CRICKET Younus leaves England with mountain to climb
ENGLAND are in danger of a wide-margin defeat in the fourth Investec Test after double-centurion Younus Khan piled on their agony at The Oval yesterday.
Younus (214) ensured the hosts would not only concede a threefigure deficit for the second successive Test, but that this time a differential of 214 dwarfed the 103 they managed to overturn at Edgbaston.
After England finally bowled Pakistan out for 542 at tea on day three, they then faltered to a 88 for four at stumps – still 126 short of making the tourists bat again.
Even before Yasir Shah (three for 15) took two wickets in five balls – Alex Hales and James Vince – England’s prospects of defying much historical data were distant.
Only six teams have ever wiped out a 200-plus deficit to win an authentically-completed Test and a backs-to-the-wall draw to close out a 2-1 series success became ever more improbable too.
Younus made a nonsense of his previous struggles in this series, his sixth double-hundred in a famous career following a sequence of just 122 runs in six innings.
Three batsmen supported the veteran wonderfully, after he resumed with 101, and he took full advantage – reaching his 200 by hoisting Moeen Ali high over midwicket for his fourth six, to add to 29 fours from 281 balls.
England managed only the wicket of Sarfraz Ahmed before lunch as Chris Woakes (three for 82) took his series aggregate to 26 wickets.
Younus and Sarfraz put on 77 for the seventh wicket; then Wahab Riaz lent a hand either side of lunch, and Mohammad Amir became an even more significant ally as 97 were added for the ninth.
Sarfraz notched 40 runs in the half-century stand.
Younus needed 13 deliveries to add to his overnight tally – with a single off Stuart Broad – and 25 to register his first boundary of the day, as England beat the edge several times against both batsmen.
James Anderson’s reward was scant in an admirable spell of 6-310-0, and he then did not bowl again until returning without a slip and the 500 already up in late afternoon.
With Sarfraz gone, Steven Finn (three for 110) momentarily thought he had shifted Younus too for 133.
But DRS proved umpire Bruce Oxenford was in error with his lbw decision, because the ball would have cleared the stumps.
England surprisingly began with spin from the pavilion end after lunch – Joe Root and then Moeen.
The latter struck in his first over, Bairstow fumbling a stumping chance but the ball bouncing out of his gloves straight on to Wahab’s stumps.
It was not until Younus had his double that Amir got off the mark, from his 24th ball, following the example of his senior partner to do so with a sweep off Moeen for six.
The partnership was already worth 48 – and it took the return of Anderson to break it, with a fulllength attempted cutter as Younus went lbw at last.
The 38-year-old had batted for more than seven-and-a-half hours, and departed to a universal standing ovation.
Sohail Khan was last out, caught at short midwicket by Broad off Finn, leaving Amir unbeaten on a Test-best 39 and the hosts in a big hole before they started their second innings.
An England rearguard often has Alastair Cook as its cornerstone, but IAN HUTCHINSON dominated yesterday’s Ulster Grand Prix meeting with four wins including both Superbike races.
The English rider rounded off his day by breaking the lap record from 2010 as he pipped Bruce Anstey and Michael Dunlop to win Superbike Race 2.
Earlier Hutchinson, 37, had held off veteran Anstey and Dunlop in the main Superbike race. first-change Wahab put him out of the equation with just his second legitimate delivery – a quick one which brought the edge on the back foot and a neat catch from Iftikhar Ahmed at slip.
Hales battled for almost an hourand-a-half to try to salvage something worthwhile from his wretched Test. But it was not to be, and no surprise either that his old foe Yasir did for him – lbw in his first over, Hales compounding the sin of a faulty forward push by unaccountably squandering a precious review into the bargain.
Vince’s maiden Test summer then came to a frazzled end when he poked a drive straight to cover to go for a third-ball duck.
Root passed 4000 Test runs before Yasir pinned him lbw on the back foot, England’s final review gone too – for another 54 overs.