Pakistan avoid follow-on as Test heads for a draw

Lahore, Nov 18: Pakistan escaped from the embarrassment of being forced to follow-on against England by the skin of their teeth as the first cricket Test headed for a draw after four interesting days of play at the Qadhafi Stadium on Saturday.

Resuming this morning at 119 for two, requiring another 162 to make the visitors bat again, Pakistan appeared dead and buried when they slumped to 273 for eight. But Saqlain Mushtaq continued to make this game entirely his own by providing Yousuf Youhana the support he required by featuring in an unbroken 60-run ninth wicket stand as Pakistan finished the day at 333 for eight. Saqlain, who picked up eight wickets for 164 runs, in the meantime returned unbeaten on 14 after defying the Englishmen for 99 minutes on the penultimate evening.

Youhana ended as innings' top scorer with an undefeated 77 during which he was a model of concentration and application. His innings was full of discipline, patience, attractive strokes and a lesson for his fellow batsmen.

With Pakistan trailing by 147 runs in reply to England's 480 for eight declared, the last day's play in this match is now just a formality. But England certainly will try to remove the last two Pakistan batsmen early on the fifth morning not because they can make a match out of it but to earn some valuable batting practice, particularly against the spin duo of Saqlain and Mushtaq Ahmad.

The unexpected hero for England who gave the tourists a glimmer of hope to force the follow-on was Craig White who followed up his 93 with the bat with figures of three for 48.

Ashley Giles, the left-arm spinner, picked up three for 97 including the wicket of Inzamam-ul-Haq who committed harakiri by playing Giles against the spin and finding the furniture behind him disturbed.

Nonetheless, Inzamam scored a flawless 63 off 104 balls in 156 minutes. He caned nine exquisitely timed boundaries on a heavy outfield. He added 98 for the third wicket with Salim Elahi who established himself as a pivotal one-down batsman with a gutsy 44 before succumbing to the exuberance of youth by dragging a wide ball onto his stumps.

Debutant Qaisar Abbas gently guided a wide delivery into the hands of Graeme Hick to expose his immaturity at this level while Pakistan captain Moin Khan and all-rounder Abdur Razzaq received harsh leg before decisions by local umpire Riazuddin. While Moin played with a long left leg, Razzaq didn't do good to his care as he offered no stroke to White. Riazuddin had earlier rejected even closer leg before appeals to show that he lacked consistency in his judgments. Wasim Akram, when he was expected to bat Pakistan out of trouble, tamely hit Giles into the hands of White at short-mid-wicket.

While three of the five top order Pakistan batsmen fell to poor shots, Yousuf Youhana batted with his head down. He chose the right balls to score runs and didn't fiddle with deliveries that would have certainly tempted him to play extravagant drives on the off-side.

Youhana, during his highly responsible innings, showed that he has come of age and is far more mature than he was a few months back when he used to throw away his bright starts.

Youhana has been batting for little over four hours during which he has yet to play a false shot which could encourage the Englishmen. He has received 188 balls and his knock is laced with five sweetly timed boundaries and a six off Andrew Caddick that brought him his 11th career half century in 25 matches.

Although Pakistan survived follow on after providing discomfort to their supporters, the brighter side of the batting was that after a long time all the frontline batsmen made contributions to show they were in form and stroking the ball well and hard. That's besides the point that they failed to covert those scores into big ones.