Spinners spell trouble for England's batsmen

Unlike Karachi, it was perhaps not the England's day. The ground at he Gaddafi Stadium Lahore was green but the pitch absolutely devoid of grass. According to the experts, the ball was expected to come on the bat and it did so wonderfully well. England made no change in the team that brought them a thundering victory at Karachi. Pakistan, however, brought Shahid Afridi and Azhar Mahmood to replace Imran Nazir and Waqar Younis. Afridi was brought in to strengthen the spin department on which Pakistan depended largely to win the series.

Moin Khan won the toss but contrary to team's obsession of batting first he opted to field first. It was done to off set the bitter experience of dew blamed for Pakistan's defeat at Karachi. The decision paid off, for the bowlers made good work of England's strong batting line, ousting the team for 211 runs, an easily manageable total unless a mishap was in the offing. For a magnificent haul of 5 for 40, Shahid Afridi emerged as the star bowler of Pakistan.

England opened with Marcus Trescothick and Alec Stewart against Pakistan's pace attack of legendary Wasim Akram and young Abdur Razzaq. While runs constantly flowed from Trescothick's bat, Steward remained rather on the defensive.

England reached 50 of the innings in 10 overs but lost the 1st wicket at 66 when Alec Stewart was stumped by Moin Khan off Mushtaq Ahmed for 22. Skipper Nasser Hussain joined Trescothick, both of them plying some exciting cricket to record a partnership of 50. They were quite severe against the pace men but the introduction of spin lowered the run rate considerably.

Trescothick was the 2nd batsmen to leave after playing an enterprising innings of 65 runs scored in 74 balls. Graeme Hick walked off without showing his mettle. In 30 overs England was 125 for 3. Trescothick's era of flashy stroke play having ended the game adopted a steady posture.

It was after a lapse of 124 overs that Hussain hit 2 consecutive fours off Shahid Afridi, creating some excitement among the spectators. Hussain lucky for being dropped twice by Wasim Akram, was eventually stumped by Moin Khan of Shahid Afridi after playing an entertaining innings of 54 runs. England lost 6 wickets for 178 runs,ultimately ending the innings at 211 for 9.

Shahid Afridi the pinch hitter cum reserve leg spinner who got married during the match at Karachi returned to the side. The honeymoon having acted as some sort of a tonic, he became almost unplayable. He virtually ran through the England side claiming 5 wickets for 40 runs.

With Pakistan team in high spirits, a victory target of 212 apparently looked easily manageable.

Facing a moderate target Pakistan was not in a hurry. The team adopted a sensible policy of achieving the target at a slow and steady pace. Saeed Anwar and Shahid Afridi opened the innings. Not deterred by the England pace duo of Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick they carried the score to 43 in 10 overs.

The players being in good trim and the target too easy, the batsmen were not under any pressure. Saeed Anwar was, however, out in the 18th over after playing an invaluable innings of 41 glorious runs and giving Pakistan a wonderful start. Saleem Elahi joined Afridi and the two of them punished the bowlers with strokes all over the ground but at a steady pace. In 20 overs Shahid Afridi hoisted his individual 50 and 100 of the Pakistan innings. He was out after scoring an enterprising 61, a special point about his innings being that at no stage he resorted to rashness.

Yousuf Youhana joined Saleem Elahi and the two of them took Pakistan to the 200 runs mark in 43.1 overs. Pakistan now needed only 12 runs in 41 balls. Saleem Elahi who exercised complete command on the game hoisted his 50 with a cover drive to the boundary. A little later he brought victory to Pakistan with a sparkling four to the fine leg region. Pakistan ended up with 214 for 2 thus defeating England by 8 wickets.

The victory was Pakistan's sweet revenge for the defeat at Karachi. They were successful in squaring up the series, leaving the result to the 3rd ODI at Rawalpindi on 30th October. For his highly impressive all round performance, Shahid Afridi won "Man of the Match" award.