Panesar Hands England Initiative With Five-Wicket Haul

Panesar Hands England Initiative With Five-Wicket Haul

Monty Panesar (second from left) celebrates a wicket on day two in Dubai

©REUTERS / Action Images

England XI 269-9 dec. (Cook 133, Yasir Shah 5-75) & 82-0 v
PCB XI 200-9 dec. (Raza Hasan 50no, Panesar 5-57)
Tour game, Dubai, day two
Day One

Monty Panesar took five wickets as England regained the upper hand on day two of their three-day tour match against a Pakistan Cricket Board XI in Dubai.

The left-arm spinner's haul of five for 57 reduced the PCB XI to 200 for nine - 69 runs behind - before they declared, only to see England close the day on 82 without loss and push their lead to 151.

Replying to England's 269 for nine declared and resuming on 22 without loss, things quickly began to go badly for the PCB side after Nasir Jamshed (12) and Afaq Raheem (17) fell to Graham Onions and Chris Tremlett respectively.

Tremlett struck again to remove Usman Salahuddin (23) before Panesar bowled a 22-over spell which earned him four wickets.

Mohammad Ayub was caught by Matthew Prior for 33, Fawad Alam was caught by Andrew Strauss for seven, Haris Sohail trapped in front for six and Yasir Shah caught by Graeme Swann for nine.

Swann grabbed the wicket of Sarfraz Ahmed, who was caught by Jonathan Trott without scoring as the PCB XI slipped to 119 fo eight.

They were revived by Raza Hasan's unbeaten 50 and Mohammad Talha making 31 as the pair put on 54 runs for the ninth wicket, which was finally broken when Panesar had Talha caught by Prior.

Mohammad Khalil was unbeaten on one when Raza reached his half-century and the innings was declared.

England openers Strauss (36 not out) and Trott (39 not out) then saw off the 22 overs with no loss of wicket to complete an excellent day's work for the tourists.

Alastair Cook made 133 to top score in England's first innings before Yasir took five wickets and Talha four.

© Cricket World 2012