Panesar's second five-wicket return for his country this summer helped to reduce the tourists to 194 for eight midway through the evening session. The tourists were therefore still 148 runs short of making the hosts bat again and staring at defeat in a match which has seen slow left-armer Panesar and fast bowler Stephen Harmison hog the wickets for England.

Barring a first-innings runout, Panesar (five for 61) and Harmison have been responsible for all the Pakistan departures . . . although it was the former who dominated today with an outstanding exhibition of slow bowling on a helpful surface.

Spin success is no longer the norm at a ground where 50 years ago Jim Laker famously took 19 of the 20 Australian wickets to fall.

In fact, Panesar's is only the sixth instance of a five-for by a spinner since 1977 . . . even accounting for Manchester exploits of Shane Warne over the years. There were some big wickets in Panesar's bag too today . . . including Mohammad Yousuf and Inzamamul-Haq in the space of 18 balls soon after lunch.

He struck with the first ball of the afternoon via a classic piece of spin bowling, and a very handy piece of wicketkeeping from Geraint Jones.

Yousuf was drawn into a slightly unbalanced forwarddefensive shot; Jones collected the turn after the bat was beaten and then nipped off the bails.