Pakistan in charge

LONDON (AP):

Azhar Ali helped Pakistan take a firm grip of the third Test by scoring a Test-best 92 not out before England was reduced to 6-1 at stumps on the second day at The Oval yesterday, with captain Andrew Strauss the man out.

Strauss (4) departed to the fourth ball of the innings, caught at second slip off Mohammad Amir. The under-pressure Alastair Cook was yet to score with nightwatchman James Anderson on two.

Pakistan lead by 69, having established a 75-run first-innings advantage.

Ali, playing his fifth Test, batted for 250 minutes and scored 14 boundaries - six of them coming in a precious 10th-wicket partnership of 38 with Mohammad Asif that frustrated England. Asif was dropped early by Strauss at first slip off Steven Finn.

Off-spinner Graeme Swann finished with 4-68, including his 100th Test wicket, that of Mohammad Yousuf, who made 56 in his first Test innings in seven months.

Swann, currently third in the world Test bowling rankings, was controversially omitted from the International Cricket Council's 16-man annual awards list on Wednesday but was added yesterday after the ICC admitted an oversight by its selection committee.

After losing at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston, Pakistan need to win the match to avoid defeat in the series, while England are seeking a seventh straight Test victory.

England's progress impeded

Nightwatchman and debutant Wahab Riaz, who claimed 5-63 on Wednesday, impeded England's progress at the start of the day, scoring 27 in a stay at the crease just short of two hours. He eventually was lbw to Swann, using up a referral in the process.

Yasir Hameed (36) and captain Salman Butt (17) were the other batsmen out before lunch. Hameed was out to the second ball of the day, deflecting a thin edge to wicketkeeper Matt Prior off the bowling of Finn without adding to his overnight score.

Butt was dropped on four when he cut Anderson to Eoin Morgan at backward point, but he was gone shortly afterward, edging Swann through to Prior off a short delivery that should probably have been dispatched to the boundary.

The afternoon belonged to Yousuf, who was ably supported by Ali. Yousuf eased back to his vintage best - never more evident than when he clipped a leg-stump delivery from Anderson nonchalantly over midwicket for four.