England’s fate was sealed midway through the evening session as they succumbed to a 71-run defeat in the third Test with Pakistan to complete a humiliating 3-0 whitewash.

Andrew Strauss’ side started day four with an outside chance of chasing the 324 runs required to win the final match in Dubai, but as in the previous two encounters,  they collapsed.

Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal took four wickets a-piece, Alastair Cook and Matt Prior top-scored with 49 for the world’s No 1 Test side.

But Kevin Pietersen (18), Ian Bell (10) and Eoin Morgan (31) all failed to build big scores once again.

The defeat doesn’t dislodge England from the top of the Test rankings, but they will drop down if South Africa whitewash New Zealand in their forthcoming series in March.
Courtesy by Mail online