England quickly diffused the tension on day four at Edgbaston as Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott guided the home side to a comfortable nine-wicket second Test victory.

The profitable wag of the Pakistan tail on Sunday had some people quietly entertaining thoughts of an upset in Birmingham. But despite the early loss of Alastair Cook England put in a composed display to snuff out any hopes of an upset, easing to their victory target an hour after lunch.

The morning began with Pakistan resuming their second innings 112 runs ahead. The pair of Umar Gul and Mohammad Asif would add just five more runs before Asif perished in the second over of the morning to Stuart Broad, edging away to Kevin Pietersen behind the wicket.

First job done for Andrew Strauss and company who kept their target down to a very gettable 118, with Pakistan reaching 296 all out in their second innings.

Early inroads were essential for Salman Butt and his men and they would have been eyeing a low-on-confidence Cook for the early breakthrough.

Somewhat predictably Cook's wretched run continued as he failed to get forward to a Mohammad Aamer delivery, which was full and moving back into the left-handed batsman. Aamer easily pierced the defence of Cook to see the ball cannon into the stumps.

At seven for one Pakistan had their glimmer of hope and were understandably pumped up. For England, however, there was no need to panic. A calm Jonathan Trott joined his captain at the crease and the pair were positive and composed as they continued to rotate the strike and edge the home side's score along.

Pakistan's bowling options were, off course, hampered by the injury to Umar Gul and so Butt was forced to employ Saeed Ajmal as early as the eight over, rotating his two quicks from the other end. Butt, though, would not have minded the early introduction of his off-spinner given his five-wicket impact in England's first innings.

And Ajmal it was who drew the first chance out of Strauss with the total on 17. The England captain rocked back to drive off the back foot and a thick edge was gloved by wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider. It was an extremely tough chance but, when defending only 118, that had to be taken.

Strauss quickly got himself back on track and he and Trott grafted through the rest of the session to take England safely to 71 for one at the lunch interval with the result very much in the bag.

The pair continued after the break in a similar vein and Strauss was again afforded a chance by Haider, once again off the bowling of Ajmal. The off-spinner had a further frustration shortly afterwards when Strauss survived a third chance off his bowling as Mohammad Asif failed to settle himself below a Strauss high ball.

Had either of those two chances been taken it would have made little difference to the ultimate result, with England on 77 and then 98 respectively at the time. But the double reprieve did allow Strauss, on 38 and then 43, to remain unbeaten and complete another Test half-ton.

Trott chugged along happily and reached a half century of his own as England passed the victory target with no fuss inside 37 overs, giving Andrew Strauss' men a 2-0 lead in the four-match series.

Defining Moment of the Day
Strauss was dropped with his score on 10 and the England total on 17. It was a really tough chance for Haider, but given the state of the game it had to be taken if Pakistan were to have any chance of triggering an England collapse. Because Strauss was playing off the back foot, the wicket-keeper had very little time to react and managed to get only the outside of his left glove to the chance.

Deilvery of the Day
Ajmal bowled a number of good deliveries without any reward but in the end the delivery of the day goes to Aamer for his length, which had Alastair Cook totally stranded. Bowling over the wicket the left-armer angled the ball into Cook and with a hint of movement off the track rearranged his stumps. It was the length as much as anything which flummoxed the batsman, Cook not knowing whether to go forward or back and in the end doing neither.

Shot of the Day
Jonathan Trott is often criticised for his slow scoring and his fidgeting at the crease but on Monday the England number three deserved nothing but praise for his calm and composed knock. Trott, on 19 and facing up to Asif, produced a truly magnificent piece of timing as he whipped a ball from off-stump through midwicket for four. It was the absolute ease and lack of effort with which Trott played the shot that made it such an attractive stroke to witness.

Doug Saxby