England V Pakistan

Flashdean

England won the toss and surprisingly opted to bat!

Tremlett in for Bresnan and pakistan went for Cheema over Riaz!
Bit of an odd decision but we'll see how it goes!

Flashdean

Cook gone 6th over chopped on off a Mohammed Hafeez slicer!

decies

I see it's available on five live sports extra on the Internet , usually away games are blocked, listening on I iPhone radio app.

Dozen Wicked Words

England pathetic so far, they can't play a spinner who's not spinning it. It was also an atrocious decision to only play one spinner. They just don't have the nuts to change their system. Monty played better than Swann in the warm up game but still missed out.

Management and team getting a wake up call from their smug self satisfaction.
Number one test team? Not on this showing.

TrueDub

dooferoaks wrote: »

England pathetic so far, they can't play a spinner who's not spinning it. It was also an atrocious decision to only play one spinner. They just don't have the nuts to change their system. Monty played better than Swann in the warm up game but still missed out.

Management and team getting a wake up call from their smug self satisfaction.
Number one test team? Not on this showing.

Two sessions and suddenly they're sh*t again? You don't work for an English tabloid, do you?

They're struggling, definitely, but it's a long game and a long series - the performance over the course of the series will tell a lot about their adaptability and their desire to hold onto that world ranking.

Dozen Wicked Words

TrueDub wrote: »

Two sessions and suddenly they're sh*t again? You don't work for an English tabloid, do you?

Unless you want everyone on the forum to either use their psychic power to see what happens in the future of a game or wait until the completion of a game before commenting.

I am stating my opinion on todays play by England, which, has been sh*t, and that England should have played a second spinner, which they didn't.

Why is that Tabloid?

TrueDub

dooferoaks wrote: »

Unless you want everyone on the forum to either use their psychic power to see what happens in the future of a game or wait until the completion of a game before commenting.

I am stating my opinion on todays play by England, which, has been sh*t, and that England should have played a second spinner, which they didn't.

Why is that Tabloid?

Because condemning an entire test and/or a selection system on the basis of 2 or 3 sessions' play is a bit of an over-reaction.

No psychic powers needed to say that the performance today has been poor to shocking. Saying that this therefore indicates the entire system is flawed is also an over-reaction.

However, you're entitled to say what you like, so feel free to ignore my call for calm.

Dozen Wicked Words

England all out for 192, Ajmal 7 for 55 and two other wickets to "spin" on a fairly flat track. Englands batsmen very rusty, interesting to see if Englands pace bowlers can do anything with this pitch, Swann is going to get a lot of overs under his belt at the other end.

dfx-

Pak 42-0

...

Washout

English commentators reckon Ajmal bends his arm thats why he wears long sleeves.

booth70

Washout wrote: »

English commentators reckon Ajmal bends his arm thats why he wears long sleeves.

To a certain extent I agree with Bob Willis....it is anatomically impossible to bowl the doosra without bending the elbow

.....But I wonder if Bob Willis would have queried his action or the length of his shirt sleeves had England finished Day 1 on 350 for 2:rolleyes:...its not like he has not played against England before?!

Anyways it was good to see Pakistan dominate day 1...the last thing one wanted to see was a one-sided series....an ideal first test for England in their quest for world dominance

Flashdean

Good last two sessions for England today!!

If they can keep the lead down to 120ish then its game on!! Classic days cricket in store tomorrow!

Renno

In fairness to Willis, he actually said that the Laws (or at least the interpretations of the Laws) now allow a straightening of the arm, which is needed for the off-spinner to bowl a doosra.

He then went on to say that surely English (and Irish as well to be honest) cricketers should be coached from a young age to have a greater degree of flexibility in their elbow. to allow us to produce better offspinners.

Vaughan was saying something similar on TMS as well, that all English off-spinners look lovely, nice pivot, very upright, well coached - but yet that is not what is needed.

I see it's available on five live sports extra on the Internet , usually away games are blocked, listening on I iPhone radio app.

And nothing to do with the cricket, but this is pretty interesting. I had always assumed that this was just a rights problem. But I can't imagine they would have specfically changed their internet rights policy just for the series. Which means either one of two things.

a. Because of the timing of the play (taking in the Morning Service, Today in Parliament and the Shipping Forecadst), the BBC thought they better have an alternative to Radio 4 LW

b. Or as part of the medium term strategy of turning off the Long Wave signal they have started to look at the alternatives for TMS, and see a de-restricted Five Live Sports Extra as the best option

Dozen Wicked Words

Pakistan have the mammouth task of 15 to win.

Edit: Unbelievably Pakistan managed to knock off the required runs without losing a wicket, and go one nil up in the series. Tens of people in the stadium applaud.

dfx-

Looking at the England scorecard, 15 would've been a push...Hafeez got all 15.

That alone is more than Morgan, Bell, Pietersen, Strauss, Cook and Prior got in the 2nd innings:)

I have to say I'm liking Pakistan under Misbah since seeing them win the tour in New Zealand last year.

booth70

dooferoaks wrote: »

Tens of people in the stadium applaud.

:D

If it wasn't for the Barmy Army this test featuring the no: 1 team in the world would have been played in front of an empty stadium:(:(

Very poor from England though.....thought they would struggle against spin like always but didn't expect this drubbing!

boksmashoffice

I have to say I was very suprised by how well Pakistan played. It would great to see a 3- 0 win. We shall see.

Washout

radio commentary now not available online

TrueDub

Washout wrote: »

radio commentary now not available online

If you have an app called TuneIn radio, you can get it there. I use it on an iphone.

Renno

Not sure what is happening with the Five Live Sports Extra feed. Listening on a Squeezebox this morning with no problems. TunedIn on the iphone was rights restricted though

darjeeling

This England line-up (Panesar in for Tremlett) is the one I'd have liked to see playing in the last match too. I don't think the result would have been different as England could only lose after batting so poorly, but the game might have been closer. Hopefully this match will be more competitive.

I got coverage on BBC Radio 4 LW today (198 KHz), though it was interrupted to make way for the scheduling sacred cows that are the Westminster round-up and the daily service.

dfx-

That last hour of play this afternoon was enthralling test cricket. Pressure on Prior, Broad and Swann to attack

booth70

Great test match so far...

If Pakistan can set England anything between 170 and 200 in the 4th innings this could be a classic

booth70

Pakistan finish Day 3 on 125/4....effectively 55/4....great resistance by the relatively inexperienced Ali and Shafiq

Sets it up nicely for tomorro if they can stretch their lead to 170+

dfx-

I think England will have them wrapped for under 150, but will that be enough. I wouldn't say so, but who knows..

Younis has been poor enough. I don't have much faith in Azhar Ali, so was pleasantly surprised to see him resist.

decies

Renno wrote: »

Not sure what is happening with the Five Live Sports Extra feed. Listening on a Squeezebox this morning with no problems. TunedIn on the iphone was rights restricted though

See my post http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056531708

booth70

Pakistan crawling at a run rate of just above 2 and yet its enthralling test cricket...

100 ahead with just 4 wkts left....England favourites now

booth70

Monty takes six:)......England need 145 to level series...

And to think England would not have played Monty had Tremlett been fit!!:(

mike65

Making seriously hard work of the reply, 3 for 33

booth70

WTF just happened???!!!!

Dozen Wicked Words

Very poor batting AGAIN from England, the bowlers were terrific and let down by an abject performance with the bat, Gooch and the batting coaches have a lot of work to do putting it mildly.

Well done to Pakistan but no international team should lose from the position England were in.

booth70

dooferoaks wrote: »

Well done to Pakistan but no international team should lose from the position England were in.

And certainly not when you are the no : 1 team in the world !!

Nowadays every team is no : 1 in the world as long as you are playing at home.......really makes you admire the great West Indian and Australian teams of the past and how they dominated in ALL conditions

Dozen Wicked Words

booth70 wrote: »

And certainly not when you are the no : 1 team in the world !!

Nowadays every team is no : 1 in the world as long as you are playing at home.......really makes you admire the great West Indian and Australian teams of the past and how they dominated in ALL conditions

Its very true, no one dominates Test cricket like they used to, in itself is a good thing, but I would love to see a team really make a good fist of trying to play in different conditions.

India havent bothered away from home, and England have been very poor in different conditions. Although I don't think conditions can justify some of the shot selection by the batsmen and particularly the middle order in these first two tests. 9 Batsmen scored 13 runs in the second innings today.

decies

Well done Pakistan . Come home Eoin Morgan they don't want you in their test side.

Dozen Wicked Words

decies wrote: »

Well done Pakistan . Come home Eoin Morgan they don't want you in their test side.

He was playing in this test, did as badly as most of the team.

booth70

England gave a perfect example of how not to chase a low total.....21 of the first 15 overs!!... and 8 of them overs were bowled by an opening batsman!!!

Strauss has not made a run in the last year and has pretty much lived off the successes of his team-mates.....surely at 35 he hasn't got much time left and England will need to start looking at a new opening partner for Cook

The less said about KP , Bell and Morgan the better....Bopara is not the answer...god knows he's had enough chances already!

Great to see Monty back in the team though:)

dfx-

Trott, Broad, Swann, Prior and Anderson - 5 wickets in 11 balls, a South Africa or a West Indies of a collapse:pac:

England won't do much to remedy it by focusing on replacing Morgan. Pietersen and Bell have both toured India in 2007 (?). They should be experienced, this is Morgan's first Test tour there.

Giggsy11

booth70 wrote: »

And certainly not when you are the no : 1 team in the world !!

Nowadays every team is no : 1 in the world as long as you are playing at home.......really makes you admire the great West Indian and Australian teams of the past and how they dominated in ALL conditions

2 of the best ever teams in the Cricket history. No team comes close to the Great WIndies and Aussie teams.

Thats why I said England are not dominating force that many said they are. They played well at home and thumped everyone, but to prove you are undisputed number 1 you should do the same on away grounds and most importantly on sub continent pitches which is the biggest test for the likes of English, Aussies and SA.

For now they are doing just what Indians have done, playing well on home grounds. (England did win against Australia but they were on mini crisis who even lost to NZ).

Rjd2

booth70 wrote: »

England gave a perfect example of how not to chase a low total.....21 of the first 15 overs!!... and 8 of them overs were bowled by an opening batsman!!!

hafeez to be fair is really good, he'd probably get into most teams for his bowling alone. If only he wasn't prone to gifting his wicket away when on the verge of a monster score, he would be an immense all rounder.

Probably will replace Misbah as captain in a few years as well.

booth70

England 6/1 in reply to Pakistan's 99 !!...What are the odds on this match finishing tomorrow?:D

kryogen

England are 9-2

Dozen Wicked Words

KP got out again to his favourite, good old left arm spin. Sky showed decision was very tight, and he was a bit unlucky, and if Trott had got his reviewed he would have still been in, for at least another ball or two anyway.

England 72 for 3.

Day ends on England 104 - 6, another poor display with the bat after the bowlers did so well.

booth70

I know SKY has daily highlights but does anyone know if there are higlights of the day's play on any terrestrial channel?

Dozen Wicked Words

No terrestrial highlights for this series unfortunately.

booth70

Pakistan 36 ahead with 8 wickets in hand.....Given how poorly England have handled spin I reckon Pakistan will feel confident about defending a lead of 100;)

booth70

Pakistan finish 180 ahead on 222/2......Looks like the wheels have well and truly come off for England on this tour....if they dont strike with the new ball early tomorrow I think a 3-0 thrashing beckons

dfx-

To be that far behind with so much time left and Misbah to bat yet, you fear that England's bowlers might be there for a while yet.

Slow grind, Azhar Ali and Misbah would be an awesome partnership to see pound England into extremely slow submission

booth70

England 36/0 chasing 324.....If England get a good start tomorrow this could still be a cracking finish

Batsy

It wouldn't suprise me if the Pakistanis are up to no good again behind the scenes. A Daily Mail sports writer, at the start of the First Test, noticed that one or two Pakistani bowlers may have been bowling illegally.

booth70

It was Ajmal 'chucking' in the first test
It was Trott getting the 'runs' in the second test

Wonder what excuse the English will come up with for the third test?!....The DRS I bet!!:rolleyes:

Well played Pakistan....thoroughly deserved 3-0 whitewash

Giggsy11

Cook and Trott averaged around 27 runs. (Cook with SR of 30). 5 Pakistan batsmen bettered that average.

Panesar took more wickets in 2 tests than Swann took in 3 tests.

Ajmal took twice the number of wickets than Swann and Rehman outperformed Swann by miles.