Cricket: Younis and Yousuf put brakes on England

Drawn Tests hardly ever happen here. Since Ian Botham's melodrama against Australia 25 years ago, only two of 22 Tests have failed to produce a result. At 2pm yesterday afternoon, it looked as though tradition was being upheld. England had scored more than 500 in their first innings for the second time in three Tests against Pakistan - they got 461 in the other - and Pakistan's morale was rocky surely, especially after their innings defeat in three days at Old Trafford last weekend.

But this Pakistan team require a significant qualifier. Their openers might be vulnerable - and both were soon out yesterday - but they are followed by three of the world's great batsmen. We are familiar with this, but the meaning of it is that the trio can dictate the course of a game.

Since they are 313 runs behind and still need to score 114 to avoid the follow-on, they might not be able to build a winning position against England, but they can bat for long enough and score heavily enough to manage the draw and prevent England from winning the series here in Leeds. This is still a long shot, but it is not impossible. The pitch has flattened out. The players say it is now a good batting wicket, especially against the old ball.

England were slow to impose themselves on Pakistan's batsmen yesterday. Matthew Hog-gard seemed almost intimidated by playing on his home turf, bowling two no balls and three wides in his first spell and giving no hint at all of the ball which drew Taufeeq Umar forward to edge a drive, which was cleanly and competently caught by Chris Read on his comeback. Stephen Harmison was only intermittently threatening.

England had nothing to do with the only other wicket to fall. Two overs later Younis Khan took off on a rash run and Kevin Pietersen, swooping in from cover, scored a direct hit to run out the unlucky Salman Butt - Pietersen not returning the favour done to him by Butt, who had dropped him on 102 on Friday.

Pakistan were 36 for 2. A better start than had seemed likely, but the moment that the game suddenly stopped going England's way happened only six runs later when Paul Collingwood, of all people, dropped a hard chance at third slip when Mohammad Yousuf was on five. It may prove to be a very expensive mistake. At the close Yousuf was only nine runs short of his second hundred of the series. Younis has another 36 to go.

As a pair Younis and Yousuf went on in the way they had begun, playing risky shots with an abandon that astonished the bowlers. Slip catchers leaped high and hopelessly' outfielders sprinted round the boundary. On a number of occasions each of them almost got out, but their hundred stand took only111 balls.

At the close they had added 166 off 245 balls, their explosive start having been tamed somewhat by Monty Panesar, who bowled 14 overs for 25 runs. They trusted their luck, which was a brave thing to do. Pakistan have had precious little of it in this game, though there were none of the eccentric umpiring decision yesterday that had spoiled the first day for them.

Earlier, on a murky grey morning, there had been aspects of England's play which encouraged real optimism after nine months of post-Ashes angst. The top six in the batting order are regularly producing large first-innings totals. Marcus Trescothick is the only one not to have scored a hundred against Pakistan, and Ian Bell has scored three in successive matches, the first Englishman to do so since Graham Gooch 16 years ago.

Despite a modest start in the morning, Pietersen's performance was wonderfully predictable. He hit the ball brutally. Indeed, a straight drive almost did for Bell, on 80, when Umar Gul diverted it on to the stumps at the bowler's end. Only an acrobatic dive by Bell saved him.

When he had reached 130, Pietersen appeared to get mildly bored with the ease with which he was accumulating runs. He hit a boundary and a two with careless swings, and then failed to connect properly with a high straight drive. Mohammad Sami took the catch behind the bowler, 20 yards in from the boundary. As he approached the dressing room, Pietersen acknowledged the applause he now takes for granted by pirouetting to salute each part of the ground - a grand-stander meets his grandstand.

Bell, who rarely batted with the fluency he showed at Old Trafford, had looked out of sorts at the start of the day. A couple of unconvincing edges through the slips went to the boundary, and as he approached his hundred, Bell played sketchily through the slips, flashed uncharacteristically outside the off stump and played an unhappy hook shot just over square leg, but he reached his destination with a perfectly timed on-drive.

Bell's form is the biggest single revelation of the summer. Even his colleagues must have Wondered whether this little boy would ever grow up. He is now doing so, in his own good time. His format the moment surely makes it almost inconceivable that he should not play in Australia at No 6. He does not mind. As he said yesterday: "If batting No 6 means I'm in the England team for the next 10 years, that's fine."