Final Test plunges into controversy by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Event:

Pakistan in British Isles 2006

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DateLine: 21st August 2006

 

The fourth and final Test match between England and Pakistan was plunged into controversy on Sunday when Pakistan failed to come out on to the Oval pitch after the tea break. Pakistan risked forfeiting the match by refusing to come out for the last session of the fourth day after they'd been penalised for ball tampering.

 

Play was overshadowed by a controversial decision by the umpires to penalise Pakistan five runs for ball tampering on the fourth day. The decision to invoke the penalty, the first time it had been awarded in a Test match, came at the end of the 56th over, bowled by paceman Umar Gul.

 

Following an inspection by the umpires, Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove, Australia's Hair tapped his shoulder to signal the penalty runs and England's score rose from 230 for three to 235 for three. There then followed an animated discussion, involving Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, as England's batsmen chose a replacement ball as authorised by the playing regulations.

 

In the match itself England were 298 for four when bad light forced an early tea, a deficit of 33 runs, with Paul Collingwood 26 not out and Ian Bell nine not out in a four-match series the hosts had already won 2-0. England had earlier lost Kevin Pietersen for a typically flamboyant 96. Dropped on 15 by Kamran Akmal, Pietersen was brilliantly caught one-handed by the diving wicket-keeper off seamer Shahid Nazir, having bottom-edged a cut.

 

His exit left England 277 for four after he'd dominated a stand of 59 with Collingwood and struck leg-spinner Danish Kaneria for a straight six.

 

Pietersen faced a mere 114 balls with two sixes and 13 fours before falling just short of what would have been his sixth Test hundred. Alastair Cook had several slices of good fortune on his way to 83, having already made two centuries this series.

 

But Gul deceived the 22-year-old Essex batsman with a yorker that pinned Cook lbw to end a 146-ball innings with 11 fours and England were 218 for three.

 

Earlier Cook was fortunate not to be given out on 33, was bowled off a no-ball on 40 and dropped on 47. Instead the only wicket England lost in the first session was that of captain Andrew Strauss for 54.

 

England, already an unbeatable 2-0 up in the series, resumed on 78 for one after rain delayed the start by 15 minutes. Strauss was 37 not out and fellow left-hander Cook 33 not out. Cook was still on his overnight score when he gave a pad/bat catch off Kaneria to Imran Farhat at silly point. But West Indian umpire Billy Doctrove turned down the appeal.

 

Cook then had another lucky break when, on 40, he was bowled by former Essex team-mate Kaneria off a no-ball. Replays indicated that this time Doctrove had got a tight decision correct.

 

Strauss, having completed his fifty, was given out lbw to a sharply spinning Kaneria delivery that pitched outside off-stump and might have missed leg to end a stand of 107 in 157 balls.

 

Cook then had a huge slick of luck when he miscued a hook off Asif only for Faisal Iqbal to drop the gentle chance at square leg. Then Pietersen, in on a pair, had made 15 when he edged a sharply turning leg-break from Kaneria but the ball went in and out of Akmal's gloves.