Ruthless England close on victory

Fourth Test, Lord's (day three, close):
England 446 v Pakistan 74 and 41-4 (following on)
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Match scorecard

Graeme Swann took five more wickets to add to his burgeoning tally

By Oliver Brett

England look set to clinch an innings victory and a 3-1 series success after taking 14 Pakistan wickets on day three of a thrilling final Test at Lord's.

Graeme Swann (4-12) and Steven Finn (3-38) were on song after tea to wrap up the tourists' first innings for 74.

England made Pakistan follow on and had them 41-4 at stumps, still 372 behind.

Earlier, England's innings finished on 446, with Jonathan Trott (184) and Stuart Broad (169) posting a new world record eighth-wicket stand of 332.

In what has been an extraordinary finale, Pakistan had been odds-on favourites to win the match and end up with a squared series after Swann sliced a catch to gully soon after lunch on the second day, leaving England 102-7.

606: DEBATE There is no problem in sending out a young team to go on tour but there are players out there in Pakistan who have wrongly been snubbed by guess who? The PCB Amir Mir

But Trott and Broad batted with tremendous skill and determination to get England to 346-7 overnight, and with sunny skies on Saturday morning there was little assistance for Pakistan's tired bowling attack.

The English duo quickly overtook Les Ames and Gubby Allen's stand of 246 in 1931 to set a new national eighth-wicket Test record before Broad was dropped on 132 by Kamran Akmal off Saeed Ajmal.

Trott played the spin of Ajmal with ease, taking two boundaries off him, while Broad played some scintillating drives off the faster offerings from Mohammad Asif.

Drinks were taken with England 400-7, and both batsmen having sailed past their 150s as Pakistan's desperate search for a breakthrough continued.

They passed the 1996 record of Wasim Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq (against Zimbabwe) to set the best eighth-wicket stand of all time. And among the highest English partnerships of all time - a list featuring names like Len Hutton, Denis Compton and David Gower - it comes in seventh.

Broad's father Chris hit six Test centuries in the 1980s as an opening batsman, all away from home, but his son surpassed dad's best score (162 at Perth) before finishing only three runs short of the best score made by a number nine (New Zealander Ian Smith keeps that record).

There were runs and wickets for Stuart Broad at Lord's

Eventually, Ajmal dismissed Broad lbw on the sweep to end an epic seven-hour stand, but Trott batted on after lunch.

Finally, with James Anderson taken at slip off Ajmal, and Trott caught behind off Wahab Riaz, Pakistan could concentrate on batting.

But with clouds conveniently gathering overhead to assist the movement of Anderson and Broad - things continued to go the way of the home side.

Yasir Hameed edged Broad to slip, Imran Farhat nicked Anderson to Matt Prior and Mohammad Yousuf was bowled by a full delivery from Broad that just left him off the pitch. It was excellent bowling from England, but none were unplayable deliveries.

From 10-3, Pakistan looked prepared for a fight as Salman Butt and Azhar Ali took them to tea with the total on 46 and no further wickets lost.

Eleven overs later, Pakistan's first innings had come to a rapid and ignominious end, however. Swann found enough spin to bowl Butt and have Ali taken at short leg, before Finn's yorkers did for Umar Akmal and Mohammad Amir.

Both batsmen appeared to have difficulty in seeing the ball early enough from the tall Finn's hand, with the sightscreen at the Nursery End a cause for concern.

Umpire Tony Hill and Pakistan's Azhar Ali discuss sightscreens

Later, some of the spectators in the Edrich Stand were moved elsewhere but for the time being Swann was busy wrapping up the innings for only two runs more than Pakistan had managed in their woeful effort at Edgbaston.

So dire were Pakistan's openers when they began their follow-on, Farhat splicing an attempted pull to mid-on, and Hameed playing across a straight one to fall lbw, that the prospect of them being bowled out twice in half a day was briefly raised.

Butt added to his top score of 26 in the first innings with one of 21 in the second before Swann picked up his fifth wicket of the day by trapping him lbw.

And just before the rain came down 35 minutes before the scheduled close Yousuf became the fourth player to be dismissed in the second half of the day - picking out deep square leg with an attempted pull off Finn.

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