Trescothick's hundred puts England in command

Marcus Trescothick stroked a fabulous hundred to put England in command on 253 for three against Pakistan after two days of the first Test on Sunday.

The England captain, in the absence of injured Michael Vaughan, scored an undefeated 135 and shared a 180-run stand with Ian Bell (71) for the second wicket.

- Schedule: England in Pakistan

England had earlier wrapped up Pakistan's first innings for 274 after the hosts had resumed on 244 for six.

Trescothick faced 209 balls and hit 16 fours and one six. Nightwatchman Matthew Hoggard was yet to open his account after the umpires ended play early for bad light nine overs short.

England lost two wickets in the final session, Bell falling to Shoaib Malik and Paul Collingwood caught off Shabbir Ahmed for 10 in the day's penultimate over.

Trescothick swept off-spinner Malik to fine leg for four in the 58th over of England's reply to reach his 13th Test hundred as Pakistan's bowlers toiled hard.

It was the Somerset player's second hundred of the tour after he scored an undefeated 124 against a patrons eleven in Rawalpindi. He has now got 1,162 Test runs in the year.

Pakistan were dismissed cheaply on the second morning with captain Inzamam-ul-Haq failing to anchor the innings, caught by Andrew Strauss for 53 off the bowling of Andrew Flintoff.

Hoggard and Steve Harmison, together with Flintoff, performed a clinical clean-up operation to take the last four wickets for 30 runs in 11.2 overs.

Hoggard had Mohammad Sami caught behind by Geraint Jones on the fifth ball of the day.

Four overs later Flintoff dismissed Inzamam after he had notched his 40th Test half-century and then on the last ball of the same over Flintoff yorked Shabbir Ahmed for a duck.

Harmison needed just two balls to have Danish Kaneria caught by Ashley Giles in the gully.

Flintoff finished with four for 68 to nullify Pakistan's advantage of batting first on a good track. Pakistan lost nine wickets for 114 runs after being 160 for one on the first day.

Trescothick punished them in style despite the early loss of opening partner Strauss, trapped in front by Sami with the score on 18.

In superb touch from the start, he played with great freedom and unleashed some exquisite shots through the off-side.

In tandem with Bell they wore down the bowlers in a 312-ball partnership that ended half and hour after tea when Malik got Bell to inside edge to Salman Butt at forward short leg.

Bell faced 161 balls during his 222-minute innings.

Malik bowled a spell of 14 overs after fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, Sami, Shabbir Amed and leg-spinner Kaneria failed to support their captain.

Even when Shoaib deceived Bell on 62 with a slower ball to bowl him through his legs it was off a big no-ball.

Shoaib, back in the side after nearly 10 months, struggled to find any rhythm and length in all of his spells and never looked threatening in his 15 overs.

Scorecard:

Pakistan 1st innings (Overnight: 244-6)                             
S. Malik        lbw b Flintoff              39
S. Butt         c G. Jones b Udal           74
Y. Khan         lbw b Harmison              39
M. Yousuf       b Flintoff                   5
Inzamam-ul-Haq  c Strauss b Flintoff        53
H. Raza         b Harmison                   0
K. Akmal        c Trescothick b Hoggard     28
M. Sami         c G. Jones b Hoggard         1
S. Akhtar       not out                     10
S. Ahmed        b Flintoff                   0
D. Kaneria      c Giles b Harmison           6
Extras          (b-1 lb-7 nb-11)            19
Total           (all out, 98.2 overs)      274

Fall of wickets: 1-80, 2-161, 3-166, 4-181, 5-183, 6-238, 7-244, 8-260, 9-260, 10-274      

Bowling
M. Hoggard      22 - 4 - 55 - 2 (nb-3)       
S. Harmison     16.2 - 5 - 37 - 3            
A. Flintoff     23 - 6 - 68 - 4 (nb-8)       
P. Collingwood  4 - 1 - 15 - 0               
A. Giles        16 - 3 - 44 - 0              
S. Udal         17 - 3 - 47 - 1              

England 1st innings
M. Trescothick  not out                    135
A. Strauss      lbw b Sami                   9
I. Bell         c Butt b Malik              71
P. Collingwood  c Akmal b Ahmed             10
M. Hoggard      not out                      0
Extras          (b-8 lb-6 nb-14)            28
Total           (for 3 wickets, 68 overs)  253

Fall of wickets: 1-18 2-198 3-251

To bat: A. Flintoff, G. Jones, A. Giles, S. Udal, K. Pietersen, S. Harmison                                  

Bowling
S. Akhtar       15 - 2 - 48 - 0 (nb-5)       
M. Sami         10 - 1 - 49 - 1 (nb-1)       
S. Ahmed        13 - 3 - 32 - 1 (nb-2)       
D. Kaneria      16 - 2 - 60 - 0 (nb-2)       
S. Malik        14 - 1 - 50 - 1 (nb-4)