Bell ton pushes England on
Bell's fifth Test hundred helped England towards 500
Also In The News
|
Liverpool ended their pre-season tour of Germany with a 5-0 drubbing by FSV Mainz. |  |
Saturday, 05, Aug 2006 10:41
Ian Bell racked up his third hundred of the series as England pushed on to reach 488-8 at lunch on the second day of the third Test against Pakistan at Headingley.
The Warwickshire batsman made 119 before being bowled by Danish Kaneira 20 minutes before the break.
Kevin Pietersen also returned after retiring hurt yesterday with severe cramp in his left arm and made 135.
Resuming on 347-6, Bell and Pietersen survived a couple of early scares but Pakistan failed to take advantage of the early overcast conditions as the England pair slowly built momentum.
The hairiest moment for the home side in the first hour was when Pietersen's drive was deflected onto the stumps at the non-striker's end by Umar Gul.
However, Bell, who up until that point had only been out once in three knocks - when captain Andrew Strauss ran him out at Lord's - survived as his bat was just grounded in time inside the crease.
Pakistan made the breakthrough though just after drinks as Pietersen, in an attempt to smash Mohammad Sami over long-off, only succeeded in giving Shahid Nazir a simple catch.
Ian Bell survived for a further 30 minutes before he was bowled by Kaneria, attempting to cut and the ball clipping the top of off stump.
However, if Pakistan were hoping to clear up England's tail before lunch, they were sadly mistaken as Sajid Mahmood (22 not out) and Steve Harmison (30 not out) added 43 runs from 30 balls to push the England score close to the 500 mark.