England were left to fight hard to save defeat and with it the humiliation of a first-ever series whitewash at the hands of Pakistan in the third and final Test at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium yesterday.
Needing to chase their second-best achieved target in all Tests of 324, England finished the third day at 36-0, with openers Andrew Strauss (19) and Alastair Cook (15) playing out the tricky 20 overs on an eased out pitch.
They still need another 288 runs with all 10 wickets intact in the last two days. England’s most successful chase to win a Test was the 332 they made against Australia in Melbourne in 1929.
Photo: AFP
Azhar Ali hit a career-best 157 and Younis Khan 127 in Pakistan’s second-innings total of 365.
Pakistan could have got Cook’s wicket had Taufiq Umar not dropped an easy catch at third slip off paceman Umar Gul when the England opener had made just 4.
It will need an extraordinary effort from the England batsmen, who lost the first Test in Dubai by 10 wickets and the second by 72 runs in Abu Dhabi after their batting flopped against Pakistan spinners Saeed Ajmal and Abdul Rehman.
Both Pakistan spinners will test the England batting once again after Monty Panesar claimed 5-124 to finally bowl out Pakistan in their second innings on a pitch that saw 16 wickets fall on the first day.
Pakistan were bowled out for 99 in their first innings and they can become the first team to win a Test after being bowled out for fewer than 100 since England, dismissed for 76 in the first innings, beat South Africa by 53 runs in Leeds, England, in 1907.
Pakistan were well placed at 331-4, before losing their last seven wickets for a mere 34 runs following good bowling from England spinners Panesar and Graeme Swann, who finished with 3-101.
Pakistan owed their total to a brilliant career-best knock by Ali and Younis’ brilliance. Together they added 216 for the third wicket in a frustrating stand which almost plunged England into submission.
Ali became the ninth wicket to fall when he gave a bat-pad catch to Cook at short-leg off Swann. He hit 10 boundaries and a six during his long stay at the crease, which was seven minutes short of nine hours.
Resuming at 222-2, Pakistan lost Younis leg before wicket to Stuart Broad.Younis hit 12 boundaries and a six during his 221-ball knock.
Pakistan were 295-3 at lunch, but they lost cluster of wickets to Panesar, who trapped Misbah (31) and Asad Shafiq (5) leg before wicket to check Pakistan’s progress.
Panesar then bowled Adnan Akmal (0) to further make inroads into Pakistan’s batting. From the other end, Swann had Abdul Rehman (1) and Ajmal (1) in successive overs, and then he wrapped up the innings when he claimed Ali and Panesar trapped Umar Gul leg-before (4).
Kylian Mbappe struck from the penalty spot as Real Madrid beat a dogged CA Osasuna 1-0 on Tuesday to make a winning start in Spanish La Liga under new coach Xabi Alonso. The France striker, last season’s European Golden Shoe winner, scored early in the second half, after he was fouled in the area by Osasuna defender Juan Cruz. It was enough to seal the points in Alonso’s first game in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Madrid now unbeaten in their opening fixture of a league campaign since 2008. “You can see that Kylian wants to do even more
STUMBLE: World No. 2 Coco Gauff confidently won her first set against seventh-seed Italian Jasmine Paolini before being overcome in the second and third sets World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and second-ranked Coco Gauff were sent crashing out of the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Open on Friday, while Carlos Alcaraz fought off a fierce challenge from Andrey Rublev to reach the semi-finals. Top seed and defending champion Sabalenka had no answer for Elena Rybakina, falling to the 2022 Wimbledon champion 6-1, 6-4. Reigning French Open champion Gauff had 16 double faults in a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 exit at the hands of seventh-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini. Spain’s second-ranked Alcaraz had his difficulties, but he broke Rublev in the final game of a tense duel to emerge a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 winner
Spanish champions Barcelona opened their Spanish La Liga campaign on Saturday with an island cruise as they played almost an hour against nine men on their way to a 3-0 victory in RCD Mallorca. Barcelona’s second-half stroll did not please coach Hansi Flick. “They’re three important points, but I didn’t like the match,” he told broadcaster Movistar. “After going two goals up and following Mallorca’s two red cards, I think the team only gave 50 percent, and I didn’t like that,” he said. “Playing at 50 or 60 per cent is not possible against nine players.” Two of Barcelona’s Ballon
Manchester City signaled their intent to take back the English Premier League title as Erling Haaland struck twice in a 4-0 win at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday to begin their campaign. After four consecutive titles, City finished a distant third last season as Pep Guardiola’s men failed to win any trophy for the first time in eight years. New signings Tijjani Reijnders, who was the star of the show at Molineux, and Rayan Cherki were also on target to give Guardiola hope his side would be back in the title race this season. “We knew he is a top signing
RSS