Shouting from the Hop

England will do well to save themselves from defeat in the second test match versus Pakistan in Faisalabad over the next few days.

The game so far has been full of controversy, and excitement, so far. Pakistan decided to leave out suspect pace bowler Shabbir, and England had Michael Vaughan back from injury and Marcus Trescothick available

Day one saw three early wickets for the England pace bowlers, then a solid hundred run partnership between Haq and Yousef. A debatable caught and bowled brought Afridi to the wicket, and he and Haq put on another hundred plus runs at very fast pace. Pakistan finished day one at 300-4.

On the second day, Haq completed his hundred, and the partnership continued until Afridi was caught (very) low down at slip by Trescothick. Haq then fell run out to a poor (third) umpiring decision when bowler Harmison threw down the stumps following through, with Haq taking evasive action (see pic). It was questionable whether his back foot was down, but what was not in doubt was that he was not trying to run and was avoiding injury. He should not have been given out, but the local third umpire thought different.

Pakistan finally holed out for 462, with fourteen sixes being hit in the innings (six by Afridi). England then lost Strauss, played on, for 12, and Vaughan (yorked) for 2 to slum to 33-2.

An almighty bang on the boundary edge caused lots of concern and a break in play, but it proved to be a soft drinks machines gas cylinder exploding that was the cause. This event though will make the front pages tomorrow; not because it seemed it might have been a bomb, but because while the players, umpires and police were assessing the situation, a Pakistan player (thought to be Afridi) proceeded to scuff up the pitch by spinning his boot onto a spinners length at both ends. This was plainly obvious to see on TV. Luckily, umpire Darryl Hair also noticed the damage, and spoke to the Pakistan captain about it. I sincerely hope that the player responsible is banned from several test matches for this blatant attempt at cheating.

Trescothick then fell caught behind to another low catch that the umpires had to check carried.

Bell and Pieterson survived to end the day at 113-3.

It will be tough for England to save the game, and even hard to save the follow on. The series win would appear to be already out of their grasp, and if they lose here, it will be lost too.