Cricket story by Dominic Taylor, Sat, 26 Nov 2005 10:32:00 GMT


FAISALABAD, Pakistan - Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen had to play out of their skins to bail England out of a precarious situation on the final day of the second test at Faisalabad. Shoaib Akhtar starred with the ball on the final morning after captain Inzamam ul-Haq had smashed his way to an unbeaten century in the pre-lunch session.

After the England second innings got under way Marcus Trescothick, England's hero of the first test, fell in the first over of the innings to a poor misjudgment. He shouldered arms to a fast inswinger from Shoaib, which crashed into his off and middle stumps.

England were 5 for the loss of his wicket at lunch. A jeed up Shoaib continued to pound the hapless Englishmen after the break with Ian Bell slashing at a wide one to give Kamran Akmal an easy catch. Before that Rana Naved had accounted for Andrew Strauss for the second time in the match.

A visibly relieved Strauss now flies home to be at the birth of his first child. At 10 for 3, the England batting looked in shambles and was further weakened when skipper Michael Vaughan was adjudged lbw to Naveed. After this Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen maintained a fair degree of composure and handled leggie Danish Kaneria with aplomb.

Kevin Pietersen was eventually caught at short leg and Flintoff fell to Shoaib after scoring 56, but by then it was quite obvious that the spoils would be shared between the two teams. England's batting, which was the main reason for the Ashes success in the summer, has come unstuck on Pakistani pitches. Barring Trescothick and Ian Bell, no player has been comfortable on these slow pitches. They need to sort this out before the Lahore test if they are to level the series.

Earlier in the day Inzamam smashed his second century in the match and his 24th Test hundred overall, to overtake Javed Miandad's record of most number of centuries for Pakistan.

Match Summary
Pakistan 462 (Inzamam 109, Shahid Afridi 92. Harmison 3-85)
England 446 (Bell 115, Pietersen 100, Afridi 4-95)
Pakistan 268-9 dec (Inzamam 100*, Butt 50, Hoggard 3-50, Flintoff 3-66)
England 164-6 (Pietersen 42, Flintoff 56, Akhtar 3-61)

Match result- Drawn
Man of the match- Inzamam ul-Haq

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