Pakistan put troubles behind them to take one-day series to final game

The familiar controversies of the past three weeks heightened to the point that the match was in evident danger of being aborted for much of the morning.

But once an England and Wales Cricket Board statement, released with under an hour to go to the start, revealed that the hosts were prepared to take the field, it was Pakistan who began and finished the contest by far the best.

Abdul Razzaq's late hitting in a total of 265 for seven and Shoaib Akhtar and Umar Gul's skill and determination with ball in hand proved too much for England and meant the series will go down to Wednesday's last match.

Mohammad Hafeez (64) top-scored for Pakistan and shared the highest stand of Pakistan's innings as he and fellow opener Kamran Akmal put on 62 after Shahid Afridi won the toss, but it was Razzaq who inflicted the most damage.

He struck three fours and a six from the penultimate over off James Anderson and then smashed Tim Bresnan's last five balls for four.

Graeme Swann (four for 37) had stalled the tourists' progress, but Razzaq (44no) made the most of a late powerplay as 21 runs came from each of the last two overs.

In-form home captain Andrew Strauss had begun the day with a strongly-worded personal statement, refuting Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt's unexpected claims that England players had received "enormous sums of money" to deliberately lose the previous encounter at the Brit Oval on Friday.

When his chance came to let his bat do some talking, Strauss raced to a third successive half-century at the top of the order, but his 68 - and a 113-run opening stand with Steve Davies - was to prove in vain as Pakistan squeezed England's batsmen under the lights.

England got their first breakthrough when Akmal mis-pulled Stuart Broad for a simple catch to midwicket, but Pakistan continued to operate at above four an over, despite the efforts of Swann on an end-of-season pitch offering him some turn.

He spun one through Asad Shafiq's attempted drive to disturb off-stump, had Mohammad Yousuf edging behind as he tried to cut and then ended Hafeez's 100-ball stay when his victim skewed the ball into the hands of short third-man.

Swann failed to impress Afridi, though, and the last ball of his 10 overs was deposited straight into the second tier of the pavilion for a six which struck an MCC member a nasty blow on the head.

Strauss and Davies got England's chase off to a handsome start with Shoaib (three for 59) dispatched for 30 runs from his three new-ball overs as both left-handers pierced the field with ease.But Davies fell one short of his 50 when he inside-edged an attempted drive at Saeed Ajmal on to his stumps.

And once Strauss fell, cutting at Shoaib Akhtar, who was much improved in his second spell, England's middle order failed to muster another significant partnership and the controversial series will limp on to Hampshire's Rose Bowl for the decider on Wednesday.