England fast bowler Steven Finn stakes Test spot

Steven Finn celebrates Iftikhar Ahmed's wicket with teammates.

 Steven Finn's scorching pace pushed Pakistan A on the back foot on a wicket that provided more juice on Thursday, intensifying the race for a place in the final England eleven against Pakistan on November 13.
Mark Wood, who played along with Finn in the final Ashes Test after James Anderson was ruled out, had enhanced his chances with an impressive bowling on not so responsive surface in the first match. Only one of them (Woods or Finn) will find a place as Anderson is back in action. Finn's rhythm and four early wickets (11-7-5-4) in his kitty on Thursday at the Sharjah Stadium kept Pakistan A to 192 for 12 (batsmen batted twice as both the teams had agreed to spend a day each in the field) and boosted the chances of lanky pacer, who has earned notoriety for knocking off bails with his knee in his follow through. Several batsmen of the Pakistan A side batted twice as a much-changed England attack got a good workout and
only a fine a rear guard action by Adnan Akmal saved 'hosts' a total embarrassment in the two-day warm up match in hot conditions.
Finn knocked of four top order Pakistani batsmen with his sheer pace on a brown strip. Finn's effort was laudable, especially on a pitch known to be a graveyard for fast bowlers. The pacer was not the only English bowler who enjoyed bowling at the historic ground. Even English spinners Moeen Ali, Adil Rasheed and Samit Patel were among wickets as Pakistan A finished at 192 for 9 at the end of the first day.
Adnan Akmal's brilliant 74 and Sami Aslam's 43 were the only bright spots for Pakistan A.
Since this was not a first class match, some of the Pakistan A batsmen batted again but without any impact. Khurram Manzoor and Asad Ali got two chances each but still they were unable to play big innings. Asad even failed to open his account both the times.
Khurram Manzoor (4) and Asad Ali (0) became victims of Finn while Fawad Alam's wicket was snared by Moeen Ali. Pakistan crawled to 23 for three when Iftikhar Ahmed joined Sami Aslam in the middle. Former Pakistan under-19 captain Aslam scored a confident 43 before he became the first victim of Adil Rasheed. Iftikhar Ahmed, who scored a brilliant 92 in the first two-day match, struggled for 40 balls for his 10 runs. Aslam and Umar Amin steadied the Pakistan A innings with the sixth wicket partnership of 26.
Fawad Alam failed to strengthen his claim for a place in the senior team when he failed on Thursday after hitting 55 in the first match. He was undone by Finn soon after the lunch and Usman Salahuddin followed him in the same over. He faced two balls and failed to open his account. Shoaib Malik, after a wonderful series in Zimbabwe, is waiting in the wings to don the whites after a long time. If Alam fails in the second innings, Malik may get the nod ahead of him in the 'home series' for Pakistan against England in the UAE.
Aslam and Umar Amin took charge by mixing caution and aggression. Amin was caught behind the wickets off spinner Samit Patel after making 39 which included three boundaries and one six. Adnan continued his good work and faced every bowler with confidence to remain unbeaten on 74.
liaqat@khaleejtimes.com