England bowlers limit the damage

Three England bowlers were rewarded for their labours with two wickets each as they tried to limit the damage done by faulty batting on Tuesday. The upshot, by stumps, was nonetheless a Pakistan total of 288 for seven and a deficit of 96 and counting for the world No 1 one team.

If day one of this three-match series had featured an unscripted helter-skelter collapse, as off-spinner Saeed Ajmal spooked England with his disguise and variations, round two delivered the attritional cricket so universally predicted here.

Mohammad Hafeez (88) and Taufeeq Umar (58) laid the foundation for more Pakistan gains on this fair pitch – and Misbah-ul-Haq (52) extended the advantage – while England toiled manfully but missed a clutch of half-chances which might have brought the contest back into the balance.

“I think we really earned those wickets late on in the day,” said Stuart Broad “Last night I think there were a few batters feeling a bit negative in their room but it is important that we came to the ground with a positive attitude and knowing that we’ve been in positions like this before.

“We can look back to Brisbane and Trent Bridge, when we were behind the 8-ball a little bit but bowled really nicely in our first innings then scored big in our second innings batting. Tomorrow morning we’ve got to come out and finish the tail off.”

Broad revived their hopes fleetingly, and two late wickets did likewise. But for the most part, England had to reap what they had sown with their brittle batting 24 hours earlier. Hafeez and Taufeeq’s stand of 114 helped Pakistan move on serenely for much of the morning from 42 without loss overnight. Hafeez did have two lives. First, Ian Bell narrowly failed to run him out on 44.

Then, eight runs later, Hafeez mis-pulled Broad to wide mid-on where Tremlett failed to hang on to a one-handed chance. But Broad’s disappointment was soothed immediately when, next ball, he bowled Taufeeq with a fine delivery which held its line from round the wicket and hit off-stump.

He then made short work of Azhar Ali, pushing forward in defence and getting a faint edge behind to give Broad his second wicket at a personal cost of only five runs.

England grafted in vain for much of the afternoon, but did finally see the back of Hafeez when he missed a sweep at Swann and was hit just in line with off-stump – proven by DRS, at the behest of Pakistan. Just before tea Jonathan Trott delivered a bonus wicket.

Brought on in a holding role, Trott took his first overseas scalp in his first over of this series when he got one to nip into Younus Khan off the seam for the seventh lbw dismissal of the match.

Asad Shafiq fell to a fine catch by wicketkeeper Matt Prior off James Anderson with the second new ball before a marginal DRS process went England’s way before stumps.

A big off-break from Swann hit Misbah just in line with off-stump and tracked to hit leg – and then when Anderson nipped through Abdur Rehman’s defences with the last ball of the day, the tourists were back in the equation.