Unlike Karachi, it was perhaps not England's day. The ground at the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore was green but the pitch absolutely devoid of grass.

According to the experts, the ball was expected to come on to the bat and it did so wonderfully well. England made no changes to the team that brought them a thundering victory at Karachi.

Pakistan, however, brought in Shahid Afridi and Azhar Mahmood to replace Imran Nazir and Waqar Younis. Afridi was brought in to strengthen the spin department on which Pakistan were depending to win the series.

Moin Khan won the toss but contrary to team's obsession with batting first he opted to field. It was done to offset the bitter experience of dew blamed for Pakistan's defeat at Karachi.

The decision paid off, for the bowlers made good work of England's strong batting line, ousting the team for 211 runs - an easy total unless a mishap was in the offing. For a magnificent haul of 5 for 40, Shahid Afridi emerged as the star bowler of Pakistan.

England opened with Marcus Trescothick and Alec Stewart against Pakistan's pace attack of the legendary Wasim Akram and young Abdur Razzaq. While runs constantly flowed from Trescothick's bat, Stewart remained on the defensive.

England reached 50 in 10 overs but lost the first wicket at 66 when Alec Stewart was stumped by Moin Khan off Mushtaq Ahmed for 22. Skipper Nasser Hussain joined Trescothick, both of them playing some exciting cricket to record a partnership of 50. They were quite severe against the pacemen but the introduction of spin lowered the run rate considerably.

Trescothick was the second batsmen to go after playing an enterprising innings of 65 runs scored in 74 balls. Graeme Hick walked off without showing his mettle. After 30 overs England were 125 for three.

Hussain hit two consecutive fours off Shahid Afridi and created some excitement among the spectators. He was lucky when he was dropped twice by Wasim Akram but was eventually stumped by Moin Khan off Shahid Afridi after playing an entertaining innings of 54 runs. England then lost six wickets for 178 runs, ultimately ending the innings at 211 for 9.

Shahid Afridi the pinch hitter cum reserve leg spinner who got married during the match at Karachi returned to the side. The honeymoon acted as some sort of a tonic and he became almost unplayable. He virtually ran through the England side claiming five wickets for 40 runs.

With Pakistan team in high spirits, a victory target of 212 apparently looked easily manageable.

Facing a moderate target, Pakistan were not in any hurry. The team adopted a sensible policy of achieving the target at a slow and steady pace. Saeed Anwar and Shahid Afridi opened the innings. Not deterred by the England pace duo of Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick they carried the score to 43 in 10 overs.

Saeed Anwar was out in the 18th over after playing an invaluable innings of 41 glorious runs and giving Pakistan a wonderful start.

Saleem Elahi joined Afridi and the two of them punished the bowlers with strokes all over the ground but at a steady pace. In 20 overs, Shahid Afridi hoisted his individual 50 and 100 of the Pakistan innings. He was out after scoring an enterprising 61, a special point about his innings being that at no stage did he resort to rashness.

Yousuf Youhana joined Saleem Elahi and the two of them took Pakistan to the 200 run mark in 43.1 overs. Pakistan now needed only 12 runs in 41 balls. Saleem Elahi who exercised complete command on the game hoisted his 50 with a cover drive to the boundary. A little later he brought victory to Pakistan with a sparkling four to the fine leg region. Pakistan ended up with 214 for 2 thus defeating England by eight wickets.

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