Yousuf content with role of responsibility

Yousuf: 'One side of the pitch has bounce and the other one doesn't have as much' © AFP

After surviving a dropped catch, a couple of airy wafts outside off stump and some inside edges, Mohammad Yousuf guided Pakistan out of trouble in the afternoon to something approaching level footing.

He arrived to the crease at 12 for 2, after Shoaib Malik and Asim Kamal were sent back just before lunch. He got off the mark immediately after lunch, with a flick off his hips square on the leg side for four. An hour into the session and he had reached his second fifty of the series, with a boundary, driven through the covers on the up and on the walk. By the close of play, having lost Inzamam-ul-Haq to injury and Hasan Raza to a loose shot, Yousuf was unbeaten on 84.

"Inzamam was injured and so I became the senior player and there was extra responsibility on me," said Yousuf." He's the best player in the team without a doubt but I just willed myself to concentrate even harder after he left the field. Before he left he said `just concentrate on staying out there till the end'."

As the afternoon set in, Steve Harmison roused himself and England with a hostile spell, in which he struck Inzamam on the wrist, dismissed Raza and was unlucky not to have picked up more wickets. Yousuf said the spell was among the best he had ever faced. "Harmison bowled superbly today. I have only faced bowling of this quality from Ambrose and Walsh in the West Indies in 2000. This was one of the best spells I have faced in my career. I played according to the plan I had and I am happy that I played well against them."

Harmison, unlike other bowlers, found steepling bounce during his spell, something Yousuf attributed to the inconsistent nature of the pitch. "The pitch is not that difficult to bat on and still okay for batting. The thing is, one side of the pitch has bounce and the other one doesn't have as much. But if you concentrate then it's good for batting and bowling."

It is still unclear, meanwhile, how serious Inzamam's injury is and whether or not he will be able to resume his innings tomorrow. Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, said, "He's gone to the hospital for an X-ray. We think it is just a precautionary measure and it is just a bad bruise. The swelling had gone down after we put ice on it. But I can't confirm whether or not he will bat tomorrow. Obviously we hope he will."

Inzamam, as he has done through the series, looked in regal form today in compiling an untroubled 35. In the first over after tea, however, with Pakistan on 148 for 3, he tried to fend off a rising ball from Harmison, which struck him on his wrist. Having completed the single, Inzamam underwent considerable treatment on the field before reluctantly heading off, in some visible discomfort.

Still 103 runs behind, with Shoaib Akhtar at the crease and the lower order to come, Pakistan will nervously await the results of Inzamam's x-ray and hope that he is fit to resume tomorrow. In a landmark series, Inzamam has yet to be dismissed for under 50, has scored over 300 runs with twin centuries in the second Test and become the highest century maker for Pakistan in the process. He is also now just 10 runs short of becoming only the second Pakistani after Javed Miandad to score 8000 Test runs.