Pakistan 111 for 4 (Yousuf 16*, Azhar 0*) trail England 233 by 122 runs
England made three important blows on the second morning at The Oval, but it took them until shortly before lunch to remove nightwatchman Wahab Riaz as Pakistan reached the interval on 111 for 4. Graeme Swann twice struck in the first over of a spell after Steven Finn made a breakthrough with the second ball of the day, although Mohammad Yousuf was settling ominously after a careful start.
Yousuf understandably took time to play himself in and was beaten by good deliveries from Finn and James Anderson, but slowly began to find his feet with a neat clip through backward square and a straight drive off Finn. England had made the perfect beginning when Finn found Yasir Hameed's outside edge with the second ball of the day. Hameed had been refreshingly positive on the first evening, but edged the first delivery in front of third slip before offering Matt Prior a regulation catch.
Salman Butt, demoted down the order after Hameed's inclusion, was given an early life. Eoin Morgan spilled a catch at backward from a fiercely hit square cut although it didn't prove too costly for England as Swann, who was added to the ICC Cricketer of the Year list after controversially being omitted yesterday, once again struck as soon as he came into the attack.
Butt, after driving a pleasant boundary, top edged a cut and Prior juggled the ball before finally holding onto the chance which left Pakistan wobbling on 76 for 3. However, Riaz was proving much harder to shift despite a first-class average of 15.22. He was resolute against England's quicks and picked up most of his runs down to third man, but when Swann was introduced was confident enough to sweep him strongly through square leg.
As with his bowling yesterday, Riaz grinned his way through most of the innings and it looked as though he would see out the session until he missed a sweep at the first ball of Swann's second spell. The request for a review was a waste and would have been better served being saved for a frontline batsman.
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