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

[screamingfields]

This is how Younis has always played spin and will continue to because he is a class player of spin. The English batsmen on the other hand can't just change their technique overnight simply because they saw Younis play a masterful innings.

England overused their spinners. They even brought Trott in at the end. Just bowl a straight line, length, England should have no chance. Let the ball do the talking.

 

[ganeshran]

I reckon 250-270 is still a chaseable target on day 4. But once the lead crosses 300, it will be very difficult for poms to chase it down.

 

[Z-Man]

 

[TumTum]

What happened here?

I like how he's got his little finger out as he's holding the bottle

 

[Woodster]

Think this was an English review to an LBW appeal given not out, Swann bowled it and Hawkeye showed it going over the top. Trott clearly didn't agree, funny reaction.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Trott couldn't believe that the ball would have gone over the stumps since there wasn't much bounce.

 

[Burgey]

What happened here?

I like how he's got his little finger out as he's holding the bottle

Lol, that's quality. Looks like he's sampling a decent Sauvignon Blanc.

 

[CWB304]

I reckon 250-270 is still a chaseable target on day 4. But once the lead crosses 300, it will be very difficult for poms to chase it down.

Don't know whether to laugh or cry when I read this sort of rubbish. Three of England's top six might as well be walking out to bat armed with toothpicks, and you're claiming the team can chase 270? How? To chase that Trott, Strauss, Cook, Prior and Broad - some of whom have allowed Bell, Pietersen and Morgan's hesitancy and cluelessness to infect their games - would realistically need to cobble together 250 runs between them against Gul, Ajmal, Rehman and Hafeez. It's not going to happen.

 

[Woodster]

Don't know whether to laugh or cry when I read this sort of rubbish. Three of England's top six might as well be walking out to bat armed with toothpicks, and you're claiming the team can chase 270? How? To chase that Trott, Strauss, Cook, Prior and Broad - some of whom have allowed Bell, Pietersen and Morgan's hesitancy and cluelessness to infect their games - would realistically need to cobble together 250 runs between them against Gul, Ajmal, Rehman and Hafeez. It's not going to happen.

Cricket does throw these surprises up every now and then, that's why we'll all be watching it even if we're set 400, because we dare to dream, the mere idea that the unthinkable really can become reality. Generally this series it's only taken a session with the bat to dash our hopes, but there you go. It's unlikely our batsmen will pull off a chase in excess of 250 judging by their performances in this series to date, yet Younis Khan was also unlikely to be the first man to three figures in the series judging by his efforts in the past couple of weeks.

 

[Jacknife]

To restore any sort of pride, the bowlers are going to have to have a very good morning session, which tbf is when most wicket seem to fall, restrict them to next to **** this morning and the the batsmen are going to after show what their made of, serious backs to the wall, lets at least see one good all round batting performance. Tbf this very rarely happens when you've got a team down but still here's hoping.

 

[Woodster]

Yes I still believe! Will take a big effort in the morning, it is looking a flat and slow deck at the moment, good use of the new cherry is crucial. It does look flat at the moment but may not look the same when Ajmal and Rehman get going on it and our batsmen begin to look ponderous. Still, Strauss has found a bit of nick and will hopefully lead from the front.

 

[Burgey]

It's trite to say it, but the key to England putting up a decent effort in the second dig must be a better approach to playing the spinners, most of all looking to score down the ground. They've nothing to lose, the series is gone. They've tried riding out Ajmal el al and its been abject. They've stood and waited for the ball to come along which has their name on it.

Surely this next dig they'll look to attack and put the onus back on the bowlers. I can't fathom them trying the same failed approach. Would be crazy.

 

[Jacknife]

It's trite to say it, but the key to England putting up a decent effort in the second dig must be a better approach to playing the spinners, most of all looking to score down the ground. They've nothing to lose, the series is gone. They've tried riding out Ajmal el al and its been abject. They've stood and waited for the ball to come along which has their name on it.

Surely this next dig they'll look to attack and put the onus back on the bowlers. I can't fathom them trying the same failed approach. Would be crazy.

They've got to, it's the only way if their going to have any chance at all. Put the onus on Misbah to change his fields and remove some of the close in fielders, make the spinners think about what lengths their bowling, at the very least make it harder for them.

 

[Woodster]

Albeit unsuccessfully, but you can see the batsmen were intent on attempting to be more positive in the first innings. KP played his shots and looked in decent touch, both Bell and Morgan skipped down the track and hit over the top. Like I say it didn't work, but should they manage to get themselves in and set then hopefully we can put something more respectable on the board.

There was one worrying delivery from yesterday from Panesar that pitched on line with the stumps, went through the top, turned sharply and bounced. There didn't seem much assistance other than that but we don't need things like that happening if we're going to chase whatever target we're set down.

 

[Spark]

Fine piece on the common tendency of cricket watchers to mistake good cricket with "character" and v. v.

A Cricketing View: On Tests of Character

Similarly, I'm sure Alistair Cook knows that England have been losing because they have been found out technically by Pakistan's spinners - they can't read Ajmal from the hand, and Rehman's nagging accuracy has been bothersome. It is not because they lack "character".

It is not England's "character" which will be tested in the 4th innings at Dubai (as much as it turns the whole thing into a nice human interest story), it is their ability to bat in Test Cricket against spin bowling that will be tested.

What these results show is not the fact that players lack character, but the fact that Test teams are not, by and large, good enough to beat other teams in foreign conditions. Every team is strong at Home, and not so strong Away from home. Nothing illustrates this more than the astonishingly indifferent shot Cook played in England's first innings at Dubai. It was a poke to nothing, away from the body, with no hope of getting any serious runs (may be a single if it went far enough away from point). It was the sort of shot that one would not expect Alistair Cook to play. This is the same Alistair Cook who was leaving the ball so immaculately, even at the end of the day after having batted all day, during his 294 at Birmingham against England.

 

[nightprowler10]

Nah, bat all day unless rain's forecast. Boot on the throat and all that. Frankly I think Pakistan already have enough, but why on earth take that chance?

Nah I meant we gotta try not to get dismissed before at least two sessions are over.

 

[Daemon]

Don't know whether to laugh or cry when I read this sort of rubbish. Three of England's top six might as well be walking out to bat armed with toothpicks, and you're claiming the team can chase 270? How? To chase that Trott, Strauss, Cook, Prior and Broad - some of whom have allowed Bell, Pietersen and Morgan's hesitancy and cluelessness to infect their games - would realistically need to cobble together 250 runs between them against Gul, Ajmal, Rehman and Hafeez. It's not going to happen.

You know, I used to like you. Up until that last sentence where you excluded Cheema.

 

[Black_Warrior]

My argument only loses all credibility in a parallel universe in which I have said what you are trying to claim I said. Clearly you either have major reading comprehension problems or are one of those tedious people one occasionally encounters on Internet forums who prefers to argue against not other people's genuine positions but ones they have invented at random for their own benefit, i.e. "straw men".

I have made clear on a number of occasions not only that I do not rate Morgan as a Test class batsman but that I couldn't care less whether or not he's replaced. I never said he ought to be retained, but that I would drop KP and Bell BEFORE dropping him because dropping them and finding reliable batters for the 4 and 5 slots would go further to solving England's batting problems than making a meh change like plugging in Bopara for Morgan.

The point I have been hammering away at in multiple posts is that dropping an inexperienced number 6 batsman, who has not played this quality of spin bowling in these sorts of conditions before and from whom - given those circumstances - any reasonable selector would have looked upon significant scoring contributions as a bonus, is absolutely the wrong response when infinitely more experienced nos. 4 and 5 batsmen, upon whom the team really are counting for runs, are doing no better (averaging around 10 runs apiece).

If a reputable surveyor told you that your house was structurally undermined, and needed to be reinforced or it would collapse, would you spend your remaining money on this critical reinforcement work, or think, "no, I'll wing it; I reckon I can get another few years out of this structure yet", and spend money you could have spent reinforcing the building on a fancy firm of interior decorators?

Responding to England's atrociously inept batting on this tour by replacing Morgan is like spending money on the posh interior decorating firm rather than on the structure itself. Fixing NECESSARY elements like KP (4) and Bell (5) is a far greater priority than replacing one CONTINGENT element who may or may not come good in Morgan with another one in Bopara or whoever.

Morgan is batting at six, FFS! Each time he's been called out to bat, much better and more experienced players than him have already failed miserably,swearing at the heavens, cursing the umpires and DRS, and generally doing everything BUT facing up to their own inadequacies as they walked back to the pavilion. Notwithstanding the fact that I don't rate Morgan and think he should be axed, I reckon that making him a scapegoat when others who should have been better equipped to succeed than him have failed just as miserably would be bloody unfair.

Broad has just come of age; he has worked hard and for me now has the tools to change Test matches on a consistent basis with both bat and ball. That is what an all rounder is and that is why for me he could become the first genuine allrounder since the great 80s quartet (Flintoff for a variety of reasons couldn't do it consistently; Kallis' bowling has never really been more than fourth seamer stuff; Watson for me is decent but doesn't really have the wow factor a true allrounder should have).

The guy has been absolute brilliant on this tour; his bowling has been world class and his 58* was the most convincing England batting performance I've seen so far. I honestly reckon he could have got a century had not Bell and Prior wasted reviews which meant that Monty couldn't review the poor decision he copped.

Yet Broad may as well have not bothered, for all the support he's had from the likes of Bell and KP. If he's pissed off with the batters, you can be sure his ire is not directed at Morgan, but at 4 and 5, who have contributed nothing. I predicted their poor performance and was called stupid by people like you. I also predicted that even when they continued to be inept right to the bitter end, mugs like you would retort with the old "they're just having a bad series" shtick. It's not your fault, so keep going. Keep pretending that I have said what I haven't said:

"Look at that moron, he thinks Morgan is better than KP or Bell!" (s******, s******)

Those who have actually read my posts, and are intelligent enough to understand what I've written, know better. And one day even you will have to accept that I was right, and Bell and KP aren't just having a bad series. The truth is, they aren't all that.

And this is from a KP fan...

BTW a genuine question, do you think England should have Bell and KP in the team for the next two home series against West Indies and South Africa given the fact that neither of those two oppositions have a quality spinner and they would be playing at home?

 

[benchmark00]

After one session of this test match England fans were heard to be saying things along the lines of:

"If it wasn't for one **** session we would've won this series 2-1."

lol. Cricket, eh.

 

[Daemon]

After one session of this test match England fans were heard to be saying things along the lines of:

"If it wasn't for one **** session we would've won this series 2-1."

lol. Cricket, eh.

heh.