Zulqarnain leads remarkable recovery

Debutant Zulqarnain Haider kept England at bay with a superb 88 as Pakistan restored some pride in the second Test.

BIRMINGHAM: Debutant Zulqarnain Haider kept England at bay with a superb 88 as Pakistan at last restored some pride in the second Test at Edgbaston.

Pakistan at the third day’s close, were 291 for nine – a lead of 112 – and with an outside chance of pulling off what would be an astounding victory.

They would have been in an even better position, but England off-spinner Graeme Swann removed Zulqarnain shortly before stumps on his way to a Test-best haul of six wickets for 60 runs in 36 overs, 20 of them maidens.

Pakistan had been dismissed for just 72 – their lowest total against England – in the first innings, a woeful performance which made the fightback even more astonishing.

Zulqarnain and Saeed Ajmal put on 115 for the eighth wicket, with the recalled off-spinner making exactly 50 to give him Test-bests with both bat and ball this match after he took five for 82 in England’s first innings 251.

Ajmal fell shortly before the close caught at slip by Paul Collingwood to end a gutsy 79-ball innings featuring seven fours

Zulqarnain, who would have been out for a king pair had it not been for the Decision Review System (DRS), fell when he miscued a drive off Swann to England captain Andrew Strauss at mid-off.

The 24-year-old batted for four-and-a-half hours, facing 200 balls and struck 15 boundaries. At the close, Swann had surpassed his previous best of five for 54 against South Africa at Durban in 2009 and taken five or more wickets eight times in his 22 Tests.

Umar Gul, batting with a runner after suffering a hamstring injury on the second day, was nine not out, having smashed the last ball of the day from paceman Stuart Broad for four, and Mohammad Asif 13 not out.

When Zulqarnain, who replaced Kamran Akmal, came at the crease, Pakistan needed 97 more runs just to avoid an innings defeat that would have left them 2-0 down in this four-match series after their crushing 354-run reverse in the first Test at Trent Bridge last week.

Zulqarnain received sound support from fast-bowler Mohammad Aamer (16), who again demonstrated an excellent defensive technique, in a seventh-wicket stand of 52 spanning more than two hours.

England saw off Aamer in the fourth over with the new ball when Broad had him caught at first slip by Strauss.

Zulqarnain got his fifty when he clipped fast-bowler Steven Finn through midwicket for a boundary that also meant England would have to bat again as Pakistan finally erased a first innings deficit of 179.

Swann came on with Pakistan 53 for one – the first time this series the tourists had reached fifty without losing at least six wickets.

He bowled Imran Farhat with only his third ball of the match, a superb delivery that pitched outside the left-hander’s leg stump and clipped the top of off. Broad thought he had Zulqarnain, on 18, caught behind but umpire Marais Erasmus was unmoved, with England unsuccessfully referring the South African’s not out verdict. Broad should have dismissed Aamer on one when the 18-year-old was yards out of his ground. But his throw to the bowler’s end was way over Swann’s head.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2010.