England ensure perfect result in second practice game

Dubai: England registered a second victory in as many warm-up games with a 100-run defeat of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) XI at the International Cricket Council Global Cricket Academy Oval ground yesterday.

Jonathan Trott missed his century by seven runs but helped England post a target of 251 runs in 63 overs, but the PCB XI were bowled out for 150 in 52.3 overs. Graham Onions and Monty Panesar took three wickets each, Panesar returning match figures of eight for 103.

Trott, along with his skipper Andrew Strauss, put on an opening partnership of 130 before Yasir Shah trapped Strauss leg before for 62. Kevin Pietersen then failed to get going, lasting only four balls. Going for a wild shot, he top edged to Nasir Jamshed at slip off Shah for three.

Trott and Ian Bell added 41 for the third wicket before Shah picked up the wicket of Trott for 93, which came off 150 balls with 12 hits to the boundary. England declared at 181 for three.

Early inroads

The PCB XI top order batsmen found England pacers Chris Tremlett and Onions too tough to handle.

Onions forced opener Afaq Raheem to play on to his wicket before Tremlett had Jamshed caught behind for a duck. Onions also went on to trap Mohammad Ayub leg before for a duck.

Three down for just 16 runs, Fawad Alam and Usman Salahuddin prevented England from taking more wickets through a 71-run partnership for the fourth wicket.

Panesar once again broke another partnership by having Salahuddin caught by Swann for 32. And Pietersen then struck with the second ball of his first over, dismissing Alam, who top scored with 51 off 93 balls.

England went to tea needing five more wickets from the remaining 31 overs left in the day. Tremlett took PCB's sixth wicket, forcing their skipper Sarfraz Ahmad to edge a good length ball to wicketkeeper Matt Prior for 11.

Tight length

Swann bowled a tight length and also beat the batsmen, but struggled to get wickets. However, in his 15th over he picked up his first victim when he had Harris Sohail caught leg before for 11.

With overs fast running out, England set attacking fields and Onions trapped Shah leg before. Raza Hasan and Mohammad Talha, the pair that put on 54 runs for the ninth wicket in the first innings, came together, but Panesar struck again, having Hasan brilliantly stumped by Prior for 22 to ensure the victory.