England collapse on day 2

On the second day of their warm up match against the Patron’s XI England collapsed to 39-6 after bowling the home side out for 211. Declaring overnight on 256-9, England’s bowlers had a chance to stake their claim for a place in the first test.

James Anderson, Shaun Udal and Liam Plunkett all impressed, taking 3 wickets apiece. Struggling for rhythm at first, Anderson made the first breakthrough when Ashar Zaidi chipped a simple catch to his skipper at mid-on, who made no mistake. Beginning to find his feet, he found some late swing send Bazid Khan on his way.

Durham fast bowler Liam Plunkett soon got his first wicket of the tour, finding the edge of Misbah Ul-Haq’s bat. Anderson quickly followed suit, although the batsman was Yasir Hameed this time. After shelling a catch a fine leg of Durham team mate Collingwood, Plunkett quickly made amends, as Faisal Iqbal provided Geraint Jones with his 3rd catch of the day.

Collingwood proceeded to get the wicket he deserved, Asim Kamal, a likely starter for Pakistan for 14. With the Patron’s XI in serious trouble at 79-6 England introduced Shaun Udal into the attack. With Ashley Giles ill back at the team hotel, Udal showed the selectors what he could bring to the side.

After he trapped Khaled Latif Lbw, Shehzad Malik and Yasir Arafat attempted a recovery. Udal eventually accounted for both, with Strauss and Pietersen taking the catches. Numbers 10 & 11, Zulqarnain Haider and Tahir Khan then shared a frustrating 61 run last wicket partnership before Plunkett retured to end the innings with another caught behind. Matthew Hoggard’s 12 overs went wicketless, as did Alex’s Loudon’s 4.

With a first innings lead of 45, England to decied to tinker with their batting order. Andrew Strauss and Matthew Prior opened the batting, though the partnership was to be short-lived, as he was caught for 6 by Bazid Khan off Najaf Shah. After scoring an unbeaten 3 in the first innings, Alex Loudon was promoted to number 3. The move did not prove a successful one however, as he scored just one before he was out to the medium pace of Mohammad Irshad.

Captain Michael Vaughan was next in, and shortly afterwards next out, out lbw to Irshad without scoring. Prior and Pietersen shared a short aggressive partnership, before both fell with the score on 38, England collapsing for the second day in a row. The other keeper in the side Geraint Jones shortly made the situation worse still, bowled by Yasir Arafat for a duck. The 2 not out batsman at stumps were Bell and Collingwood.

England 256-9 dec
Marcus Trescothick 124*, Matthew Prior 50
Yasir Arafat 4-45, Najaf Shah 3-58

Patron’s XI 221 all out
Shehzad Malik 37
Shaun Udal 3-36, Liam Plunkett 3-41, James Anderson 3-50

England 39-6
Matthew Prior 16
Mohammad Irshad 3-22, Yasir Arafat 2-1