***Official*** Pakistan and England in UAE

[Agent Nationaux]

That was selfish. Should have let Gul have had a go.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Haha, that sort of approach doesn't work. The way you maximise runs is by scoring more runs.

Guess what? Sometimes the bowler wins the battle and all you can do is see him off. I can't believe anyone would argue that the best way to play this attack is to play more shots. The two batsmen who have had the most success have been Hussey and Dravid, who when they're in prime touch know exactly where their off stump is and are very careful about what to play and what to leave. Those batsmen who compulsively drive at everything tend to find themselves constantly dismissed for low scores.

I can't believe after all of the success Pakistan as a team and Misbah as a batsman have had in the last year and a bit that there are still dolts who clearly watch too much T20 and try and argue that Misbah's methods are wrong.

If you do not see the difference in batting style between Hussey, Dravid and that of Misbah, then either you are genuinely dumb or just pretending to be dumb for reasons known to you.

I am not suggesting Misbah should bat T20 style. The weakness he has is his inability to pick up singles.. He goes into a shell and blocks at everything regardless of the delivery or the match situation. This is exactly what he did in the semi final and this is his approach because he has no other way which I explained in the earlier post. Both Hussey and Dravid, when on song are great at keeping the scoreboard ticking without playing T20 style or clearing the left leg which is the only way Misbah knows.

 

[Fusion]

All over. We're ****ed. Well bowled England.

 

[Spark]

He may throw it away on 20/30 odd, but Pakistan have to get Umar Akmal into the team in these conditions.

For whom? You'd think that Azhar and Asad had secured their places in this match.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

So Monty gets 6. Great comeback.

145 should be easy but stranger things have happened.

Bell at 3 with Trott ill?

 

[Neil Pickup]

That is the worst #11 shot I have seen since Shaun Tait decided to go three yards outside off stump and paddle sweep Steve Harmison in the 05 Ashes.

If there was any doubt whether Junaid would be dropped, I think that seals it. If a 10-year-old in one of my sides did that, I'd be furious, so I can only imagine what Mohsin feels...

 

[Eds]

6-62. Wafg.

 

[Furball]

Perhaps. But you go with conventional wisdom and offer the new ball to your best pacer.

Depends. If you subscribe to the theory that you do what the opposition least wants you to do, then Ajmal opens.

 

[Prince EWS]

For whom? You'd think that Azhar and Asad had secured their places in this match.

Taufeeq is a possibility but he hit a double ton a few Tests ago and is averaging about 50 since his recall, so it'd be a little harsh.

The other options are giving him the gloves, or going with a four man attack (including Hafeez), neither of which seem like great ideas to me.

I just don't get the huge push for him to play though, personally. He's not that good; not yet anyway. It's far more stupid that Fawad Alam is not playing.

 

[NasserFan207]

Junaid needs a tenfer to make up for that shot

 

[ganeshran]

Monty WAG

 

[Quaggas]

Come on, some more 6's please

6fer - superb

Your wish is my command.

 

[ganeshran]

Pakistan could still give England a run for their money. They are experts at defending low totals

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Can't get rid of Adnan, who is a very good keeper I think.

 

[Howe_zat]

I have never said scoring runs is not valuable. Your inability to understand the subtle difference in batting the way Misbah does and batting the way say someone like Younis or Trott does actually explains why you are made this post in the first place. My issue is not with scoring runs or not scoring runs. My point was, because Misbah is not good at keeping the scoreboard ticking, without taking risks, he costs Pakistan about 30-40 runs in the middle when Pakistan have about 6-7 wickets left.

I'll try to ignore the personal business. This isn't a nonesensical point, but it is a wildly exaggerated one. Misbah doesn't rotate the strike much, that doesn't mean he doesn't do it at all. He certainly doesn't hog the strike from a partner in any deliberate sense.

Even if he was holding the strike from his partner, he's perfectly justified in that action most of the time, as he's scoring a great deal more runs than most of his batting partners right now.

It is true that batting partnerships win you matches, not hundreds - which if anything aids Misbah's case, as the vast majority of non-opening partnerships from Pakistan in the last 18 months or so have had Misbah at one end.

"30-40 runs" is a huge exaggeration. There is some point here, and I would perhaps accept 5-10 runs as the potential cost. In any case, a man averaging 75 more than makes up for it.

The problem with Misbah is that he only knows two ways of batting..either go into a shell and block everything, or clear your left leg and smash the for a six. None of them are a sustainable approach for a top order batsmen and definitely not for a top order batsman who happens to be a captain. As a result he always finds himself running out of partners. There is a reason why he has so many scores of 80s and 70s in the last few innings he has played.

Misbah is not a top-order batsman, and scoring plenty of 70-80s does very nicely for a number 5. More to the point, there are countless very good Test batsmen who have limited strokeplay. Decision-making is just as vital a skill.

Any other top order batsman facing the same number of balls would have scored at least 25-30 more runs.

That's just silly, how many batsmen can you assume would have faced the same number of balls? Not to mention this completely contradicts your earlier assertion that "My issue is not with scoring runs or not scoring runs".

Now you might not see what's wrong with scoring 70s and 80s every match because at least he is scoring runs. Fair enough. I identify that as a problem that will hurt Pakistan from time to time..it did not effect them when England were 190 all out but it will when they score 327.

When your entire team fails to make more than 260 twice, the man making 80 every match is not to blame. Not by a long way.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Howe_zat and B_W, try not to make it personal please.

I would advise you to read the last few pages and it will be clear who started it.

 

[NasserFan207]

Also brilliant from Monty, should seal his place for the rest of this tour and maybe beyond

 

[Neil Pickup]

If we don't get these then we don't deserve to win the series. A studio full of glass-half-empty merchants really isn't what I want to hear here, Sky. We get out there and get on with it.

How many times has 145 or below been defended?

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Misbah should just attack. No point of a defensive field when defending 144.

 

[Cevno]

For whom? You'd think that Azhar and Asad had secured their places in this match.

I'd have him over either over a series tbh, and probably over Taufeeq too(though being a opener saves him.)

Not likely to happen after this match, i agree.