Pakistan seals England series

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England's Monty Panesar claps after bowling Pakistan's Junaid Khan during their second cricket test match at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi yesterday.

Leftarm spinner Abdur Rehman grabbed 6-25 to shoot out England for 72 and clinch a 72-run victory over the world's top-ranked test side in Abu Dhabi yesterday, also sealing a series victory on the fourth day of the second test.

The victory earned Pakistan an unassailable 2-0 win in the three-match series with the last match to be played at Dubai next week where England was beaten by 10 wickets in the first test.

England never looked in real pursuit of the 145-run victory target after Pakistan was bowled out for 214 with only Andrew Strauss (32) and Matt Prior (18) reaching double figures.

It was England's lowest ever score in test matches against Pakistan.

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq deployed his slow bowlers from the outset after Pakistan was bowled out for 214 midway after lunch - for an overall lead of 144 runs.

Alastair Cook had a torrid 45 minutes before Mohammad Hafeez caught a clean low catch as the ball flew back to him off the leading edge.

England had to shuffle its batting order after Jonathan Trott could not bat at his usual No. 3 position due to a stomach upset that kept him away from the field in the morning. Strauss got the solitary boundary of the session when he cut Ajmal to point boundary in an otherwise abject display of batting from world No.1 ranked team.

Recalled spinner Monty Panesar had earlier taken six wickets for 62 before Pakistan tailenders frustrated England for nearly two and a half hours.

Pakistan resumed at 125-4 in foggy conditions but kept the scoreboard ticking against some disciplined bowling from Panesar and Graeme Swann.

Meanwhile in Adelaide, charges of complacency aimed at India are only likely to intensify after it fell to a crushing 0-4 series whitewash in Australia and an eighth successive loss in overseas tests yesterday.

The news conference after a fourth emphatic defeat in the series, this time by 298 runs, opened with the team's media manager denying reports back home that a "senior player" - namely Rahul Dravid - would be retiring.

It continued with stand-in captain Virender Sehwag suggesting that all teams suffer poor runs of form and India should just put the humiliating reverse by behind them.

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