England fights back

By Ted Corbett

KARACHI, DEC. 8. For the first time on this tour we saw signs of tiredness in the England side today as three catches went down in 12 balls, but the old heart beats strongly still and the team made two fightbacks during the second day of the third and final Test at

the National Stadium.

This decisive game is being played on a better pitch than the two presented for the Lahore and Faisalabad Tests and the outfield is swift enough to encourage the batsmen to play shots so when the day began with Pakistan 292 for three we thought there might be an avalanche of runs.

Instead England's left-arm spinner Ashley Giles made the ball lift and turn and after he caught a fierce drive from Yousuf Youhana low to his right and Craig White got Inzamam-ul- Haq to drive the ball to Marcus Trescothick at cover the innings collapsed. How much did the dropping of Wasim Akram undermine Pakistan? His pals cannot have been happy at his sudden departure.

Abdur Razzaq batted an hour and a half for 21, adding to the impression of a cool young man that he established with a century in Faisalabad but Moin Khan and Shahid Afridi presented their wickets as if Christmas had come early and at lunch Pakistan was 380 for eight.

After lunch Graham Thorpe, Mike Atherton and Trescothick put down chances not far from the bat so that it took an hour to get rid of the last two while 25 more runs were scored.

Giles finished with four for 94, or 14 for 372 in four innings, which equals Nick Cook's record for 1983-4. Pakistan had reached 405 and, with the ball already performing tricks for Giles it seemed inevitable that Saqlain would give England a headache. Still England had taken the last seven wickets for 114 when 550 was the target score.

The batsmen fought hard too. Trescothick went to a brilliant catch by Imran Nazir at point and Nasser Hussain took 25 balls to get a single, but the old battler Atherton scratched out 43 in 144 minutes to add to the 73 in 275 minutes, 20 in 94 minutes, 32 in 163 minutes and the undefeated 65 in 205 minutes that have been his contribution to England's survival in this series.

That's 881 minutes for 233 runs hewn as if out of granite but as valuable as diamonds. England was 78 for one at the close, still needing 128 to save the follow-on.

The England and Wales Cricket Board Management Committee has told the selectors that they must pick the strongest team for Sri Lanka beginning in February even if winter contracts have to be paid up. The biggest question marks are against Andrew Caddick, who has taken two wickets in 80 overs, and Ian Salisbury, who has taken only one in 66 in this series. Five players might find themselves out - although it is not clear who can strengthen this squad - at a cost of about a quarter of a million pounds.

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