Cricket Update: Pakistan Vs England, Edgbaston- Downhill for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755, England on top
The second test between England and Pakistan is in England’s control, as the hosts wipe out the top order of the beleaguered visitors, who were on the mat once again against the inspired English pace and spin attack on day three of the match being played at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
Resuming from the overnight score of 19/1 the pair of Imran Farhat and Azhar Ali some how weathered the storm in the first hour of the day’s play.
Left-hander Farhat survived a drop catch off James Anderson, in the slips when Paul Collingwood dived yet failed to hold onto the attempt.
However, Farhat failed to utilize the opportunity failing to Graeme Swann in his first over of the day.
The batsman was unlucky as Swann bowled an absolute ripper that spun a mile after pitching outside the leg stump to take the off stump with the batsman squared up and lunging for the ball.
Imran Farhat occupied the crease for 93 balls, scoring 29 runs in all with the help of four boundaries.
This was the 20th instance when Swann had captured a wicket in the first over of a spell.
Farhat’s partner, Azhar Ali was the next one to go, as another big turning off-spinner went through his defences as the right hander attempted a booming drive of Swann.
Shoaib Malik looked totally out of sorts, especially against the pace and bounce of Steven Finn and eventually it was his lack of footwork and ability to cope with the steep bounce and pace that was his undoing.
The right hander tried to get out of the way of an incoming delivery from Finn, in an extremely ungainly manner gloving the ball in the hands of a diving Matt Prior.
In the next over of the innings, Umar Akmal, who survived a stumping chance of the first ball he faced, perished to Swann as he left a ball that spun back to strike him plumb in front.
There was no cloud cover this time around that was causing the problems, it was a bright and sunny morning, yet it was the cloudy thinking of the visiting batsmen who stayed in a negative mindset after their back to back collapses in the last three innings.
Umar Amin and debutant Zulqarnain Haider took the team to lunch with out further damage, yet the duo have a mountain to climb as they took lunch at 94/5 needing 85 runs more to avoid an innings defeat.
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