-9-0.

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