England vs Pakistan at The Oval – day two lunchtime report
England have battled back admirably in the first session of day two of the Test match against Pakistan, with some extremely consistent bowling restricting the tourists to 111-4 at lunch in conditions which at the start of the day looked perfect for batting.
But the day got off to the perfect start for the hosts as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Yasir-Hameed-c2811, who looked in good touch yesterday, fell to the second ball of the day without adding to his overnight score of 36. Stephen Finn almost had his man with the opening ball, as Hameed edged one just short of Paul Collingwood at third slip. But the next delivery was on the money once again, Finn found one to nip away from Hameed, who mis-timed his cut shot and Matt Prior was left to take a simple catch.
Salman Butt came to the crease short of confidence but obviously not short of luck, his average of just four runs from the last four innings looked justified as Eion Morgan put down a sitter after a wayward shot from the Pakistan skipper in his first over. His luck did run out though with 17 runs to his name though, as the arrival of Graeme Swann proved the difference.
Butt, after hitting a confident boundary the previous ball, clumsily went after a short delivery that turned just enough to find the edge and Prior, despite his best juggling impression, done the rest which left http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 76-3.
Wahab Riaz, the night-watchman, played a gutsy knock of 27 before being trapped lbw by Swann just before lunch, whose return to the attack once again worked like a charm for captain Andrew Strauss.
England, in all fairness, bowled well throughout the session and James Anderson and Stuart Broad especially can count themselves very unlucky not to be among the wickets as their consistent line and length continued to cause trouble.
Azhar Ali and Mohammad Yousuf will be the men at the crease after lunch on naught and 15 respectively, and at least one of them will need a big innings in order to wrestle the initiative back from the rampant hosts.
Tags: