Thorpe century leads England to 393-6

Thursday 16 November 2000 01:00 GMT
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England are in a commanding position in the First Test against Pakistan, finishing the second day on 393 for six, with Graham Thorpe scoring 118.

England are in a commanding position in the First Test against Pakistan, finishing the second day on 393 for six, with Graham Thorpe scoring 118.

Thorpe shared in an England record sixth-wicket partnership of 166 against Pakistan with Craig White.

England had begun the second day aiming to overcome the previous evening's disappointment when Saqlain Mushtaq claimed four for 14 in 63 balls to undermine their earlier progress and raise fears that he may run through their lower order.

Saqlain claimed an early success, trapping Graeme Hick leg before in the 15th over when the Worcestershire batsman failed to move his feet to get forward and got trapped in his crease.

But he had to wait until two overs before the close before he finally ended Thorpe's magnificent innings.

Having already claimed his first century since Barbados two years ago, Thorpe attempted a slog-sweep and instead got a leading edge high in the air which Saqlain collected. He batted for 433 minutes for his 118 runs.

Pakistan became increasingly frustrated at their failure to break the partnership, taking the new ball after 115.1 overs with Wasim Akram unable to get any reverse swing out of the original and attempted to slow the game down by bowling their overs slowly.

Thorpe became the first batsman to reach three figures with only one boundary.

White finished the day 11 runs short of his maiden Test century while new batsman Ian Salisbury was yet to score.

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