Day 2 couldn’t have started off worse for Pakistan as they lost remaining 3 wickets for 1 run to Broad and Anderson as they crashed to 257 all out. England lost Strauss early for 11 as he edged one off his thigh pad to forward short leg off Hafeez. But Cook and Trott ground out the Pakistan attack as they battled with great concentration, taking England past the 100 run mark. They both notched up fifties and looked good for century as England sailed past the 150 run mark. Trott was first to go when he failed to cover for the turn of a delivery and Cook fell 6 runs short of a century when he missed a doosra. When KP fell for 14, out to a brilliant catch by Hafeez it seemed as if England were going to collapse but Morgan and Bell saw out the last few overs but Ajmal forced Morgan to edge one off the penultimate
ball of the day as England ended at 207/5.
Day 3: Prior’s vigil didn’t last too long but Broad proved to be an able partner to Bell as they went past
Pakistan’s total. Gul used the new ball to trap Bell for 29 and Pakistan was in to the tail. However, Broad
and Swann went after the bowling as the lead swelled little by little. Broad notched up a fine fifty and
remained unbeaten on 58 and England finally folded for 327, a lead of 70 runs. Batting again Pakistan
needed to wipe out the deficit and set a target of around 200 runs to make life difficult for England.
But England’s spin twins, Monty and Swann, troubled their batsmen right from start and reduced them
to 54/4 as Hafeez, Umar, Younis, and Misbah were all sent back to the pavilion. Azhar and Asad then
buckled down and put together a fifty stand and saw out the day at 46* and 35* respectively as Pakistan
ended day 3 at 125/4.
Day 4: Asad was first to go but Azhar notched up a well deserved fifty before he fell to the new ball. Pakistan’s tail frustrated England by adding precious runs as they took Pakistan past 200 before Panesar ran through them to end with 6 wickets. Pakistan’s score of 214 all out meant that England needed 145 to win. It was going to be a tricky chase but even they couldn’t have imagined what followed. England got off to a crawling start and 20 runs didn’t come up till after 10 overs. Cook’s struggle ended on 7 off 40. Bell, Pietersen, and Morgan followed soon after as they slumped to 37/4. Strauss finally seemed to be getting in to some kind of form as he took England past the fifty mark with Prior for company. But the 100th ball that he faced made him Rehman’s 3rd victim as England continued to slide towards an embarrassing defeat. Last 5 wickets fell for addition of just 4 runs as England went from 68/5 to 72/10 in just 11 deliveries as Rehman’s six-fer condemned to a defeat by 72 runs.
