LONDON, (Reuters) – England swept the feeble Pakistan  batting aside yesterday to move within sight of a series  victory after a spirited comeback in the fourth and final test  at Lord’s.

At the close of the third day, Pakistan following on after  they had collapsed to 74 all out, were 41 for four in their  second innings, still trailing England by 331. England lead the  series 2-1.

England, 102 for seven at one stage in their first innings  on Friday, reached 446 all out after a world-record  eighth-wicket partnership of 322 between Jonathan Trott (184)  and Stuart Broad (169).

Trott, his monumental concentration never faltering in more  than nine hours at the crease, reached his 150 from the first  ball he faced after play resumed on a crisp, sunny morning  before a capacity crowd.

Broad stood tall to drive the ball with a full  follow-through and took two boundaries in an over from Mohammad  Asif as the pair moved serenely past the previous eighth-wicket  record of 313 set by Pakistan’s Wasim Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq  against Zimbabwe in 1996.

They looked like taking their team through to lunch without  further loss when Broad was dismissed lbw missing a sweep  against off-spinner Saeed Ajmal. He had batted for 6-1/2 hours  in the third-highest innings recorded by an England left-hander  at Lord’s.

Trott, who drove firmly through the off-side and clipped the  ball neatly off his legs, followed soon after the break when he  was caught behind to give Wahab Riaz his first wicket of the  match. Following his 226 against Bangladesh this year he had  come within 16 runs of becoming the first man to score two  double-hundreds at Lord’s

SWANN STRIKES
Bounding in from the Pavilion end, Broad dismissed Yasir  Hameed for two then yorked Pakistan’s best batsman Mohammad  Yousuf for a duck.

Captain Salman Butt stroked three boundaries off a Steven  Finn over to give Pakistan a brief respite before the  introduction of Graeme Swann sparked a terminal decline.

Swann immediately got the ball to grip and turn, bowling  Butt for 26 with his first delivery after tea and capturing  three more cheap wickets to finish with four for 12.

Finn, switching to the Pavilion end, found his length to  finish with three for 38. Pakistan’s total was their second  lowest against England following their 72 in the second test at  Edgbaston this year.

Following on, Pakistan lost both openers Imran Farhat (5)  and Hameed (3) with the score still in single figures.     Butt again looked fluent and again punished Finn until he  pushed forward to a straight delivery from Swann and was lbw for  21. Yousuf followed for 10 without any addition to the score,  when he lobbed Finn to Trott at deep square-leg.

As Yousuf was returning slowly to the Pavilion, a rain  shower swept the ground and play was called off for the day.