MANCHESTER, 4 June — Saqlain Mushtaq must have been on the minds of the England team  last night after an eventful fourth day here yesterday at Old Trafford as the Test headed for a dramatic finish.

Pakistan, having been whipped in the first Test at Lord’s, gave themselves an even chance of restoring some pride and squaring the two Tests series after the batting held up for the second time in this fascinating contest.

Having set England a daunting target of 370 runs to win the match, Saqlain from his very first over made it clear he was not going to be easy to handle on a drying pitch which has been roughened up considerably and has developed cracks.

Despite Michael Atherton and Marcus Tescothick providing another solid start of 85 for no loss for England, Saqlain’s  first over was a clear indication of things to come on the final day. When introduced into the attack in only the seventh over from the Warwick Road end, he made one ball turn sharply past the left-handed Trescothick’s bat, who kept on struggling against him later on.

And if the Saqlain over was not testing enough, Pakistan sent a clear message to Michael Atherton and Trescothick and the rest of the England team, they were going to pay back as well as they had received from the England bowlers and fielders in the second innings.

Wasim Akram appearing in his last Test on English soil and celebrating his 35th birthday yesterday was charged up as soon as England began their run-chase, bowling three overs from the Warwick end and then switching ends for another three overs spell, but there was no letup in his aggression and pace as he gave the batsmen an ample dose of short pitched stuff, same as the Pakistani batsmen were treated to earlier in the day by Caddick, Gough, Hoggard and Cork.

And the bowling was peppered with clear talk from the close-in fielders and bowlers, who had not forgotten this was the treatment reserved for their batsmen, despite a warning given by the match referee to both teams to cool it down. Although at one time one did have reservations over Wasim and Waqar’s insistence on bowling short consistently specially when three slips and a gully were in place. Yet there was no doubt the intention was to try to take advantage of the good bounce in the pitch.

But  Atherton and Tescothick showed last evening why they form one of the best opening pairs in modern cricket, producing some spanking shots including a six by Trescothick off Waqar which went sailing over the fine leg, although his hook shot was not a comfortable one and made Waqar smile, as the ball came on quickly. The first over from Wasim produced two fours from Atherton and Trescothick drove Waqar twice in the second over for boundaries to the delight of a sizeable crowd, but than they settled down to make a serious and thoughtful attempt at the run-chase, something at which England traditionally have not been very good. This is reflected in the fact that the highest fourth innings total they have managed to win a Test remains the 332 against Australia at Melbourne way back in 1928/29, while their best against Pakistan is 217/7 at Headingley in 1982, in a match marred by some controversial decisions which went in the home side’s favor.

Even yesterday Pakistan got two bad decisions from umpires Eddie Nichols and David Shepherd. The first one after lunch came one over after Hoggard had broken a punishing stand of 141 runs, between the overnight pair of Inzamam ul-Haq and Yousuf Youhanna, who resuming on 87 for 3 were not separated even at lunch when the total read a healthy 181 for 3.

Nichols, the West Indian umpire ruled that a rising short pitched ball from Caddick outside the off stump had taken the handle of Youhanna’s bat and gone to Atherton at slip, but replays showed clearly that the ball had in fact hit the peak of the helmet and gone to the fielder without any contact with bat or arm.

Soon afterward Younis Khan was ruled leg before by the experienced Shepherd to leave Cork delighted, although replays again showed that the ball would have gone over the stumps.

Youhanna was devastated with the decision having fought hard for 154 balls and 197 minutes for a well crafted 49 runs, which was his first major contribution in the series.

He signaled to the umpire that he had not touched the  ball,  but the decision had been taken and the die was cast for him. His innings ended one over after his dominant partner in the fourth wicket stand of 141 had fallen playing an uppish and lazy shot to wide mid-off where he was caught by Trescothick, 15 runs short of what could have been his second hundred of the match, a feat no Pakistani has achieved on foreign soil.

From the first ball this morning, Inzamam was on song and took a liking to Hoggard, hitting him for three fours in quick succession. Another pull off Caddick for a huge six was a clear indication of the form and mood he was in to follow up on his first innings 114 runs.

Youhanna also played some lovely shots and while they were at the crease, the England bowlers looked helpless, though Cork was the most disciplined conceding just 19 runs in one 10 overs spell.

The roughest treatment was reserved for Caddick and Gough.  Inzamam had one lucky escape on 36 when he was dropped by the luckless Nick Knight at third slip off Caddick, but apart from this blemish he was in regal form.

For Knight it was the third dropped catch off the match and would have left him fuming. Inzamam’s 50 came from 121 balls and in 175 minutes with seven fours and his 85 included 10 fours from 186 balls.

After Pakistan had slipped to 7 for 241, Rashid Latif who has looked safe with the bat throughout the series, teamed up with Wasim Akram to add 59 quick runs either side of tea. The latter particularly in a mood to celebrate his birthday in dashing style raced to 36 from 41 balls with some beautiful hitting (six fours) to enable Pakistan to set a daunting target for England.

Their partnership and a 7 balls 14 from skipper Younis meant Pakistan were able to set a difficult target with England needing to play 22 overs till close yesterday.

Australia seal crushing win in tour opener

In Worcester, pace trio Glenn McGrath, Damien Fleming and Nathan Bracken shared eight of Worcestershire’s second innings wickets as Australia won their tour opener by 360 runs yesterday.

Needing an improbable 549 to win on the third and final day, Worcestershire were bowled out for 188.

McGrath captured four for 31 against the county for whom he had a successful season last year, Fleming took two for 39 and Bracken had two for 32.

Earlier, the Australians had extended their overnight second innings of 236 for four to 360 for eight before they declared 30 minutes before lunch.

As the touring team closed in on victory, they were held up only by a 55-run stand in 20 overs for the seventh wicket between David Leatherdale and Kabir Ali.

Leatherdale, a consistent performer this season, led the way with 72 which included 11 fours off 113 balls. The resistance was ended when Kabir Ali was lbw for 39 to McGrath.

India go for batting practice

In Harare, India were 15 without loss in their second innings at the close on the second day of a three-day tour match against a Zimbabwe Academy XI yesterday.

India 447-4 declared (Hemang Badani 112, Shiv Sunder Das 110, VVS Laxman 100, Saurav Ganguly 53) and 15-0. Zimbabwe Academy 192 (Gary Brent 72 not out; Harbhajan Singh 4-43).