Afridi swept Giles for six in his 54-ball fifty

In the end, it was hardly a contest as Pakistan wrapped up a series-levelling win by eight wickets with more than five overs to spare.

To add to their problems, the England bowlers and fielders came under siege from a fog of unsavoury looking bugs in the sweltering heat of the Gaddafi Stadium.

The best-of-three series will be decided in Rawalpinidi on Monday.

All in all, it was not a good day to be a tourist.

The fielders turned up their collars to stop the creepy crawlies crawling down their shirts, while the bowlers resorted to wearing sun glasses as they toiled under the floodlights to stop the insects getting into their eyes.

Though the conditions were uncomfortable, the roots of England's defeat lay in the batsmen's inability to make the most of another very good pitch.

No surprise

Pakistan showed the surface in its true light by barely breaking sweat in chasing down England's modest 211-9 in 44.2 overs.

Initially, Saeed Anwar had been the Pakistan aggressor in reaching 41 from 59 balls, but when he fell to a fine catch by a diving Graham Thorpe at square leg off Ashley Giles, Afridi assumed complete control.

Fourteen runs came off one Giles over, including a swept six over midwicket. A drilled four into the sightscreen off Hick - his seventh - took him to his 50.

Craig White wipes the moths from his eyes

For a batsman with the record for the quickest one-day hundred ever - 37 balls, against Sri Lanka - Afridi's eventual demise was disappointingly tame.

Looking to turn Giles to the on side, he was caught off the leading edge by Thorpe in the covers, having scored 61 from 69 balls.

By then, however, England's spirit had been broken and Saleem Elahi (58no) and Yousuf Youhana (40no) were able to take Pakistan to their target with few alarms.

Distant memory

As Nasser Hussain became ever more defensive in his field placings, the purpose with which England set out for the win that would give them an unassailable 2-0 series lead became a distant memory.

Indeed, it was that aggression that cost them wickets as successive batsmen paid the price for attempting to emulate the high scores that made for a memorable opening match in Karachi.

From a position of strength at 116-1 in the 26th over, England subsided to Afridi's subtle, but incisive, changes in pace, at one stage losing six wickets for 25 runs.

Undaunted

Trescothick gave England something to bowl at

That England at least had some sort of total to attempt to defend was down, in large part, to Trescothick.

Despite watching his opening partner, Alec Stewart, pay for his aggression with his wicket when he was stumped attempting to sweep Mushtaq Ahmed, Trescothick was undeterred in looking to take the attack to the bowlers at the start of the innings.

An early flourish in Abdur Razzaq's second over brought him a driven four and six as the bowler overpitched.

And when Mushtaq just failed to direct his googly where he had intended, Trescothick picked the variation and put it away to the boundary to reach his half-century from 50 balls.

Just when England were looking to the left-hander to bat through the innings, however, Trescothick chipped Afridi to midwicket for 65 from 74 balls.

Mixed bag

Stewart scored a mixed bag of 22 from 34 balls

From the outset, Trescothick's assurance was in marked contrast to Stewart's mixed bag of 22 from 34 balls.

When Mushtaq was introduced to the attack in the 13th over, Stewart set himself to attack the leg spinner's first ball by heaving to leg.

Having failed to make contact, he attempted to make his ground with his right boot only for Moin Khan to whip the bails off in a flash.

Even then, the third umpire, Afzaal Ahmed, took an age before confirming what Moin's jubiliant reaction had always suggested was a legitimate stumping.

Testing times

Significantly, Mushtaq's first ball had spun appreciably and he went on to complete a wicket maiden as Nasser Hussain looked all at sea against the leg spinner.

In the first one-day international, in Karachi, Mushtaq had struggled to control the ball, as had all the Pakistani bowlers, in heavy dew.

Shahid Afridi takes the first of five wickets

Hussain, who continued to poke around, took 62 balls for his first 27 runs, having earlier came through a fitness test on his damaged wrist.

Eventually, he reached his fifty from 82 balls but he should have been caught by Wasim Akram at long off on 53 when the former Pakistan captain dropped a sitter.

Afridi responded by bowling Graham Thorpe with his very next ball and, in his next over, tempting Hussain to his fate as he charged at a well-flighted leg break.

Schoolboy error

Craig White departed in a similar manner to give Moin a world record 64th stumping.

And when Giles was bowled by a quicker ball from that almost touched 78 mph, the leg spinner completed career-best figures.

Andrew Flintoff, the hero of Karachi, was bowled by Saqlain Mushtaq. But the dismissal that seemed to sum up a disappointing England performance was Graeme Hick's.

Hick committed a schoolboy error by being run out after failing to ground his bat.

Life would become hard enough for England as it was without handing the opposition giftwrapped wickets.

Teams:

Pakistan: Moin Khan (captain), Inzamam-ul-Haq (vice captain), Saeed Anwar, Salim Elahi, Shahid Afridi, Yousuf Youhanna, Azhar Mahmood, Abdur Razzak, Wasim Akram, Saqlain Mushtaq and Mushtaq Ahmed.

England: Nasser Hussain (captain), Alec Stewart, Marcus Trescothick, Graham Thorpe, Graeme Hick, Andrew Flintoff, Craig White, Andrew Caddick, Darren Gough, Ashley Giles and Mark Ealham.

Umpires: Mohammad Nazir and Alem Dar.

TV Umpire: Afzaal Ahmed.

ICC Match Referee: Barry Jarman.