England lose to Pakistan at Lord's,
England ended a difficult 24 hours on a deflating low at Lord's tonight but their captain, Andrew Strauss, refused to make excuses for a 38-run defeat by Pakistan.
Strauss scored 68 but England, chasing Pakistan's 265 for seven, were all out for 227. The NatWest Series is therefore level at 2-2 before Wednesday's decider at the Rose Bowl.
Today's match very nearly did not take place as England considered their response to the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt's claims that they had deliberately lost at The Oval on Friday, in return for "enormous sums of money".
Strauss rebutted those allegations in the strongest terms and spoke of his team's "outrage" before play began. After it had finished he said: "I'm pretty deflated, really. It has been a long and arduous and difficult 24 hours and to lose a game of cricket at the back end of it, which we were in a good position to win, is very disappointing.
"There were obviously a lot of meetings last night. We didn't have a lot of time to respond to the allegations that surfaced yesterday. Was it ideal preparation? No, there's no doubt about that. But I wouldn't use that as an excuse.
"We turned up today. I've got to give a lot of credit to my players for the professional manner [in which] they went about their business and ultimately I'm very proud of them from that point of view.
"When the allegations first surfaced there was a lot of raw emotion around and we needed to let that subside but we didn't have a lot of time to do that. Once the emotion did subside, we as a group of players realised that the best option available to us was to play the game.
"We went into this game fully determined to play as well as we could."
A confrontation in the nets between the England batsman Jonathan Trott and the Pakistan reserve bowler Wahab Riaz did not help matters.
"It was an isolated incident," said Strauss. "It wasn't an ideal start to the day from either side's point of view but it has been dealt with and, on the back of it, the players from both sides reacted very well. There was some chat but I wasn't there."
Pakistan's coach, Waqar Younis, wanted to concentrate on Pakistan's fightback in the series.
"It's good that we concentrate on the game and I think it was a beautiful game of cricket," he said. "We are a very young side and we're developing into a good side, then this whole thing happened. Every morning when you pick up a paper … it's been tough. I'm so pleased the boys kept their cool today. I'm really proud of them."
Waqar appeared to be bemused by Butt's remarks. "He's given this statement and I don't really know what is behind that," he said. "We have come here to play cricket and my job is to try and deliver the goods. I don't want to get into what the chairman said."
Regarding the effect on his team, he said: "I've just told them the best answer to all of this is to play to your potential, which they have done. They've been accused and it's bad for the country. They have responded, which is what I wanted."
(source:guardian.co.uk)
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