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England on course for victory

Published:Sunday | August 29, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Pakistan's Salman Butt is bowled out by England's Graeme Swann during the third day of the fourth Test match against Pakistan at the Lord's cricket ground, London, yesterday. Butt made 26.- AP

LONDON (AP): England look to be on course for victory over Pakistan in the decisive fourth Test after forcing the tourists to follow on and finishing a one-sided third day at Lord's with a 331-run lead.

Jonathan Trott and Stuart Broad set the tone with a record eighth-wicket partnership of 332 to take England to 446 all out shortly after lunch. Pakistan then closed on 41-4 after slumping to 74 all out in their first innings.

Pakistan had fought back in the series by winning the third Test at The Oval but, after a day in which Trott reached 184, Broad made 169 and 17 wickets fell, is hugely unlikely to get the win it needs to draw level at 2-2.

Azhar Ali was not out and yet to score for Pakistan when play was called off half an hour early because of heavy rain, which forced the players from the field just as Mohammed Yousuf fell to a catch by Trott at deep midwicket off the bowling off Steven Finn.

Openers Imran Farhat and Yasir Hameed were dismissed for single-figure scores for the second time in the day - Farhat caught at mid-on for 5 pulling a delivery from Broad and Hameed lbw to James Anderson for 3 - before Salman Butt was trapped lbw by Swann.

The whole day was about England consolidating their advantage from overnight and building confidence in its last test before the Ashes start in Australia on November 25.

Better pitch

England's batsmen dominated on a flat pitch in sunny weather, completely unlike the gloomy, swinging conditions they encountered when coming together at 102-7 on Friday afternoon. Trott's 383-ball innings spanned more than nine hours over two days and included 19 boundaries, sparing his team after four batsmen failed to score a run Friday.

Trott and Broad beat the eighth-wicket world record of 313 set by Wasim Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq in 1996 and also created a new high for any wicket for England in 56 years of competition against Pakistan, far surpassing the 267 by Graham Thorpe and Michael Vaughan in 2001.

Broad, who set a new high for an England No.9 batsman Friday, narrowly fell short of the world mark - 173 by New Zealand's Ian Smith - when he was leg-before-wicket to offspinner Saeed Ajmal.