England edged to a slender five-run lead over Pakistan at the close as 16 wickets fell during an extraordinary opening day of the third and final Test at Dubai Stadium yesterday.
Routed for a low score of 99 in their first innings by England pacemen Stuart Broad (4-36) and James Anderson (3-35), Pakistan’s spinners moved to the fore to leave England struggling at 104-6.
England, playing for pride after losing the first two Tests and the series, now hold a slight lead on a seemingly batting-friendly pitch.
Photo: AFP
At the close, Andrew Strauss was unbeaten on 41 and James Anderson was on 3 not out.
Paceman Umar Gul led Pakistan’s fightback by dismissing opener Alastair Cook (1) and Jonathan Trott (2), before Strauss added 57 for the third wicket with Kevin Pietersen (32) during their bids to overcome batting frailties.
England’s batting had flopped during their two-wicket defeat in the first Test in Dubai and in the 72-run defeat in the second match in Abu Dhabi.
Pakistani spinners Abdul Rehman and Saeed Ajmal, who grabbed 34 of the 40 wickets in the first two Tests, then grabbed four more wickets, with Rehman dismissing Pietersen and Eoin Morgan (10) and Ajmal accounting for Bell (5).
Pietersen’s dismissal made it 34 LBW dismissals for the series, beating the previous record of 33 in the Pakistan-West Indies series in the Caribbean in 1993.
Rehman, who took 3-23, then bowled Matt Prior (6) with England just one behind Pakistan.
Earlier in the morning, England’s pace duo of Broad and Anderson bowled well to expose Pakistan, who won the toss and batted. Asad Shafiq top-scored with 45.
Anderson struck in the first over, trapping opener Taufiq Umar for a duck.
Broad then clicked into gear, snaring Ali in his third over through a caught behind and Younis in his next, caught off a rising delivery, again by wicketkeeper Prior.
He then claimed Hafeez’s wicket trapping him LBW. Australian umpire Simon Taufel initially turned down the appeal, but changed the decision after England called for a review.
Hafeez mocked the decision review system and may face a hearing from match referee Jeff Crowe of New Zealand after the day’s play.
From the other end, Anderson trapped Misbah-ul-Haq for 1 in a decision challenged by the Pakistani skipper to no avail. That left Pakistan struggling at 21-5.
Shafiq and Adnan Akmal (6) added 18 for the sixth wicket before Broad changed ends to dismiss the wicketkeeper, again with a sharp incoming delivery, which caught the batsmen in front of the stumps.
Graeme Swann then teased a miscued a drive from Rehman (1), gathered by a grateful Pietersen at mid-off, leaving Pakistan in danger of being bowled out for their lowest-ever Test total — 53 against Australia in 2002.
Shafiq hit his first boundary in the last over before lunch to take Pakistan to that lowest mark and then hit another off left-arm spinner Monty Panesar to avoid the ignominy.
However, Panesar, who took 2-25, had the last laugh, breaking the 34-run stand — the best of the innings — between Ajmal (12) and Shafiq after lunch.
Gul made 13 before Anderson bowled him to wrap up the innings.
England resisted the temptation to change their lineup, but Pakistan brought paceman Aizaz Cheema for Junaid Khan.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS