England’s problems mount with six-wicket defeat LAHORE: England’s cricketers slumped to
an embarrassing six-wicket defeat,
shortly before tea on the third and
final day at Bagh-e-Jinnah, as Hasan
Raza, Pakistan A’s captain, confirmed
his burgeoning maturity with a fine
unbeaten 71. Raza added 129 for the fourth wicket with Shahid Yousuf, and England’s ignominous day was completed when Imran Farhat carved the winning runs past point off Andrew Flintoff.
It’s been a bad 24 hours for England. As their captain, Michael Vaughan, looked on glumly from the sidelines, awaiting the results of the scan on his twisted knee, his bowlers were given the run-around from first ball to last. Pakistan A’s nightwatchman, Shahid Nazir, set the tempo with an uninhibited innings of 43 from 31 balls, and though Flintoff chipped in with all three wickets to fall, the support bowlers were unable to cause any problems on a docile surface.
Steve Harmison was at least hostile, striking two painful blows in his opening spell, one of which caused the opener, Farhat, to retire hurt with an injured index finger. But after getting out of jail in their first warm-up at Rawalpindi, England got their comeuppance second-time around.
But Pakistan A were the team with the most to prove in this match. Mohammad Asif wants a return to Test colours, after a solitary outing against Australia earlier this year, and he did his utmost to ensure that would happen with a fine ten-wicket haul. Meanwhile Raza, who was reputedly the youngest Test cricketer in history when he made his debut as a 14-year-old in 1996-97, confirmed that - nine long years later - he is finally ready for higher honours.
His unbeaten 71 included four fours and three sixes, the largest of which landed on the roof of the press tent, but common-sense was his watchword throughout, as he led the pursuit of 245 for victory.
The writing was on the wall for England from the very first hour, as the nightwatchman Nazir climbed into the new ball with an alacrity that England have been trying - and failing - to match all tour. He came to the crease late last night following the dismissal of Taufeeq Umar, and made his presence felt in no uncertain terms this morning, swinging the bat with the sort of insouciant abandon that characterises Muttiah Muralitharan’s best slogs.
He hit four fours and two sixes in all - all of them hefty heaves across the line - the last of which plopped over the head of a helpless Harmison at deep fine-leg.
Nazir took his fair share of blows as well, including one agonising strike below the belt from Harmison that required a lengthy time-out. His spree was eventually brought to an end when Flintoff extracted his off-stump with a well-directed yorker, but at 98 for 2 in just the 15th over of the innings, Nazir had carried his side well within striking distance of their target.
Flintoff added a second wicket to his tally when Faisal Athar miscued a pull straight back into the bowler’s midriff for 8 (103 for 3), but Pakistan A were undaunted - even when Farhat left the crease for treatment - and as an intrigued local crowd began to find their voice from behind the gymkhana railings, Raza began to cut loose against the spin of Ashley Giles.
Without Vaughan to spur the side on, England seemed flat in the field and, with several members of the squad practising at the Gadaffi Stadium, they were short of replacement fielders as well. The assistant coach, Matthew Maynard, came onto the field when Andrew Strauss departed for treatment for a minor niggle, and though Strauss reappeared soon enough, he wasn’t able to bring with him any magic formula from the dressing-room.
Raza and Yousuf went to lunch with an unbroken 50-run partnership, and they had added 79 more in a serene post-lunch session, in which neither Shaun Udal nor Paul Collingwood was able to make much impression. Flintoff returned to the attack to trap Yousuf lbw for 57 with a leg-stump yorker, but at that stage Pakistan A needed just 18 runs to win, and they rattled them off with the greatest of ease.
The only consolation for England is that they slumped to a similarly untimely defeat against South Africa A at Potchefstroom last winter, and bounced back to win the Test series 2-1. But with their captain looking increasingly likely to miss at least one match, if not more, their preparations for Multan have taken an undeniable blow.
England in Pakistan, 2005-06
Pakistan A v England XI
Bagh-e-Jinnah, Lahore
6,7,8 November 2005 (3-day match)
Result: Pakistan A won by 6 wickets
Toss: England XI
Umpires: Mian Mohammad Aslam and Saleem Badar
Close of Play:
Day 1: England XI 126, Pakistan A 127/8 (Shahid Nazir 6*, Mohammad Asif 1*; 30 overs)
Day 2: Pakistan A 138, England XI 256, Pakistan A 31/1 (Imran Farhat 12*, Shahid Nazir 0*; 4 overs)
England XI 1st innings R M B 4 6
ME Trescothick b Mohammad Asif 8 31 23 1 0
AJ Strauss c Shahid Yousuf b Shahid Nazir 5 20 14 0 0
*MP Vaughan c Shahid Yousuf b Mohammad Asif 17 44 23 3 0
KP Pietersen c Amin-ur-Rehman b Shahid Nazir 4 20 15 0 0
PD Collingwood c Shahid Yousuf b Mohammad Asif 0 4 4 0 0
A Flintoff c Arshad Khan b Mohammad Asif 9 26 17 2 0
+GO Jones b Mohammad Asif 0 8 4 0 0
AF Giles b Mohammad Khalil 21 52 40 2 0
SD Udal c Taufeeq Umar b Mohammad Asif 23 52 28 3 0
MJ Hoggard not out 11 44 29 0 0
SJ Harmison c Amin-ur-Rehman b Mohammad Asif 18 30 14 4 0
Extras (lb 4, w 5, nb 1) 10
Total (all out, 35.1 overs) 126
FoW: 1-13 (Strauss), 2-13 (Trescothick), 3-34 (Pietersen),
4-34 (Vaughan), 5-40 (Collingwood), 6-44 (Jones),
7-53 (Flintoff), 8-87 (Giles), 9-101 (Udal),
10-126 (Harmison).
Bowling O M R W
Shahid Nazir 10 5 18 2
Mohammad Asif 16.1 2 62 7 (5w)
Arshad Khan 1 0 2 0
Mohammad Khalil 8 1 40 1 (1nb)
Pakistan A 1st innings R M B 4 6
Imran Farhat lbw b Hoggard 23 42 25 3 0
Taufeeq Umar c & b Hoggard 6 10 9 1 0
Faisal Athar c Jones b Hoggard 0 2 2 0 0
Shahid Yousuf b Hoggard 10 10 8 2 0
*Hasan Raza lbw b Giles 34 115 67 4 0
Mansoor Amjad b Collingwood 7 13 15 1 0
+Amin-ur-Rehman c Flintoff b Giles 32 72 46 4 0
Arshad Khan lbw b Giles 0 1 0 0 0
Shahid Nazir not out 11 0 13 0 0
Mohammad Asif c Trescothick b Harmison 6 3 9 0 0
Mohammad Khalil lbw b Harmison 1 12 13 0 0
Extras (b 4, nb 4) 8
Total (all out, 33.5 overs) 138
FoW: 1-9 (Taufeeq Umar), 2-9 (Faisal Athar),
3-29 (Shahid Yousuf), 4-46 (Imran Farhat),
5-58 (Mansoor Amjad), 6-118 (Amin-ur-Rehman),
7-118 (Arshad Khan), 8-124 (Hasan Raza),
9-132 (Mohammad Asif), 10-138 (Mohammad Khalil).
Bowling O M R W
Hoggard 8 0 39 4 (4nb)
Harmison 10.5 0 54 2
Collingwood 4 0 14 1
Flintoff 7 2 13 0
Giles 4 1 14 3
England XI 2nd innings R M B 4 6
ME Trescothick lbw b Mohammad Asif 1 20 9 0 0
AJ Strauss c Amin-ur-Rehman b Shahid Nazir 56 130 98 7 0
*MP Vaughan retired hurt 0 6 1 0 0
KP Pietersen lbw b Mohammad Asif 0 3 1 0 0
PD Collingwood c Shahid Nazir b Mansoor Amjad 61 100 70 6 4
A Flintoff c Shahid Nazir b Mansoor Amjad 28 28 19 4 2
+GO Jones c Amin-ur-Rehman b Mansoor Amjad 30 89 63 4 0
AF Giles c Shahid Nazir b Mohammad Asif 49 112 83 9 0
SD Udal c Faisal Athar b Mansoor Amjad 12 14 19 2 0
MJ Hoggard b Mansoor Amjad 3 7 8 0 0
SJ Harmison not out 9 0 11 1 0
Extras (b 4, lb 1, w 2) 7
Total (all out, 63.4 overs) 256
FoW: 1-4 (Trescothick), 2-10 (Pietersen), 3-123 (Strauss),
4-123 (Collingwood), 5-154 (Flintoff), 6-212 (Jones),
7-226 (Udal), 8-230 (Hoggard), 9-256 (Giles).
Bowling O M R W
Shahid Nazir 11 2 55 1
Mohammad Asif 11.4 2 44 3 (1w)
Arshad Khan 17 2 55 0
Mansoor Amjad 24 3 97 5 (1w)
Pakistan A 2nd innings (target: 245 runs) R M B 4 6
Imran Farhat not out 37 0 40 6 0
Taufeeq Umar c Jones b Hoggard 15 11 9 3 0
Shahid Nazir b Flintoff 43 60 31 3 2
Faisal Athar c & b Flintoff 8 42 34 1 0
Shahid Yousuf lbw b Flintoff 57 155 105 7 0
*Hasan Raza not out 71 0 104 4 3
Extras (lb 6, nb 9) 15
Total (4 wickets, 52.2 overs) 246
To Bat: Mansoor Amjad, +Amin-ur-Rehman, Arshad Khan,
Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Khalil.
FoW: 1-27 (Taufeeq Umar), 2-98 (Shahid Nazir),
3-103 (Faisal Athar), 4-232 (Shahid Yousuf).
Bowling O M R W
Hoggard 8 1 50 1 (4nb)
Harmison 13 5 40 0
Flintoff 10.2 0 67 3 (4nb)
Giles 9 1 41 0
Udal 9 0 34 0
Collingwood 3 1 8 0 (1nb)
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