Strauss (4) departed to the fourth ball of the innings, caught at second slip off Mohammad Amir. The under-pressure Alastair Cook was yet to score with nightwatchman James Anderson on 2.

Pakistan leads by 69, having established a 75-run first-innings advantage.

Ali, playing his fifth Test, batted for 250 minutes and scored 14 boundaries — six of them coming in a precious 10th-wicket partnership of 38 with Mohammad Asif that frustrated England. Asif was dropped early by Strauss at first slip off Steven Finn.

Off-spinner Graeme Swann finished with 4-68, including his 100th Test wicket, that of Mohammad Yousuf, who made 56 in his first test innings in seven months.

Swann, currently third in the world test bowling rankings, was controversially omitted from the International Cricket Council's 16-man annual awards list on Wednesday but was added Thursday after the ICC admitted an oversight by its selection committee.

After losing at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston, Pakistan needs to win the match to avoid defeat in the series, while England is seeking a seventh straight Test victory.

Nightwatchman and debutant Wahab Riaz, who claimed 5-63 on Wednesday, impeded England's progress at the start of the day, scoring 27 in a stay at the crease just short of two hours. He eventually was lbw to Swann, using up a referral in the process.

Yasir Hameed (36) and captain Salman Butt (17) were the other batsmen out before lunch. Hameed was out to the second ball of the day, deflected a thin edge to wicketkeeper Matt Prior off the bowling of Finn without adding to his overnight score.

Butt was dropped on 4 when he cut Anderson to Eoin Morgan at backward point, but he was gone shortly afterward, edging Swann through to Prior off a short delivery that should probably have been dispatched to the boundary.

The afternoon belonged to Yousuf, who was ably supported by Ali. Yousuf eased back to his vintage best - never more evident than when he clipped a leg-stump delivery from Anderson nonchalantly over midwicket for four. When Anderson was replaced next over, Finn was driven through cover for another boundary.

Yousuf missed the second test with jetlag having flown in from Pakistan the day before, after agreeing to end his self-imposed retirement. His current effort may spark questions as to whether an under-prepared Yousuf would still have been suitable in that game, when Pakistan was bowled out for 72.

The presence of Yousuf seemed to inspire Ali, who labored at Edgbaston in making a 32-ball duck in the first innings and 19 from 82 in the second.

When Yousuf accelerated, Finn was the first to suffer. He drove a full length delivery through extra cover for four and in the same over glided a boundary to third man having identified that third slip and gully had been removed to stem the runs elsewhere. He scampered a quick single off the last ball of that over to reach 50.

His innings was halted when he attempted his first clear attacking stroke against Swann, who had changed his line to around the wicket.

Yousuf was visibly distraught at losing his patience, but the moment showed that Swann is England's man for a crisis, as he ended a promising fifth-wicket stand of 69 with a catch off his own bowling.

Umar Akmal played to type for his frenetic 38 in 50 balls before he ran himself out. His brother Kamran (10) was caught by Morgan off Stuart Broad, who also accounted for Amir (6).

Ali reached his second half-century in tests with a boundary carved through cover off the back foot to Anderson before helping to further swell Pakistan's lead with several big hits late in the innings, even when the outfield was spread to allow him singles.