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.