da blaze casino： England’s proud record of six consecutive unbeaten series is hanging by athread
Andrew Miller at Lahore28-Nov-2005
James Anderson is in the frame for the final Test © Getty Images
England’s proud record of six consecutive unbeaten series is hanging by athread. Tomorrow’s third and final Test in Lahore represents their lastopportunity to draw level in a rubber that, until mid-morning on the fifthday at Multan, they seemed to have firmly in their grasp.Speaking to the press on the eve of the match, England’s captain, MichaelVaughan, conceded that England were still ruing their missedopportunities. “We played a good game at Multan where we should reallyhave won,” he said, “while at Faisalabad we created a few opportunities onthe fourth afternoon. We’ll just keep pushing ourselves a little bitfurther each game.”It is a long time since England were last in this situation. Not since theOval Test against South Africa in 2003 – Vaughan’s first series in charge- have they had to come from behind to steal a share of the series, whiletheir last series loss came in Sri Lanka three months later, when theywere hammered by an innings and 215 runs in the final Test in Colombo.”We’ve been playing catch-up cricket because we’ve lost both tosses,”conceded Vaughan. “It’s a big game for us all, seeing as we’re 1-0 downand we haven’t lost a series for two years now, but we’re looking forwardto the challenge.”After a strangely overcast weekend, there had been reports that the Lahorepitch would turn out to be damp and green, but an inspection on the eve ofthe match confounded such thoughts. “It’s certainly not an Englishgreentop,” said Vaughan. “As expected it looks a decent pitch, like theone we played on here five years ago. It’ll be a good batting pitch,offering a bit of assistance, but as we proved over the last two games, ifyou bowl with good discipline, you can put Pakistan under pressure.”England will hope it’s not too like the Lahore strip from the 2000-01tour. That match was memorable only for an astonishing feat of endurancefrom Graham Thorpe, who compiled a century in England’s first innings thatcontained just the one boundary. England, who need to force the pace inorder to beat both the opposition and the prevailing weather conditions,will hope for a little more life this time around.Vaughan confirmed yesterday that he would be returning to the top of theorder, where he has played 31 of his 63 Tests and scored 10 of his 15centuries. “I stress it’s only for this game,” he added. “Andrew Strausswill be straight back in for the India series and I’ll go back to No. 3.But I’ve had a lot of success opening, and hopefully there’ll be some morein this Test.”England’s other selection dilemma, however, remains unresolved, withAshley Giles’s longstanding hip injury continuing to be monitored. “We’rea little bit closer to a decision, but we’ll wait and see how everyonecomes through practice,” said Vaughan. “Ashley’s all right and he had a goodlong bowl, so we’ll see how he’s come through that. If we go in with onespinner, we have to make sure he can play a full part.”Giles is already due to fly home after the Test to undergo surgery on hisproblematic hip, and with just three tail-end wickets in the first twoTests, he has not exactly made an unanswerable case for inclusion.England, however, are famously loyal to their long-standing players, andso it remains more likely that Shaun Udal will sit out the match -assuming, of course, that England opt to play an extra seam bowler.”We’ll be looking for the best formula to take 20 wickets,” Vaughanstressed, adding that both James Anderson and Liam Plunkett were very muchin the frame for that extra seam-bowling position. For Anderson, a recallwould represent his first Test since a traumatic one-off match atJohannesburg last winter, when he played in place of Simon Jones and wascarted all around the park as his lack of match preparation was exposed byHerschelle Gibbs and Co.”That’s a long time ago,” said Vaughan. “Almost 12 months in fact. Jimmy’shad a good county season, and he bowled well in the warm-up game a fewweeks ago. Sometimes though, it’s better to go in fresh because if youplay all the time little things can creep into your mind, Just go out andsee where it takes you, because it usually takes you to a decent level ofperformance.”Paul Collingwood could do with a similar injection of devil-may-careconfidence, for his recall to the problematic No. 4 position representspossibly his last chance to prove himself as a Test batsman. He has theone-day series to come, in which he has long been an integral member ofthe squad, but in Tests he has managed just four outings in four years,with a highest score of 36.Vaughan refuses to be drawn on the significance of the occasion forCollingwood, although if England’s middle order is unproven, then the samecan also be said of Pakistan. Shahid Afridi and Younis Khan have been replaced by Asim Kamal at No.3 and Hasan Raza at No. 6; neither of those two will fill England’s bowlers with dread.One man, on the other hand, most certainly will. Inzamam himself, unmovedat the pivotal No. 5 position, again represents the single biggestobstacle to England’s ambitions of squaring the series. He was thedifference between the sides at Faisalabad, as Vaughan himself admitted.And if Vaughan cannot win a crucial toss and get runs on the board early,he could once again prove the difference at Lahore as well.Pakistan (probable) 1 Shoaib Malik, 2 Salman Butt, 3 Asim Kamal, 4 MohammadYousuf, 5 Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Hasan Raza, 7 Kamran Akmal (wk), 8 RanaNaved-ul-Hasan, 9 Shoaib Akhtar, 10 Mohammad Sami, 11 Danish KaneriaEngland (probable) 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Michael Vaughan (capt), 3 Ian Bell,4 Paul Collingwood, 5 Kevin Pietersen, 6 Andrew Flintoff, 7 Geraint Jones(wk), 8 Ashley Giles, 9 Matthew Hoggard, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 JamesAnderson