Fletcher - England suffering battle fatigue

Duncan Fletcher: 'We've had to toil on wickets like that before, so we've got to give credit to the bowlers for sticking to it' © AFP

Duncan Fletcher admitted that England "hadn't got their game together since Faisalabad", as their last hope of squaring the series disappeared on a draining third day at Lahore. After resuming with the match in the balance at 185 for 4, Pakistan lost just one wicket all day - that of the nightwatchman, Shoaib Akhtar - as Mohammad Yousuf and Kamran Akmal added a record-breaking 199-run partnership for the sixth wicket.

"We've had days like that before," insisted Fletcher, as he reflected on the impending end to England's proud run of six consecutive series win. "We've had to toil on wickets like that before, so we've got to give credit to the bowlers for sticking to it. It's very unresponsive and has got better and better as the match has progressed. We got nothing out of it.

"It's going to be very difficult from here, and I don't think a win is realistic," he added. "We've just got to make sure we get stuck in, bat properly, and make sure we bat out whatever time is left for us."

England's last series defeat also came in the subcontinent, in Sri Lanka two winters ago, and Fletcher admitted that battle fatigue was a factor in England's demise. "It's been a tough tour mentally," he said. "We've been stuck in hotels and mentally it's got to the team a little bit.

"But at the end of the day, that's what we came out here for. We said we had to go out there and win Test series on the subcontinent, and we've got to make sure we do that if we want to progress in the rankings."

England's problems, Fletcher suggested, stemmed from their failure to chase down 198 in the first Test at Multan. They were instead bowled out for 175 on the final morning, and have been playing catch-up ever since.

"It could have been a disappointment from that," he said. "We played really well and produced the better cricket for four days, but then for two hours we didn't knuckle down and show the patience required to win that game. Then losing the toss in the next Test took a little out of us, and from then we've not been firing on all four cylinders."

That fact was never better proven that on the first day of this Test, when England tumbled from 101 for 0 to 115 for 3 in a crazy half-hour after lunch. "We didn't make as good use as we should have on a wicket like that," he admitted.

"Vaughan and Trescothick got us off to a fantastic start in those first two hours when it seamed and swung a lot," he concluded, "and we should have taken advantage of that base they set us. We should have been looking at a total of at least 450 to 500 on that."