RAWALPINDI, Dec 18: For England, Monday’s fourth One-day International against Pakistan leaves them with no room to err in their bid to square the five-match series they trail 1-2. Still smarting from a 165-run flogging in the third match at Karachi on Thursday, the tourists know just too well that stopping a buoyant Pakistan side would not be easy.

“It is a difficult task but we believe that there’s very good chance that if we played properly we can be 2-2,” English coach Duncan Fletcher told reporters on Sunday evening.

“We’ve just got to make sure we go and play the same way we did in the first game,” he said of the match his side won by 42 runs at Lahore before succumbing to successive defeats.

England’s worries though were continuing to mount after paceman Steve Harmison became a doubtful starter because of a sore throat.

“He is not feeling too well so we just have to monitor him through tomorrow,” the coach reported.

If Harmison, who has taken only two wickets in three matches, does not make it, he is likely to be replaced by Kabir Ali.

Already the tourists have lost regular captain Michael Vaughan, batsman Kevin Pietersen and spinner Ashley Giles to injuries. But the side remains confident of not only levelling the series on Monday but also subsequently winning it.

“We have to bowl in the right areas consistently and the top three batters will have to get off to a good start,” Fletcher said.

Home captain Inzamamul Haq appeared to make his side’s intentions clear on the eve of the match at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, proclaiming they won’t let England come back.

“It is a crucial game and we will do our best to wrap it up and clinch the series,” said Inzamam whose team by so doing will complete a hat trick of series victories after winning away in India and West Indies earlier in the year.

Pakistan’s dominance of Ashes-winning England has been such that after taking the Test series 2-0, this class of 2005 has looked even more destructive in the one-day contests.

The stunning cricket display at the National Stadium on Thursday was a good enough proof of Pakistan’s tremendous potential as they build for the 2007 World Cup. It was a hammering that England won’t soon forget.

“Pakistan played well and at the end of the day we have to just accept that they have done a good job,” the skipper said modestly.

Inzamam, who ruled out any changes going into the Rawalpindi game, said that probably England had underestimated them after a successful summer. “We did really well in Tests and one-dayers and I don’t think they had thought we could do so well.”

At Karachi, Pakistan cracked 353-6 batting first, their best ever total against England and then sent them crashing to 188 all out, Kamran Akmal stroking a silky century in the match.

On what appears to a batting wicket, Inzamam said that a score of 270 plus was possible but announced that they won’t let England score big.

Star all-rounder Andrew Flintoff felt that England had the energy to complete a come-from-behind series victory. “We have done it before by playing some good cricket over the past few years and we have to do it again.”

Teams (from):

PAKISTAN: Inzamamul Haq (captain), Salman Butt, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, Yasir Hameed, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi, Yasir Arafat, Rana Navedul Hasan, Shoaib Akhtar, Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Sami, Arshad Khan, Mohammad Asif.