England hopes fade after Moin and Youhana show

A day that promised much for England during the first two sessions of play, slowly drifted away a little by stumps with Pakistan on 243 for five.

Considering Pakistan decided to make first use of a good wicket in this second Test in Faislabad and were progressing merrily at the rate of a run a minute to reach 96 for one, England did well to hit back and dismiss half the side for 151 shortly before tea.

Darren Gough worked up considerable pace on a bare wicket, which was a little quicker than Lahore's in the first Test and had Shahid Afridi caught at gully for ten. But a second wicket stand of 63 between Saeed Anwar and Salim Elahi had begun to swing the balance of play towards Pakistan when two wickets fell within ten minutes of lunch.

Saeed Anwar, having edged a couple of boundaries earlier in his innings was playing fluently. He punished the short ball on either side of the wicket and struck seven boundaries in his score of 53. It was quick scoring for the first morning of a Test match - he had faced only 52 balls.

Ashley Giles, who had been brought on after 17 overs, struck in his third. He first had Anwar caught at mid-wicket and then bowled Inzamam-ul-Haq off his bat and pad, taking two wickets in three balls.

Within an hour after lunch, Pakistan had lost another wicket. It was Giles again who struck for England. Elahi reached 41 with a cut off Gough for his fifth boundary and then fell to a clever piece of bowling by Giles.

Having seen Elahi step out to drive, he held his off stump line and spun the ball away from the batsman. Elahi reached out to hit to cover and Michael Atherton took a looping overhead catch.

The fifth and last wicket of the day that England claimed also came in the second session. Craig White, who uses the reverse swing to great effect, bowled Abdur Razzaq for nine. The ball swung in, between bat and pad as he attempted to drive.

Pakistan then began their recovery and once again it was Yousuf Youhana who led the way as he had done with his century in the first Test. This time in partnership with his captain Moin Khan, he has added 92 in the unbroken sixth wicket stand.

Moin, who was fortunate, not to be given leg before wicket to Giles on 18 shortly after tea, played more aggressively. He brought up the two hundred of the Pakistan innings with a fine cover drive for four off white and two balls later in the same over, he hit a six to long on taking his score to 34.

Youhana on reaching his eleventh Test fifty, pulled Ian Salisbury to the mid-wicket boundary and runs were flowing more freely for Pakistan. Moin kept the momentum going reaching his fifteenth Test half-century with a straight six off Giles after the bowler had changed ends and in the next over from Giles, he hit a boundary to long off.

At close of play, he was unbeaten on 57 from only 83 balls and Youhana who had the task of steadying the innings earlier had faced 173 balls to remain not out with 61, more than half of which came from boundaries.

Giles finished with 3-57 from 22 overs of fine spin bowling and England's bowlers, after a fairly satisfactory day, will need a quick breakthrough tomorrow morning to restrict the Pakistan rate of scoring.