Riaz strikes four times before England rally

The sturdily built left-armer, who replaced the injured Umar Gul, dismissed England captain Andrew Strauss (15) with the ninth ball of his opening spell.

He added the wickets of Jonathan Trott (12), Kevin Pietersen (6) and Eoin Morgan (17) after England had won the toss and elected to bat.

Matt Prior (42 not out) and Stuart Broad (40 not out) restored their team’s fortunes with an unbroken eighth-wicket partnership of 81 from 116 balls to take England to 175 for seven at tea.

Prior looked the best of the England batsmen, putting the pitch and conditions into perspective with some full-blooded drives, while Broad played a sensible support innings and swept off-spinner Saeed Ajmal effectively.

Ajmal could get nothing from a pitch which looked full of runs as the sun burned through the early cloud cover and the pace bowlers became gradually less dangerous as the afternoon progressed.

COOK FAILS

England, who lead the four-match series 2-0, began their innings under darkened skies and Alastair Cook, with only 100 runs from his previous seven test innings, again looked all at sea against the probing late movement of Mohammad Asif.

Cook scored six sketchy runs off Asif’s opening over, the second of the day, then fell caught behind with a delivery which held its own rather than dip into the left-hander.

Trott, who has effectively been pressed into service as an opening batsman in this series due to Cook’s run of failures, drove Asif handsomely for a four from his first ball.

He lost Strauss, also caught behind by Kamran Akmal, who was initially given not out by umpire Tony Hill. Pakistan immediately appealed and the television replay showed Strauss had got a thick outside edge.

Trott followed his captain into the pavilion when Yasir Hameed took a smart catch at second slip and Paul Collingwood was bowled by Mohammad Amir for five, jabbing down late on a delivery which went on to clip his off-stump.

Pietersen struggled for six runs in more than an hour at the crease before he, too, fell caught behind off Riaz and England lunched uneasily with the score on 67 for five.

Eoin Morgan (17) also fell to the Riaz-Akmal combination and Graeme Swann (8) was caught at second slip by Akmal’s brother Umar at second slip to reduce England to 94 for seven.