England have made a poor start to the third test against Pakistan, being held at the Oval, going down to 70/5 by Lunch after Andrew Strauss won the toss and opted to bat.

All eyes were on Strauss and especially on fellow opener Alastair Cook, who has so far yet to make a significant score at the crease in this series.

Any hopes that this might change were quickly dashed when Cook edged a ball from Mohammad Asif to Kamran Akmal on the last ball of his first over at the crease, having scored just six runs.

Cook's poor innings however proved to be the norm amongst England's batsmen. Strauss managed to score just 15 after a referral which found that he was caught behind by Akmal, making him Wahab Riaz's first test wicket.

Riaz struck again shortly after drinks, with Jonathan Trott getting a thick edge on the ball which went straight into the hands of Yasir Hameed. Trott was gone after scoring just 12 runs, England were down to 40/3.

Paul Collingwood managed to score five runs before, like a lamb to the slaughter, he was bowled out by Mohammad Amir.

This left relative newcomer Eoin Morgan at the crease with Kevin Pietersen. Pietersen managed to stay on the field for a while, but only managed to score six, when, just before lunch Riaz bowled in another ball which was again edged to Akmal.

As the players went off for lunch Morgan was on 17, making him England's highest scorer so far in this innings, and Matthew Prior the wicketkeeper had come on and is yet to score.

England currently lead the series by two tests to none.

Pakistan Storm