Pakistan won a pitch that can be decisive in the Lord that put England into bat on a humid day with the start delayed until after an early lunch. It will be a tough test for the batters struggling local team against Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir.
It was a frustrating morning the Lord as the rain keeps the caps in place throughout the opening session and an early lunch was taken at 12:30. When the currency fell for Salman Butt was an easy decision for him to unleash his pace attack and Andrew Strauss admitted, too, would have shot first.
Pakistan is pursuing a victory that would give them a share of the spoils after they went 2-0 down with heavy defeats at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston. England, meanwhile, are desperate to finish the race season with a victory in their last match of five days before Ash started in November.
Both teams unchanged from the Oval with England, using the same XI for the entire series and Pakistan to resist the temptation to rush back Umar Gul after his thigh injury. Gul's replacement, Wahab Riaz, was an able stand-in walking distance of five in his debut on the oval.
England 1 Andrew Strauss, 2 Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott 3, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan 6, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad 9, 10 James Anderson, 11 Finn Steven
Pakistan 1 Yasser Hameed, Imran Farhat 2, 3 Salman Butt (CAPT), Mohammad Yousuf 4, 5 Ali Azhar, Umar Akmal 6, 7 Kamran Akmal (wk), Mohammad Amir 8, 9, Wahab Riaz, Saeed Ajmal 10, 11 Mohammad Asif
Thursday, August 26, 2010
