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*Official* Pakistan v New Zealand in the UAE 2018

Burner

Burner

International Regular
Declaration for the Lulz? Since when is 418 a declaration total. Especially on a Dubai track. This is neither here nor there cricket from Pakistan. If you want to grind the opposition to the ground, do it properly.
 
Bahnz

Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
Yeah, that's a bit of a strange one. I guess Pakistan figured they needed the extra time to win the match, but if so you really would've expected them to accelerate more during the second half of the day.

Anyway, Sodhi continues to a) disappoint, and b) not be trusted. Would have to assume he'll be sitting out the 3rd test unless he makes a good score in this one.
 
The Hutt Rec

The Hutt Rec

International Vice-Captain
This test is at almost exactly the same point as the first Pakistan Aus test at the same venue, except Pakistan had 70 more runs on the board in that one. Aus were 30/0 at the end of day two, ended up following on, but saved the test obviously. I’d be disappointed if we don’t get away with a draw from this point, I must say.
 
Bahnz

Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
Just noticed that there's actually a bit of rain about in Dubai overnight. Perhaps Pakistan were originally planning to bat an hour into day 3, but then heard the forecast and decided they needed to advance the game. Even if that's the case, they still could've pushed faster at the close.
 
straw man

straw man

Hall of Fame Member
The Hutt Rec said:
This test is at almost exactly the same point as the first Pakistan Aus test at the same venue, except Pakistan had 70 more runs on the board in that one. Aus were 30/0 at the end of day two, ended up following on, but saved the test obviously. I’d be disappointed if we don’t get away with a draw from this point, I must say.
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Haven't been able to watch much so far but there seem to be different opinions on whether this pitch is currently hard to bat on or not (hard to score on but not so hard to survive on, currently anyway?). Huge batting day tomorrow regardless and as we know, the pitch doesn't need to be difficult for a few of our batsmen to gift their wickets.

Would dearly love the openers to bat a long time here.
 
straw man

straw man

Hall of Fame Member
Bahnz said:
Yeah, that's a bit of a strange one. I guess Pakistan figured they needed the extra time to win the match, but if so you really would've expected them to accelerate more during the second half of the day.

Anyway, Sodhi continues to a) disappoint, and b) not be trusted. Would have to assume he'll be sitting out the 3rd test unless he makes a good score in this one.
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Sad to hear on both counts. His and Tastle's prospects of playing more test cricket took a massive dive with Ajaz's performance in the first test anyway. Now, between Santner as the containing-spinner-plus-batsman, and Ajaz as the wicket-taking option, it's hard to see either legspinner getting a look-in in test cricket. Only exception on the rare tour to the subcontinent when we pick two spinners.
 
hendrix

hendrix

Hall of Fame Member
I don't think Santner is all that containing.

In any case, Sodhi shouldn't have been playing test cricket for a long time now. Santner, Tastle et al...even the likes of Mark Craig have had more definitive qualities to justify selection.
 
NZTailender

NZTailender

I can't believe I ate the whole thing
I actually thought Sodhi bowled really well for most of yesterday. Yeah, he's struggling to landed 6 in a row in the same spot but this has always been the leg spinners MO.
 
straw man

straw man

Hall of Fame Member
hendrix said:
I don't think Santner is all that containing.

In any case, Sodhi shouldn't have been playing test cricket for a long time now. Santner, Tastle et al...even the likes of Mark Craig have had more definitive qualities to justify selection.
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Well I do think of Santner as a containing bowler and he certainly is in limited overs, so thought I'd look up his econ rate to see if my memory was faulty in tests - 2.79, that's pretty tight.

Sodhi took a few bagfuls in FC cricket towards the end of last season iirc, so there was hope that he'd turned a corner. Watching his method for bowling this test, suspect he gets many of his domestic wickets with that same loop above eyeline, even if overpitched, the batsman doesn't know which way it'll turn and thinks it's full so goes for a heave, and there's the wicket. But I'm too lazy to go and watch vids of last season to see if that's right.

It's a shame those dastardly Pakistan batsman can pick his wrong'un.
 
Bahnz

Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
straw man said:
Well I do think of Santner as a containing bowler and he certainly is in limited overs, so thought I'd look up his econ rate to see if my memory was faulty in tests - 2.79, that's pretty tight.

Sodhi took a few bagfuls in FC cricket towards the end of last season iirc, so there was hope that he'd turned a corner. Watching his method for bowling this test, suspect he gets many of his domestic wickets with that same loop above eyeline, even if overpitched, the batsman doesn't know which way it'll turn and thinks it's full so goes for a heave, and there's the wicket. But I'm too lazy to go and watch vids of last season to see if that's right.

It's a shame those dastardly Pakistan batsman can pick his wrong'un.
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They actually haven't picked it that well. Azhar in particular was nearly bowled on a couple of occasions. The problem is a good googly isn't going to get you far in tests without the ability to consistently land your leg-break. I also don't think Ish has much of a clue about how to use his various weapons to get batsmen out. Reading Shane Warne's book over the weekend, you get a decent sense of just how important a plan is for a wrist spinner, of understanding how batsmen think and using that knowledge against them (e.g. bowling a few faster, short pitched leg-breaks to set up a batsman for the flipper). With Ish it just feels like 95% of the time he's just trying to get the ball into reasonable areas without any broader plan of how he's going to get a batsman out.
 
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