adminSharjah — England recovered from the early loss of opener Moeen Ali as they reached 87-1 at lunch on the second day of the third and final Test against Pakistan in Sharjah yesterday. At the break skipper Alastair Cook was batting on a steady 48 and with him Ian Bell 24 not out as England trail Pakistan’s first innings total of 234 by 147 runs with nine wickets intact.
Seeking to level the series after losing the second Test, England will hope to gain a big lead over Pakistan on a pitch which did not assist spinners a great deal.
Resuming at 4-0, England lost Ali in the seventh over of the day when he miscued an aggressive shot off spinner Shoaib Malik and was caught in the slip by Younis Khan for 14.
Cook, who made an epic 263 in the drawn first Test in Abu Dhabi, looked in no trouble as he negotiated Pakistan’s pace-cum-spin attack with confidence, hitting four boundaries off 110 balls.
Bell smashed left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar early in the innings and ably supported his skipper, adding 68 runs for the unbroken second wicket partnership.
James Anderson took four wickets to dismiss Pakistan for a low score of 234 on the opening day of the match.
James Taylor’s maiden half-century moved England into a good position on the second day of the third and final Test against Pakistan in Sharjah.
Taylor, playing his first Test for three years, made an unbeaten 74 to move the tourists to 222-4.
England accelerated late on a largely painstaking day to close 12 behind.
With a large fourth-innings chase likely to be a difficult task, England require significant occupation of the crease on day three if they are to build a match-winning lead.
Meanwhile, Tillakaratne Dilshan smashed 59 off 32 balls as Sri Lanka edged past the West Indies by one wicket in the rain-curtailed first one-day international in Colombo on Sunday.
Set a Duckworth-Lewis target of 163 in 26 overs, the hosts survived anxious moments before winning with seven balls to spare at the Premadasa stadium to grab the lead in the three-match series.
Dilshan hit six boundaries and three sixes before Sri Lanka floundered while chasing the revised target after the West Indies, sent in to bat, had scored 159-8 in their 26 overs.
The hosts, cruising at 104-2, lost seven wickets for 48 runs before tailender Ajantha Mendis hit the winning six off Johnson Charles in the company of last man Suranga Lakmal.
The start of the day-night match was delayed by an hour and 20 minutes due to persistent rain. Further bad weather during the West Indies innings reduced the game to 26 overs-a-side.
Dilshan put on 46 for the first wicket with Kusal Perera and 43 for the second with Lahiru Thirimanne to give Sri Lanka a bright start.
But spinner Sunil Narine claimed three wickets, and Carlos Brathwaite and Jonathan Carter took two each, to cause a sensational Sri Lankan collapse when all seemed lost for the West Indies.
Earlier, Andre Russell and Darren Bravo put on 58 runs off 37 balls to steer the West Indies to 159-8 after they slipped to 24-3 before the rain break and then became 42-4 soon after resumption.— Sport24.
Online Reporter