Cricket Update: England vs. Pakistan, 3rd Test, The Oval, 3rd day- Cook Leads England’s Fight back
ENG 233 & 110/2
PAK 308
The third test between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 and England is intriguingly poised after an absorbing first session on day three of the test match.
Resuming at the overnight score of 6/1, England’s overnight pair of Alastair Cook and James Anderson started confidently, with the out of form Cook blazing away at the start of the innings in an attempt of regaining his lost touch.
Cook was ably supported by the night watchman Anderson and added 34 crucial runs before Anderson’s innings ended, when he feathered an edge to Kamran Akmal behind the stumps of the first ball of the day bowled by Saeed Ajmal.
Cook and Jonathan Trott then cleared the deficit through an attacking batting display that caught the bowlers off guard.
The left-hander Cook came out of his lean trot through his positive attitude, he was willing to put bat on the ball and in the process scored some impressive boundaries of the faster men.
Cook reached a very important half-century of his career that would help him resurrect his career after a string of failures in the first two tests, besides his failure in the first innings of the third test; his half century came off 77 balls and included 9 hits to the fence.
The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Essex-c783 batsman looked a different batsman altogether after his half century scoring a series of boundaries against the left arm quicks Mohammad Aamer and Wahab Riaz.
He was ably supported by Trott, who occupied the crease at the other end, as Cook blazed away towards an imperious hundred.
The noticeable difference today was the lack of swing despite a heavy cloud cover over the ground, with minimal lateral movement, batting became easy and Cook took full toll.
On the other hand, the Pakistani bowlers looked tired and jaded, other than Asif, the rest were rather unimpressive allowing the hosts to build on a solid lead with-in a blink of an eye.
The duo of Cook and Trott took the hosts past the 100 run mark before the lunch break, as Pakistani captain Salman Butt searched for a reliable bowler who could tie up one end, as Saeed Ajmal plugged away on the other end.
Wahab Riaz who claimed 5 wickets in the first innings was all over the place in the morning session leaking 31 runs in his 4 poor overs.
England took lunch at 110/2, with a lead of 35 runs.
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