Bell and Trescothick Dominate The Second Day

The two England players under the most pressure shared a 180 run partnership to leave England on 253-3, 21 runs behind Pakistan's 1st innings total.

A glance at the statistics shows that the burden of captaincy usually has an adverse effect on a player's form. This makes Trescothick's unbeaten 135 all the more impressive. However, in terms of a player's career, Bell's determined 71 has more significance.

Bell's last six innings for England had been 3, 3, 0, 0, 2 & 1 and he was dropped for the Pakistan A game. It appeared that another talented young English batsmen would be tagged a nearly man, before being put out to the pasture of County Cricket. But Vaughn injured his knee and the selectors had no option but to recall the out of form Bell, who had only played one warm-up game while most of teammates had played two. He came into bat at 18-1 and all recent statistics suggested the second wicket partnership would be a short one. Fortunately, both men defied the odds.

Trescothick's innings needed a little luck as he should have been given out LBW when on 87. No doubt with the two dubious LBW decisions in Pakistan's 1st inning in his mind, Inzamam-ul-Haq copied the practice of Ricky Ponting by having words with umpire Billy Bowden following this latest decision to go against his team. Bell on the other hand was unlucky to be given out caught at short leg, as replays showed that Shoaib Malik had overstepped.

The foundations for an imposing 1st innings lead have now been set. Can England's middle order deliver?