Trott, Cook steady England against Pakistan

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Trott, Cook steady England against Pakistan

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Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott both scored gritty half-centuries.

26 January,2012 05:11 pm

England progressed steadily to 132-1 at tea Thursday on the second day of the second test to trail by 125 runs.Cook was looking confident on 58 and Trott reached 57 with the pair putting on 105 after losing Andrew Strauss for 11 early in the innings.Trott should have been out lbw on 22 off Saeed Ajmal but Pakistan failed to ask for a television referral when replays showed that the ball would have hit the top of middle and off stump.Becoming frustrated with the stand, Pakistan wasted both its referrals on Trott before and after hed completed his half-century off 95 balls with six fours.Both England batters were watchful as Pakistan failed to take a wicket in the second session, hitting six boundaries each on a pitch that offered some assistance to slow bowlers.Earlier, England lost Strauss before lunch after having quickly ended Pakistans first innings for 257 inside 15 minutes.The out-of-form captain struggled for 42 balls before falling to offspinner Mohammad Hafeez but Trott and Cook guided their team to 48-1 at lunch.Strauss scored only 16 and 9 in Englands 10-wicket in the first test last week and looked out of sorts on Thursday against spin with Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq deploying his slow bowlers as early as the sixth over.Strauss finally succumbed to the pressure when a big deflection from his bat onto his pads offered a simple catch to Asad Shafiq close to the pitch.Pakistan added only one run to its overnight score of 256-7 before Stuart Broad and James Anderson ended the innings in the space of 16 deliveries.Broad finished with 4-47 after trapping Misbah lbw off his fourth delivery, which nipped back into the Pakistan captain. Misbah hit five fours and four sixes in his 84. He used the referral but TV umpire Billy Bowden upheld onfield umpire Steve Davis decision.Anderson trapped Saeed Ajmal lbw and forced Junaid Khan to loop a catch to slips to end the innings and enable the swing bowler to finish with 2-46.Offspinner Graeme Swann took 3-52 while recalled spinner Monty Panesar had 1-91.--AP