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England wrap up brilliant victory against Pakistan OLD TRAFFORD: Monty Panesar and Steve Harmison were England's heroes as the hosts thrashed Pakistan by an innings and 120 runs in the second Test at Old Trafford. Panesar took 5-72 and Harmison 5-57 to bowl Pakistan out for 222 on day three. Left-arm spinner Panesar bowled particularly well either side of lunch to remove a stack of top batsmen including Younis Khan for 62. Harmison then came back to wrap up the tail and allow England to head to Headingley with a 1-0 series lead. Man-of-the-match Harmison had match figures of 11-76, the first time he had taken at least 10 in a Test. Left-arm spinner Panesar collected 8-93. No other England bowler took a wicket. Play started on time with dark clouds overhead and although it remained overcast there was no great swing on offer for Matthew Hoggard, who bowled the first over. Harmison, passed fit to play after an injury scare on Friday evening, was a more obvious danger. As on day one, he extracted some steepling bounce, and had to wait only until his second over to dislodge Kamran Akmal. A rearing delivery struck his gloves and Geraint Jones took a looping catch tumbling in front of first slip. Jones was another player who had had to overcome a fitness test having fractured the tip of a finger while batting on Friday. Harmison continued to be a threat as captain Andrew Strauss used some interesting field positions, with plenty of catchers on both sides of the wicket. And when Panesar was introduced just before the hour mark, he found some encouraging turn and bounce. Imran Farhat, also in the wars with a broken finger, battled away to complete a brave innings of 34. But then a forward push took the edge of his bat, ballooned off his thigh and was easily accepted by Ian Bell at short leg. At lunch Pakistan were hanging on grimly at 101-2 but it got much worse in the next session.
The first ball after
the interval saw the end of Mohammad Yousuf, dismissed by Panesar for the
third time in four innings in this series.
He missed with an attempted pushed drive, and dragged his back foot out of the crease. Jones, sharp as mustard, whipped off the bails and England's tormentor at Lord's was gone for 15. Inzamam-ul-Haq received a working over from Harmison and reached a scratchy 13 before becoming Panesar's next victim. He was unlucky to get out however, playing a delivery onto his boot which then looped up to give silly point an easy catch. Younis started to play his shots, and while he often had luck on his side he did play one wonderful back-foot stroke off Harmison over point's head for four. But when he elected to play no shot to Panesar's arm ball, umpire Simon Taufel showed him no mercy and gave him out lbw. The forecast rain arrived half an hour before tea, and lasted for nearly an hour. On the resumption, Panesar quickly had Faisal Iqbal caught at slip, before Harmison returned to take three more wickets. Shahid Afridi produced his standard brief cameo of big hits before edging the Durham paceman to second slip and Mohammad Sami produced a wild heave to be caught behind for a two-ball duck. Umar Gul gloved Harmison down the leg-side to give Jones another catch before Razzaq skied an attempted pull. Jones ran round to claim the catch in front of the exultant slip cordon - his seventh dismissal in the match.
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