Young Pakistan stars Umar Akmal and Mohammad Amir survived a strong England fightback to bring Pakistan victory over England in the third Test at The Oval in London. England still lead the series 2-1 but Pakistan will be full of confidence after finally playing well for all the days of a Test match and not just the occasional session.Earlier in the day, England,s second innings ended after only four balls only added two runs to their overnight score of 220
In pursuit of 148 runs to Imran Farhat (33), Salman Butt(48) and Mohammad Yousuf (33) looked like they had got Pakistan home comfortably, but 124 for 3 suddenly became 132 for 6 as Graeme Swann and James Anderson did their best to pull off an unlikely win.
Akmal (20 years) and Amir (18 years) showed excellent maturity for their age to first halt the slide of wickets by playing defensively, then knocking off the required runs with fluent strokeplay.
Thank you Pakistan for giving your flood ravaged Country something to smile about. It doesn’t hurt to let some of the air out of Englands tyres, they were getting a bit excited with themselves. Just remember England you are going to have to take 20 wickets on non-swinging pitches in Australia to win an Ashes Test match. Do that then you can justifiably get excited with yourselves.
Pakistan 308 and 148 for 6 (Butt 48, Yousuf 33, Swann 3-50) beat England 233 and 222 (Cook 110, Amir 5-52, Ajmal 4-71) by four wickets
