The flurry of wickets, 16 to be precise, on the opening day of the third and final Test between Pakistan and England has left the game wide open with slight edge for visitors here at the Dubai Stadium on Friday. It was the day of referrals, rejections and acceptance with the bowlers playing a hara-kiri. First Pakistan crumbled to England’s quality seam bowling and later the visitors put up another poor show. At stumps, the had a led by five runs with four wickets in hand.
England was expected to give a much better show after Pakistan crawled to 99 runs but they caved in to 104. Majority of the 16 dismissals was LBWs.
Umar Gul’s early strike provided a chance for Pakistan to bounce back in the game and later Abdur Rehman with his three wickets made a point that Pakistan will not let it slip that easily.
Andrew Strauss is holding the forte for England at 43 with James Anderson at the other end while the other highest for England was Keven Pietersen (32), one of Rehman’s victims. Eoin Morgan and Matt Prior were the other wickets he grabbed. But before that Saeed Ajmal had Ian Bell for just five.
Making full use of the wee session breeze, England bowlers Stuart Broad and Anderson exerted early blows to the Pakistan top order after captain Misbahul Haq opted to bat. The first lemon break saw five of the Pakistan’s recognised batsmen back to the pavilion while remaining five followed suit at 99 in 44 overs shortly after after lunch break.
Broad, who was quite brilliant in the whole of the series, prominently teased the Pakistan batsmen with the seam while in the later stages Monty Panesar found enough spin that left six of the Pakistan batsmen trapped leg before.
For Pakistan everything went wrong, first the decision to bat first on conditions suitable for swing and later the review decisions. Both the Pakistan reviews were denied while the reviews demanded by Andrew Strauss decreased his options.
The frequency with which the Pakistan wickets tumbled, there was a feeling that it won’t even cross its lowest total of 53 that it recorded at Sharjah against Australia in 2002. But the pair of Asad Shafiq and Saeed Ajmal closed the post-lunch session at 53 for seven. Panesar struck right after the break sending packing Saeed Ajmal for 12.
Shafiq, however, frustrated the England attack with his careful 45 runs innings taking Pakistan total to 85 for nine. England, in danger of a 3-0 whitewash, dashed Misbah’s dream of achieving the landmark and after the batting crashed, no one was even talking about that dream. Pakistan, one for one in the first over, were eight for two in the sixth over, and then 18 for three in the eighth.
Anderson gave the first blow, sending Taufeeq Umar back for a five-ball duck and later he bowled Umar Gul to close the hosts innings at 99. This was his third wicket of the day as also had prized scalp of Misbah. England could claim their second wicket only two balls later with Broad finding Mohammad Hafeez’s edge in his first over only for Andrew Strauss to grab a sharp head-high catch at slip. Broad then got Azhar Ali after DRS review overturned Simon Taufel’s initial not-out verdict of caught behind by Matt Prior. Younus Khan went caught-behind. Even Misbah could not manage the form and his request of review was also turned down. Pakistan entered the final Test with just one change bringing in Aizaz Cheema in place of struggling Junaid Khan.
