England face uphill task

Pakistan 340 and 352-5 dec England 285 and 74-1

This match is intriguingly poised. History declares that England cannot win, and it is probably right. Yet fortified by the memories of Michael Atherton's heroics in Johannesburg, they can at least draw.

However, whether they again have it in them to achieve the same result will not only depend on how resilient their skipper proves, but how dismissal- proof England's middle and later order are against today's expected assault of fast swinging yorkers and fizzing wrist-spin. Having been there before, Atherton is a believer. The challenge will be to convert the rest of his team before play starts.

As ever, David Lloyd was positive and upbeat about his team's prospects. "It's a difficult task, but I have to say we are still in the game," he said. "That was a good session for us this evening. Alec and Athers stuck to it and they were congratulating each other afterwards. I know it's a corny thing to say, but if there was a time for anyone wanting to a hero, tomorrow's the day."

It will not be easy. Pakistan's fast bowlers have a renowned tendency to treat batsmen like skittles, particularly when an alley has been provided by the loss of an early wicket. If England are to survive they must not lose more than two wickets in the morning session.

However, the omens are not all gloomy, and although Atherton and Stewart did not bat without alarm, England only lost Nick Knight in the session between tea and the close.

Knight was lbw to Waqar Younis, who also came close to upsetting the timber as his strafing yorkers tried to slip under the batsman's radar. But it was only when he was replaced by Ata-ur-Rehman that Pakistan had reason for regret, and his first ball was put down by the wicketkeeper, Rashid Latif, as Atherton fine-glanced him to leg.

But if Atherton was firmly entrenched in his bunker, Stewart was at his expansive best, sweetly driving and clipping boundaries on both sides of the wicket. So far he has batted his way into fifth place in the pantheon of England's highest run-scorers at Lord's. It is an achievement he could improve upon should he go on to score a century today.

Pakistan's ascendancy has been subtle and inexorable, belying their image as excitable and warring cricketers. Only some optimistic appealing and some alleged sledging directed at Atherton by the substitute Moin Khan - an episode that Atherton brought to the attention of the umpire Steve Bucknor - has so far blotted an otherwise pristine copybook.

A last-wicket partnership here, a flurry of wickets there, has all spoken of an undivided team effort, achieved with the minimum of fuss. This is a not inconsiderable achievement in view of the abundance of mischief-makers, who clearly still believe ball tampering to be a hanging offence.

In fact the ball has been regularly inspected by the umpires and apart from regularly going out of shape - it has been changed five times so far - has certainly not swung as alarmingly as it did in 1992, when umpires were less well versed in spotting the tampering process.

With Pakistan already 217 runs ahead at the start of the day, England needed to take quick wickets if they were to ponder anything but two sessions of damage limitation. They did not come, and although Inzamam chipped Cork perilously close to Simon Brown at mid-off during the morning's second over, Atherton's team had to wait until after lunch and their second new ball to get a wicket.

Once again, it was the imposing figure of Inzamam, hobbling from a nasty bruise he had received while fielding, who put the required runs on the scoreboard. His partnership with Ijaz was worth 118, and it removed any chance of an England win.

But if Inzamam merely continued the brutal powerplay that had brought him a hundred in the first innings, Ijaz was a man transformed, the nervy footwork of Thursday replaced by some ferocious cuts and drives. His departure, lbw to a Cork in-swinger, and 24 runs short of a third successive Test century, probably delayed his team's declaration.

The wicket would have come as welcome relief to Cork, who is finding his second year in Test cricket anything but as obliging as his first. Without Chris Lewis to help take the strain, his mantle as England's premier bowler in this match has entailed more hard work than heroics, and it was puzzling to see Atherton overworking him when there was little to be gained from the situation.

His perseverance, however, was never in question, and he later added Pakistan's powerhouse to his tally, Mark Ealham holding a scorching drive above his head at mid-off.

Wasim then arrived, his expansive flourish with the bat enabling him to declare on the stroke of tea. Although England quickly lost Knight, there was no further cause for dressing-room palpitations.

Those present at the Wanderers, who remember the haunted look on the South African captain's face, will know the power of drawing a match everyone else is expecting you to lose.

Should England pull it off today, it will give them crucial momentum in this short series, which they they ought to turn into victory, if people are to be convinced they are at last emerging from the winter's blind alley.