CRICKET / Pakistan v England, second test: England live to fight another day but it was a much closer-run thing than they would have wished.
Set 285 to win, a nominal target given the generally pathetic over rate from both sides - the match was around 70 overs short - and the opportunity to slow it further if necessary, the tourists encountered a devastating new-ball spell from Shoaib Akhtar and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan that at one stage had them in the mire at 20 for four.
With Pakistan scenting victory, and the crowd kicking up a partisan cacophony, the match and series might have gone belly up were it not for a fifth-wicket stand of 80 between Kevin Pietersen (42) and Andrew Flintoff, another of 38 between Flintoff and Geraint Jones and, after Flintoff had departed for a resourceful 56, an unbeaten three-quarters of an hour from Ashley Giles who, along with Jones, saw the day out. England finished on 164 for six and, like Mafeking, relieved.
Earlier Inzamam-ul-Haq had set a record by scoring the 24th Test hundred of his career, the most by any Pakistani, and his second of the match - the fifth Pakistan batsman to achieve that - before declaring immediately.
If, given the subsequent close call for England, he might be accused in some quarters of self-serving rather than looking to the interest of the team in forcing victory, then he could point out that only his supreme technical skills had saved his side in the first innings and that they were also in trouble in the second when he went in. He was not going to give England a sniff of a chance.
Today the teams move on to Lahore for the final Test, which begins on Tuesday, and it is Pakistan who hold all the aces. This is a venue that will not yield a result unless one side plays out of its skin and the other capitulates uncharacteristically.
The city is further north than Faisalabad, and daylight hours are fractionally shorter. Play, though, will not begin until 10am, half an hour later, and there will be an extra-long lunch break on the fourth day to accommodate prayers, time that will not be made up. The Gaddafi Stadium does have floodlights and it is intended to use them. But experiments in South Africa last winter showed this to be futile: there is a period of time when the light is surreal and the red ball becomes invisible.
Once the lights take over from natural light - when the artificial shadows can be seen - the match effectively becomes floodlit and as Darrell Hair, one of the umpires who will be standing, is quick to point out, Tests are not floodlit matches.
A solution, to play six days of five hours rather than five days of six, is too blindingly obvious, but in case anyone invokes ICC regulations as a reason against such common sense it should be pointed out that the so-called Super Test, in Australia during October and deemed to be official, was scheduled for six days.
In this circumstance it is hard to see how England can square the series. They will not be helped by the loss of Andrew Strauss, who is returning to England today for the birth of his first child.
Yesterday Shoaib, on the absolute limit of his capabilities, demonstrated why he is one of the most dangerous fast bowlers in the game, swinging the new ball so wickedly at high velocity that Marcus Trescothick, in the split-second allotted him, shouldered arms to the fourth legitimate ball of the innings and lost his off stump; Ian Bell flicked at a short ball and edged to the wicketkeeper.
When Strauss dragged Naved on to his stumps, who then had Michael Vaughan leg-before, only the captain had scored, with the card showing more ducks than a Chinese restaurant.
Inzamam's innings was a remarkable effort in how deceptively quick it really was. Four hours on the clock does not tell the story for in that time, without seeming to break sweat, he faced only 134 balls, 66 fewer than his first-innings hundred.
That he faced around one delivery in three yesterday had a bearing. Fortune was on his side, too, not just on Wednesday evening when he should have been lbw on his way to 41 overnight but yesterday when Strauss put him down when 79. By then, though, with 240 on the board, the game was beyond England.
Guardian Service
SECOND TEST - Pakistan v England
Overnight: England 446 (I R Bell 115, K P Pietersen 100, G O Jones 55; Shahid Afridi 4-95). Pakistan 462 (Inzamam-ul-Haq 109, Shahid Afridi 92, Mohammad Yousuf 78) and 183-6 (Salman Butt 50).
Pakistan Second Innings
Inzamam ul-Haq not out 100
Naved ul-Hasan c G O Jones b Harmison 1
Shoaib Akhtar c G O Jones b Hoggard 14
Mohammad Sami lbw b Hoggard 5
Danish Kaneria not out 2
Extras b4 lb5 w2 nb3 pens 0 14
Total 9 wkts dec (93.1 overs) ... 268
Fall: 1-54 2-104 3-108 4-164 5-164 6-183 7-187 8-234 9-244
Bowling: Hoggard 16 1 50 3 Flintoff 27.1 2 66 3; Harmison 19 2 61 2 Giles 17 3 51 0 Udal 14 2 31 1.
England Second Innings
M E Trescothick b Shoaib Akhtar 0
A J Strauss b Naved-ul-Hasan 0
M P Vaughan lbw b Naved-ul-Hasan 9
I R Bell c Kamran Akmal b Shoaib Akht 0
K P Pietersen c Sub b Naved-ul-Hasan 42
A Flintoff c Sub b Shoaib Akhtar 56
G O Jones not out 30 A F Giles not out 13
Extras b4 lb8 nb2 pens 0 14
Total 6 wkts (48 overs) ... 164
Fall: 1-1 2-5 3-10 4-20 5-100 6-138
Did Not Bat: S D Udal, M J Hoggard, S J Harmison.
Bowling: Shoaib Akhtar 11 2 61 3 Naved-ul-Hasan 12 3 30 3 Mohammad Sami 6 1 18 0 Danish Kaneria 12 4 27 0 Shahid Afridi 7 2 16 0
Pakistan drew with England
