3rd Test: England reach 89-2 vs Pakistan at lunch

DUBAI: England, chasing 324 to win, reached 89-2 at lunch on the fourth day of the third and final Test against Pakistan played at the Dubai Stadium on Monday.

Alastair Cook (41) and Kevin Pietersen (one) were unbeaten at the crease after England lost Andrew Strauss (26). They still need another 235 runs to win with two sessions and a day to play.

Pakistan lead the series 2-0. — AGENCIES

Pakistan opt to bat in 2nd test vs England

ABU DHABI: Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq won the toss and opted to bat in the second test against England in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

England recalled spinner Monty Panesar in place of the injured seamer Chris Tremlett.

Panesar will be making his first test appearance since 2009 as England, the number one test side in the world, look to avenge a 10-wicket defeat in the series opener in Dubai last week.

Pakistan have also made one bowling change, bringing in paceman Junaid Khan for quick Aizaz Cheema.

Teams:

Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez, Taufeeq Umar, Azhar Ali, Younus Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Asad Shafiq, Adnan Akmal, Abdur Rehman, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Junaid Khan.

England: Andrew Strauss (captain), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Eoin Morgan, Matt Prior, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Monty Panesar. AGENCIES

Australia beat England by 4 runs

Australia finally had something to celebrate after recording an unlikely four-run win over England in the second Twenty20 international at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday.

After Australia battled to 147-7 thanks to an unbeaten half-century by second-gamer Aaron Finch, England looked set to cruise to victory when they were 58-0 after six overs, with opener Ian Bell on song.

But England’s quest to extend their record unbeaten T20 streak to nine matches, having defeated Australia on the last ball of Wednesday’s game in Adelaide, came unstuck as their middle order failed to deliver.

As was the case in Australia’s lone win during the Ashes series, in the third Test at the WACA Ground, it was paceman Mitchell Johnson (3-29) who turned the match on its head.Johnson claimed the vital wicket of Bell (39) when the right-hander dragged a ball onto his stumps in the seventh over to end an opening stand of 60. The left-hander then followed up by having Kevin Pietersen caught for one three balls later.

Johnson also removed the dangerous Eoin Morgan for 14, while Shane Watson backed up his brilliant effort in Wednesday’s match with a frugal 2-17 from four overs.

With 13 runs needed off the last three balls from Brett Lee, young England all-rounder Chris Woakes threatened to repeat his heroics on Wednesday when he lofted the paceman into the stands to leave seven needed from two. But Lee got the job done as Australia snapped a run of five successive losses in T20 internationals.

Man of the match Finch, playing in only his second international, hit 53 not out from 33 balls in a crucial performance with the bat for the home side.

Australia side got off to a quick start and were 57-1 after six overs, but lost 4-17 as Graeme Swann and Michael Yardy wreaked havoc, the two spinners recording identical figures of 2-19 from their four overs.

The two sides now meet in a seven-match one-day series and Australian captain Cameron White was hopeful the hope side finally had some momentum.

Boxing Day Test: England rout Australia for 98

England tour of Australia, 4th Test: Australia v England at Melbourne
Australia 98
England 157/0 (47.0 ov)
England lead by 59 runs with 10 wickets remaining in the 1st innings
It was meant to be Boxing Day, not Boxing Australia Around the Ears Day. Within three sessions of complete England dominance at the MCG, they moved to within touching distance of retaining the Ashes by dismissing Australia for 98 and passing their total with no wickets down, leaving Ricky Ponting requiring a late Christmas miracle to avoid leading Australia to three Ashes series failures.
Chris Tremlett and James Anderson collected four wickets each, backing up Andrew Strauss’s decision to send the hosts in, before Strauss and Alastair Cook showed that with discipline, batting wasn’t that hard on a pitch with a little juice in it. The day could not possibly have gone better for England, who finished at 0 for 157 with Strauss on 64, Cook on 80, a hefty first-innings advantage in prospect and a 2-1 series lead on the horizon.
For Australia, it was up there with the opening day at Headingley against Pakistan this year, in terms of disastrous cricketing dates. Back then they chose to bat and managed only 88, but this time there was one slight difference – their dismal performance will probably cost them the Ashes. Not since 1936 had they scored a lower Ashes total at home, and that was in the days of uncovered pitches. It took Tremlett, Anderson and Tim Bresnan less than two sessions to run through the order as they hit consistent lines and kept the runs tight. They also exposed Australia’s team-wide inability to handle seam movement and swing, which is no great revelation but could not be ignored in front of 84,345 fans on the biggest day in the Australian cricket calendar. Every batsman fell to an edge caught behind the wicket, six to the wicketkeeper Matt Prior, two to slips and two to gully. Too many men played with hard hands away from their bodies, and they struggled to work out which deliveries to leave and which ones to play. The questions that the batting coach Justin Langer must consider surround not only technique, but also judgment. England picked up four wickets before the first break and in one particularly impressive patch they collected 3 for 0, as Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson all failed to make solid contact with the face of the bat. A rain delay had extended lunch by nearly an hour, but even that wasn’t enough to help the Australians survive until the scheduled tea break. But England’s bowlers certainly earned their wickets, especially the early strikes. Shane Watson was dropped twice on 0, as Paul Collingwood at slip and Kevin Pietersen at gully denied Anderson an early breakthrough. It was a sign of things to come, and Watson had only made 5 when he was surprised by sharp bounce from Tremlett and fended a loopy catch to Pietersen. Soon afterwards, Phillip Hughes (16) tried to cover-drive and edged to gully to hand Bresnan his first Ashes wicket, and without further addition to the score the Australians also lost Ricky Ponting. Again it was the rising ball from Tremlett that did the job, and this one nipped away significantly off the pitch, so much so that Ponting, on 10, did well to even get bat on ball as his edge flew to second slip. Australia’s recent saviour, Michael Hussey, joined the procession in the last over before lunch, when Anderson produced a pearler that moved away from Hussey and found a thin edge through to Prior. Then came the rain, an early and prolonged lunch, and after the break the dismissals got a bit softer, as Australia’s middle order failed to exercise due caution. The hosts want Steven Smith in the side for his energy and all-round talent, but as a Test No. 6 his technique needs a lot of work, and all it took was a probing delivery outside off stump from Anderson to draw an edge behind when Smith had 6. The top scorer Michael Clarke, who made 20, also wafted outside off at a ball he could have left, and edged behind off Anderson. And 5 for 77 soon became 8 for 77 when Haddin drove at Bresnan and gave Strauss a catch at first slip, before Johnson tickled a catch to Prior off Anderson. A few late runs came via Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle before Tremlett finished off the tail to finish with 4 for 26, a much deserved return after he was the best of the bowlers early, extracting bounce from a pitch expected to be as stodgy as leftover Christmas pudding. By the time Australia bowled, it looked like any spice in the pudding had lost its kick. In reality, they just didn’t bowl well enough, while Cook and Strauss defended solidly and left the right balls, also ticking the score along by chasing the bad deliveries, like an uppish cut to the vacant third-man area from Cook when he was given width. That Strauss and Cook both registered half-centuries before stumps was the perfect finale for the visitors, and Cook was already within sight of his third hundred of the series. Australia’s four-man pace attack had little impact – Michael Beer was made 12th man again – and by the close, Smith had tossed up a few overs of unthreatening legbreaks, including one that was slog-swept almost for six by Cook. Smith wasn’t born last time England won the Ashes in Australia, in 1986-87. He’s about to see it happen first-hand.

‘Clown’ Pietersen gets his mojo back

SYDNEY: England batsman Kevin Pietersen believes he is back to his best form just at the right time with the Ashes series against Australia just a couple of weeks away.

The mercurial 30-year-old was dropped by England for the Twenty20 and one-day series against Pakistan in September after a poor run of form.

A spell playing back in South Africa, the land of his birth, had rejuvenated him, Pietersen said, and his 58 was England’s top first innings score in the three-day tour match against Western Australia in Perth.

“I’ve never really been a technical player. I play like a clown,” he told England’s official website (www.ecb.co.uk)

“It’s just my mental approach that I needed to change, just get a load of confidence back, and I’m on fire at the moment.

“I’m looking forward now, I’m not interested in what’s gone. I’m very happy with what’s

Pietersen dropped from England one-day squad

LONDON: Kevin Pietersen was dropped by England on Tuesday for the first time in his international career.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said in a statement that the 30-year-old batsman had been omitted from their squads for the Twenty20 internationals against Pakistan which start on Sunday and the five one-dayers that follow.

Twenty20 squad: Collingwood, Anderson, Bopara, Bresnan, Broad, Steven Davies, Kieswetter, Morgan, Sidebottom, Swann, Luke Wright, Yardy.

One-day squad: Strauss, Anderson, Bopara, Bresnan, Broad, Collingwood, Steven Davies, Morgan, Shahzad, Sidebottom, Swann, Trott, Luke Wright, Yardy.

Amir rips through England top order

LONDON: Kevin Pietersen’s miserable run of scores continued with a golden duck as Mohammad Aamer gave England a nightmare start to the second morning of the fourth npower Test at Lord’s.

The Pakistani seam and swing bowler took three wickets for no runs in five balls as England faltered to 47 for five after 20 minutes’ play under yet more heavy cloud cover in a series almost entirely beset by such conditions.

Pietersen drove at a wide, swinging delivery from the teenage left-armer and got an obliging edge behind, safely collected by Kamran Akmal.

The Pakistan wicketkeeper, one of several less than reliable catchers in the tourists’ ranks this summer, had already done the decent thing from the final ball of the previous over when Aamer got one to swing down the slope from the pavilion end to have Alastair Cook also caught behind.

With Pietersen gone

Irans Bushehr nuclear plant starts fuel-loading

Russia will begin loading nuclear fuel into the reactor of Iran’s first atomic power station on Saturday — an irreversible step marking the start-up of the Bushehr plant after nearly 40 years of delay.
Russian specialists and their Iranian counterparts are to begin loading uranium-packed fuel rods into the reactor on Saturday — a process that will take 2-3 weeks. Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko and head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation Ali Akbar Salehi are expected to attend the official launching ceremony.
Russia agreed in 1995 to build the Bushehr plant on the site of a project started by German company Siemens in the 1970s, but delays have haunted the 1 billion dollar project and diplomats say Moscow has used it as a lever in relation with Tehran.
The United States has criticised Moscow for pushing ahead with the Bushehr project at a time when major powers including Russia are pressing Tehran to allay fears that its nuclear energy programme may be geared to develop weapons.
But western fears that the Bushehr project could help Iran develop a nuclear weapon were lessened when Moscow reached an agreement with Tehran obliging it to return spent fuel to Russia. Weapons-grade plutonium can be derived from spent fuel rods.
The U.S. State Department said it did not regard Bushehr as a proliferation risk, but emphasised that broader concerns remained about the direction of Iran’s nuclear programme.

Pakistan in charge after England collapse

England 233 & 221/9 (76.2 ov)
Pakistan 308
England lead by 146 runs with 1 wicket remaining
Pakistan transformed the third test against England at the Oval Friday in a spectacular passage of bowling immediately after tea on the third day.
Six England second innings wickets fell for 26 runs as they collapsed from the comparative comfort of 194 for three at tea to 221 for nine when bad light stopped play. England, who are 2-0 ahead in the four-match series, hold an overall lead of 146 with one wicket in hand.
After Alastair Cook had ended a batting slump stretching back to the start of the season with 110 including 16 boundaries, England appeared in no trouble on a good pitch against some lacklustre bowling.
Cook made a fast start after coming into the match with 106 runs from eight innings. He scored two boundaries in succession through the slips off Mohammad Asif and carved Wahab Riaz for another four through the vacant fourth slip position. Cook continued to go for his shots, contributing 87 in a second wicket partnership of 116 with Jonathan Trott before he was out after more than doubling his previous test aggregate of 106 runs from eight innings this season.
His hundred came up in bizarre circumstances when Asif, who looked out of sorts all day, gathered the ball on the bounce and threw it over wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal for four overthrows. England’s rot started in the first over after tea when Kevin Pietersen was clean bowled through the gap by off-spinner Saeed Ajmal for 23.
Ajmal, who had toiled throughout the afternoon session without reward after dismissing nightwatchman James Anderson for 11 with his first delivery of the innings, followed up by bowling Eoin Morgan for five.
In the meantime Trott, who had crawled to 36 in 3-1/2 hours, was caught in the gully off Mohammad Amir. He failed to score from 110 of his 130 deliveries.
Paul Collingwood (3) and Matt Prior (5) were caught behind off Amir, who was now jagging the ball late off the pitch at high pace from the Pavilion end and Graeme Swann (6) became Ajmal’s fourth victim when he was also bowled.
When the players left the field, Amir and Ajmal had taken six wickets between them after the tea interval.

Palestine accepts US call for talks with Israel

Palestinian leaders on Friday accepted a US invitation for face-to-face peace talks with Israel but said they would withdraw if it resumed Jewish settlement building on occupied land.
The chief Palestinian negotiator said the Palestinians would pull out of the talks, due to start on Sept 2, if the Israeli government announced any new settlement building on land where the Palestinians aim to found their state. If the Israeli government decides to announce new tenders on Sept. 26, then we won’t be able to continue with the talks, Saeb Erekat said after a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s (PLO) executive committee in Ramallah.He was referring to the date when a 10-month, Israeli freeze on settlement building in the West Bank is due to end. His comments reflected the immediate challenges facing the U.S. effort to revive the two-decade-old Middle East peace process. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads a coalition government that backs Jewish settlement on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

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