**Official** Pakistan and England in the UAE 2015/16

[Lillian Thomson]

Had all of the natural light gone at that stage?

But fair enough if they just weren't fit for purpose.

There appears to be little in the way of twilight or dusk in that part of the World. The lights are switched on at about twenty five past the hour and within twenty minutes it's too dark to continue. Of course the lights only come into play because of slow over rates.

 

[harsh.ag]

In the end, they should have tried to slog more in those ten overs. That was just dumb. As if they were going to lose ten wickets.

 

[smash84]

yeah, agree with harsh there, for once there seemed to be a lack of #intent

 

[Furball]

If it's dangerous for the batsmen they they have to go off. No chance of risking another Prince like situation.

It's not dangerous for batsmen at all, we've seen in similar situations batsmen manage fine. If it's unfair for anyone it's fielders, and to be honest, if you can't see the ball because it's now dark as you've taken an hour to bowl 8 overs then I don't have much sympathy.

 

[grecian]

In the end, they should have tried to slog more in those ten overs. That was just dumb. As if they were going to lose ten wickets.

yeah, agree with harsh there, for once there seemed to be a lack of #intent

Umm, they did slog, were you watching?

In the end peoples perceptions are just skewered nowadays, they look st limited overs with fresh fast pitches, field restriction, and boundaries brought in and think, Oh 12 an over that's easy.

Instead we had an old slow pitch, no restrictions, long boundaries, if you don't think that makes a difference you aren't terribly bright.

 

[smash84]

Umm, they did slog, were you watching?

In the end peoples perceptions are just skewered nowadays, they look st limited overs with fresh fast pitches, field restriction, and boundaries brought in and think, Oh 12 an over that's easy.

Instead we had an old slow pitch, no restrictions, long boundaries, if you don't think that makes a difference you aren't terribly bright.

Thank you so much O bright one. You have opened my eyes to the truth.

 

[harsh.ag]

In the end, they should have tried to slog more in those ten overs. That was just dumb. As if they were going to lose ten wickets.

Umm, they did slog, were you watching?

.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Even if Pakistan had not wasted time, England would still not have made the runs to win in time.

 

[Pothas]

Lets not forget the main thing that happened here, Pakistan's hilarious collapse.

 

[grecian]

Thank you so much O bright one. You have opened my eyes to the truth.

Oh thanks, glad you've seen the light. Trust as you've now agreed with me you'll stop posting in such a pathetic, derisory and quite frankly stupid way about cricket

 

[smash84]

Oh thanks, glad you've seen the light. Trust as you've now agreed with me you'll stop posting in such a pathetic, derisory and quite frankly stupid way about cricket

Thanks for ignoring harsh's main point.

You need something to get you out of your stupid state of mind and actually read before posting

 

[Prince EWS]

And of course if England used those extra overs to bowl or even if the tail enders went for slogging that time, you could not possibly say that the match would turn out like this that England needed X runs from that many overs or from X hours or so. These sorts of "ifs" dont really dictate the last outcome with certainty.

Yeah it doesn't mean it would have changed the result but I still think Scaly is right. I had no issue with Bell's first innings (other than having to endure the pain of watching it) because when you concede 500+ the last thing you should be worried about is the scoring rate, even if you're 200/1, but once they got a lead I think the tactics should have changed a bit. It was definitely a bit silly at eight down.

Obviously Howe is even more right than Scaly in that conceding 500 first up is what cost them a real chance at victory though, not anything that happened after that. Saving the game and bowling/catching much better second time around was a really good result from that point.

 

[Franco Vazquez]

Moral victory doesn't exist in LOIs but it does in Tests.So England have a momentum maybe call up some good player other than Jordan from England

 

[Scaly piscine]

Yeah it doesn't mean it would have changed the result but I still think Scaly is right. I had no issue with Bell's first innings (other than having to endure the pain of watching it) because when you concede 500+ the last thing you should be worried about is the scoring rate, even if you're 200/1, but once they got a lead I think the tactics should have changed a bit. It was definitely a bit silly at eight down.

Obviously Howe is even more right than Scaly in that conceding 500 first up is what cost them a real chance at victory though, not anything that happened after that. Saving the game and bowling/catching much better second time around was a really good result from that point.

Apart from anything else England are going out 8 down already and will 2 overs plus the rest of an incomplete one just to change innings. That's big in itself when the upside is what, Broad and Rashid flapping a few quick runs? They could easily lose a wicket early and you've then got Anderson out there and it gets even more silly, basically you could declare at that wicket, or drag it out painfully and then declare as Cook did, or look even more stupid if a after a few blocks they get bowled out.

There was never enough upside to bat and the pitch wasn't difficult enough to warrant scraping another 20-30 runs.

 

[Burgey]

Another bore-draw then.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Looks like Azhar Ali may miss the 2nd test too. He is going home as his mother in law has died. Hope he can return in time but some things are more important than a game of cricket.

 

[Niall]

Looks like Azhar Ali may miss the 2nd test too. He is going home as his mother in law has died. Hope he can return in time but some things are more important than a game of cricket.

Big lloss if he can, Masood is dire, they should bring in Shezhad who performed very well against Australia and New Zealand for him.

Bilal Asif probably called up as cover as well, obviously very confident of his action.

 

[Howe_zat]

How many of the players in this series would make the other team?

I'd probably take all of Hafeez, Younis, Misbah and Sarfraz given the conditions along with Yasir Shah. Not sure Zulfiqur as a specialist bowler adds much as a specialist compared to Moeen as an allrounder but he would offer more control.

Cook
Hafeez (Azhar when fit)
Younis
Root
Misbah
Stokes
Sarfraz
Moeen/Zulfiqur
Broad
Yasir
Anderson

 

[theegyptian]

I reckon Cook, Root, one of Broad/Anderson, and maybe Stokes for balance reasons would make a combined side if your specifically looking at just these conditions (UAE). Gotta play Wahab

 

[nightprowler10]

Fusion and nightprowler will love waking up to this.

Haha, I kept waking up in the middle of the night to feed the kid and change diapers and checking the score. Last I saw though Younis and Misbah were still batting. When I woke up I saw the result XX runs for 4 and initially assumed those two batted slowly for the rest of the day....

It's gotta be a great moral victory for England after how things went last time around. I'd be happy with another moral victory for them in this series as long as we win the next one.

I keep seeing mentions of the Pak-Lanka Test. I didn't watch it live, only followed the scorecard on cricinfo, but was light ever even much of an issue at the rate we were batting? I don't remember it mentioned at all.

Also, found this interesting. 'Test captains turned down light offer' - ICC | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

PS: had the pitch turned into a minefield or was it mostly **** batting?