England dig in

The hosts had to bat again in turn on the third morning of this first npower Test, after Gul (65no) produced a clutch of pedigree shots which belied his number nine billing and carried Pakistan from an overnight 147 for nine to 182 all out.

Then starting again with a lead of 172 in the bag, England lost captain Andrew Strauss to a bizarre caught-behind from the fourth ball of Mohammad Aamer's opening over. The left-armer got away movement and bounce from a dangerous area, and Strauss edged to second slip.

Umar Akmal was unable to take the chance at the first attempt, but somehow parried the ball over first slip for his brother Kamran to dive to his left and intercept with the gloves - leaving a disbelieving Strauss to troop off for a third-ball duck.

Pakistan's wicketkeeper, so fallible in the first innings, showed again he is back on his game with a catch down the leg-side to see off Alastair Cook and give Mohammad Asif his 100th Test wicket. Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen needed much determination and skill to avoid further losses in the remaining hour of the session.

They managed an unbroken 31 in 12 overs, earned the hard way - especially by Pietersen, who badly needs a score for himself and his team - against the expert swing and seam of Asif in particular in persistently helpful conditions.

Gul, averaging only nine before this innings, not only near single-handedly took his team past the follow-on mark but soon passed his previous career-best with the first of three brilliant pulled sixes off Steve Finn.

Strauss was therefore denied the option of asking Pakistan to bat again, as he would surely have done under more heavy cloud cover with the floodlights again in use.

Gul immediately narrowed the margin by driving the first ball of the day for four wide of mid-on when James Anderson overpitched, after the tourists had begun needing just eight runs from their final wicket to scupper England's plans.

Gul then nicked a single off the fifth ball, leaving the vulnerable Asif only one to survive against Anderson. He duly missed an attempted drive at a wide one. But there was no harm done for Pakistan, and Gul went on to take 18 off Finn's first over.