CRICKET/Pakistan v England: There is little left in this match for England to salvage on the final day but some honour. Once Pakistan stormed past them on Thursday, then disappeared across the horizon at a gallop yesterday morning, the game was up as far as the series was concerned.
Inzamam-ul-Haq and his side could rest easy last night secure in the knowledge that they will win their first series since they beat New Zealand two years ago, and their first of more than two Tests, save for a whitewash of Bangladesh in 2003, since overcoming Sri Lanka five years ago.
Given the political infighting that has characterised Pakistan cricket in the past, to beat an England side of considerable quality makes their triumph all the more laudable for the side and for Bob Woolmer, the coach, who will have enhanced his credibility no end.
With a first-innings deficit of 348 and five sessions to survive for the draw, Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood were battling when play came to its inevitable early conclusion, the former already past 50 for the third time in the series.
But Shoaib Akhtar had blown a hole in the innings with the new ball, swinging the second ball in to catch Marcus Trescothick leg-before and then bamboozling Michael Vaughan into popping his slower ball straight back to the bowler.
In the second innings of the second Test in Faisalabad, the same bowler had sent Trescothick's off-stump cartwheeling as he padded up in the opening over. This time the sheer exuberance of Shoaib's aeroplane celebrations almost gained him lift-off.
That someone who can propel a ball at around 100mph should get such unbridled delight from sending down something 30mph slower is one of the great charms of the game, but Akhtar's slower ball is a thing of beauty. The deception comes from the hand action, effectively that of an off-spinner, that slows the release of the ball even as the arm retains its velocity, and also from the trajectory which, designed to loop into a yorker length, appears ominously like a beamer to a batsman expecting a fast delivery.
The delivery to Vaughan was misjudged in that it arrived around knee height, but that merely caused the batsman to jab the ball back on the full as if playing French cricket.
As with many things connected to bowling on the limit, there is a fine line between success and failure. To bowl the ball so well would have demanded hours of practice. Yet still it can go wrong, as Bell found yesterday when the beamer he thought one such delivery might be, turned out to be precisely that, thudding in beneath his left armpit and felling him.
At 30 for two, and with Shoaib in full cry, there was a real chance that England would implode. That Bell and Collingwood played with such assurance to the close then was worthy of credit, and they finished with 60 and 37 respectively. The pitch may have offered little to bowlers since the first few hours of the match but the situation still demanded a pair of stout hearts and they delivered, having added 91 for the third wicket when offered the chance to leave for bad light.
The morning had belonged to Pakistan, with Mohammad Yousuf completing the third double century of his career, going on to make 223 in a little over 10 hours before holing out at long-off (26 fours and two sixes), and Kamran Akmal 154. He struck 14 fours in 5½ hours before clipping to midwicket, the third highest score by a wicketkeeper against England.
Yousuf's dismissal served only to let in Inzamam to resume the innings he had begun before Steve Harmison almost broke his wrist. He could not have got stuck in with more relish if it had been an all-you-can-eat buffet.
With Kamran he added 30 and then 90 for the eighth wicket with Naved-ul-Hasan (42 not out). His third successive century beckoned when, having made 97, he backed up too eagerly to get the strike and was run out.
Scoreboard
Overnight: England 288 (P Collingwood 96, M Vaughan 58, M Trescothick 50) Pakistan 446-5 (Mohammad Yousuf 183 no, Kamran Akmal 115 no).
Pakistan First Innings (contd)
Mohammad Yousuf c Pietersen b Udal 223
Inzamam ul-Haq run out 97
Kamran Akmal c Vaughan b Flintoff 154
Naved ul-Hasan not out 42
Extras (b5 lb12 w4 nb7) 28
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Total (8 wkts dec, 156.2 overs) ... 636
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-12, 3-68, 4-180, 5-247, 6-516, 7-546, 8-636.
Did Not Bat: Mohammad Sami, Danish Kaneria.
Bowling: Hoggard 23-4-106-2, Flintoff 36-8-111-1, Harmison 43-3-154-1, Plunkett 28.2-1-125-2, Udal 18-1-92-1, Collingwood 6-0-22-0, Bell 2-0-9-0.
England Second Innings
M Trescothick lbw b Shoaib Akhtar 0
M Vaughan c & b Shoaib Akhtar 13
I Bell not out 60
P Collingwood not out 37
Extras (b5 lb2 w1 nb3) 11
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Total (2 wkts, 36 overs) ... 121
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-30.
Bowling: Shoaib Akhtar 9-0-34-2, Naved-ul-Hasan 12-1-46-0, Mohammad Sami 9-4-20-0, Shoaib Malik 2-1-1-0, Danish Kaneria 4-1-13-0.
