England Cook the third Test to a boil

Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Aamer combined to spark a dramatic England collapse that left Pakistan contemplating victory in the third Test at The Oval here on Friday.

From 194 for three at tea, England lost six wickets for 26 runs to be 221 for nine when bad light forced an early close on the third day.

That left England, looking for a 3-0 lead in this four-match series, just 146 runs ahead with one second innings wicket standing.

Off-spinner Ajmal, who bowled 30 overs unchanged, had four wickets for 71 runs and left-arm quick Aamer four for 51.

Stuart Broad was six not out and Steven Finn nought not out.

Pakistan captain Salman Butt said his side would take confidence from their successful pursuit of 180 in a shock three-wicket Test win over Australia at Headingley last month when they begin their run chase.

"This is something they will remember all their lives because before that game, nobody would have said Pakistan would have won," Butt told reporters.

"Should we play well, this is something we can achieve. There is nothing dramatic in the pitch."

Earlier, opener Alastair Cook ended a poor run of scores with an innings of 110 but that was all but eclipsed by England's final session slump.

However, Cook said England could yet win the match.

"When Pakistan are on top they are a very good side but if we take wickets early (on Saturday) and put them under pressure, then a target of 150, 160 looks a long way away."
Ajmal started the collapse with a clever piece of bowling.

From around the wicket, he beat Kevin Pietersen's defensive push forward with an off-break as the batsman, who'd failed to add to his tea score of 23, appeared to play for Ajmal's 'doosra' only to be bowled between bat and pad.

Five balls later, 194 for four became 195 for five.

Jonathan Trott played a supporting role during a third-wicket stand of 116 with Cook.

Having taken three-and-a-half hours to make 36, Trott needed a big score to justify all that time at the crease but, playing a rare attacking shot, he was caught in the gully by Azhar Ali off teenage paceman Aamer.

Paul Collingwood and Eoin Morgan then both fell cheaply.

Matt Prior, who'd dug England out of a hole in the first innings with an unbeaten 84, couldn't prevent further collapse and when Graeme Swann -- suffering from flu -- was bowled by Ajmal, England were 220 for nine.

But, with Pakistan needing just one more wicket to end the innings, the umpires then called a halt because the switched-on floodlights were creating shadows across the pitch.
Aamer took three wickets for 10 runs in 7.2 overs after tea and Ajmal, in the same period, three for 16 in eight.

Essex left-hander Cook had managed just 106 runs in his eight previous Test innings, at home to Bangladesh and Pakistan.

But the selectors' decision to keep faith with him ahead of England's Ashes defence in Australia later this year was rewarded with the 25-year-old's 13th hundred in 59 Tests.

Nought not out overnight, Cook started scratchily on Friday and he was fortunate when a cut off Mohammad Asif flew through the slips.

Poor footwork has plagued Cook for several matches but two textbook cover-driven fours off Aamer, where he got his foot right to the pitch, suggested he'd remedied the problem.
Cook went to his hundred in bizarre fashion.

He pushed the ball defensively to Asif only for the bowler, trying to lob it back, to send it way over Kamran Akmal's head for four overthrows.

"It's definitely the nicest way I've gone to a hundred," said Cook, whose century was made in just over three hours off 148 balls with 15 boundaries.

But, as if to even things up, Cook fell in tame fashion when a thin leg-side deflection off debutant left-arm quick Wahab Riaz was caught by wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal.

England resumed on six for one, 69 behind, and Ajmal started as he meant to go on when, off his first ball on Friday, he had nightwatchman James Anderson caught behind.
 

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