England faced a big battle to save the third and final Test against Pakistan after Mohammad Yousuf (223) and Kamran Akmal (154) featured in a record-breaking partnership on the fourth day on Friday.
Ian Bell (60 not out) and Paul Collingwood (37 not out) steered England to 121 for two at close after Pakistan declared on 636 for eight in reply to England's first innings of 288.
England trail Pakistan by 227 and need to bat out the final day to avoid a 2-0 defeat in the three-match series.
Bell and Collingwood settled into a fighting stand of 91 after Shoaib Akhtar trapped Marcus Trescothick leg before for a duck and then caught and bowled Michael Vaughan (13) who hit back a slower full toss.
Pakistan are poised for their first Test series win in two years. England face the prospect of losing their first series in the same period but Bell was optimistic about saving the match.
He said: "It is still a very good wicket to bat on. Our target is to bat long for the whole day tomorrow.
"Honestly speaking we didn't get enough runs in the first innings on this wicket. But we will now try and fight hard to draw the match."
Bad light ended play 23 overs short on Friday bringing the total number lost in the match to 69.2.
The marathon Pakistan innings was illuminated by a 269-run partnership by Yousuf and Akmal, the highest for the sixth wicket by Pakistan against any country.
Captain Inzamam-ul-Haq added 97 to continue his golden run of form. He reached 1,000 runs in the year in eight Tests and became the 14th player to surpass 8,000 runs.
| |||||||||||
Yousuf fell when he lofted Shaun Udal towards long-on where Kevin Pietersen took the catch. Akmal was caught at short mid-wicket by Vaughan off a tired looking shot.
Pakistan's first innings total was their highest against England at home, beating the previous record of 569-7 declared at Hyderabad in 1972/73.
Scorecard:
England 1st innings: 288
Pakistan 1st innings (overnight 446-5):
Shoaib Malik c Plunkett b Hoggard 0
Salman Butt c Jones b Plunkett 28
Asim Kamal lbw b Hoggard 5
Mohammad Yousuf c Pietersen b Udal 223
Inzamam-ul-Haq run out 97
Hasan Raza c Flintoff b Harmison 21
Shoaib Akhtar c Udal b Plunkett 38
Kamran Akmal c Vaughan b Flintoff 154
Rana Naved-ul-Hasan not out 42
Extras (b5, lb12, nb7, w4) 28
Total (for 8 wkts decl in 156.2 overs) 636
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-12, 3-68, 4-180, 5-247, 6-516, 7-546, 8-636.
Bowling: Hoggard 23-4-106-2, Flintoff 36-8-111-1, Harmison 43-3-154-1, Plunkett 28.2-1-125-2, Udal 18-1-92-1, Collingwood 6-0-22-0, Bell 2-0-9-0.
England 2nd innings:
M Trescothick lbw b Akhtar 0
M Vaughan c and b Akhtar 13
I Bell batting 42
P Collingwood batting 22
Extras (b-4, nb-2, w-1) 7
Total (for 2 wkts in 27 overs) 84
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-30.
Bowling: Akhtar 8-0-32-2, Naved 9-1-39-0, Sami 6-4-7-0, Malik 2-1-1-0, Kaneria 2-1-1-0.
