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Pakistan v England, 3rd Test (Karachi) Pakistan won the toss on another rather flat looking pitch and Moin Khan elected to bat without any hesitation. With the series to be decided in this match Pakistan made a couple of changes to their line-up. Wasim Akram was injured and replaced by Waqar Younis while Imran Nazir replaced Arshad Khan. It was obvious from the start that it was going to be another high scoring match when Pakistan put on 108 for the first wicket, before Imran Nazir went lbw to Ashley Giles for 34. Pakistan batted on into the second session of day two making 444 runs in the process. Saeed Anwar played a superb innings hitting 13 fours in his score of 110. The other main contributors to the Pakistan total of 444 were Saleem Elahi (54), Inzaman Ul-Haq (72) and Yousuf Youhana (59). A lot of useful runs also came from the tail with Saqlain Mushtaq making 33. The best of England’s bowlers was Ashley Giles who picked up three wickets for 88 runs in 26 overs. England had a tough task ahead of them if they wanted to get anything from the game as the pitch was slowly getting rougher and rougher with more spin becoming apparent. England though put their heads down and stuck to the task passing 400 in the last session of Day 3. Atherton made 86, Hussain got his first major runs of the tour with 86, Thorpe carried on with his good forming hitting a superb 55 while Hick, White and Giles all added useful runs to the total lower down in the order. Abdur Razzaq can be very pleased with the way he bowled claiming four top order batsmen’s wickets on a batsmen friendly wicket. Saqlain Mushtaq also managed to get three wickets. It was obvious in Pakistan’s second innings that conditions were getting worse as they were 86-4 at one stage. This didn’t stop Saleem Elahi however who went on to score a magnificent 111 from 267 balls hitting 11 fours. He was well supported by Inzaman (50) and Youhana (41) as Pakistan went on to make 294 before being bowled out. Ashley Giles was again the star bowler taking 4-50, while Andy Caddick took 3-57. This meant that there was only one objective for England. This was to survive the match and the series with four difficult sessions of batting ahead. Things didn’t start well however as England stumbled to 53-4. Nasser Hussain hit a morale boosting 75, while Graeme Hick got 44. But apart from that England couldn’t handle the Pakistani bowlers on a crumbling pitch. Abdur Razzaq again bowled well taking 5-54 and Saqlain Mushtaq took 4-61. Saleem Elahi was named as man-of-the-match for his superb batting scores of 54 and 111. This defeat meant that England lost the series 1-0 and had to get back to winning ways in Sri Lanka before the visit of the Aussies next summer. |
Revised:
Saturday, 16 March 2013. |
