***Official*** England in Pakistan

[luckyeddie]

Sometimes I wonder how seriously to take anything you say as usually there's a tongue in cheek somewhere.

THIS guy knows his Cricket Web staff.

 

[Xuhaib]

2 good days and all u brits out there have started coming up with bold statements dont b 2 sure till the hindu lad spins though i must admit our bowlers looked worse then Dizzy today.

 

[greg]

Sometimes I wonder how seriously to take anything you say as usually there's a tongue in cheek somewhere.

But surely there isn't much doubt about Tresco's claim to be world class.

Here's something I worked out a few weeks ago. Before this test, Tresco ranked 14th highest run-scorer for England all-time, with 5206 runs and 12 centuries.

This is the list of batsmen who scored more runs than him in their career, with the runs scored and number of centuries,
by the time they were Tresco's current age .

Gooch -- 2540 (4)
Stewart -- 1493 (4)
Gower -- 6444 (14)
Boycott -- 2609 (6)
Atherton -- 5243 (11)
Cowdrey -- 3820 (12)
Hammond -- 3168 (11)
Hutton -- 1345 (5)
Barrington -- 1045 (5)
Thorpe -- 3452 (6)
Compton -- 1864 (8)
Hussain -- 1391 (5)
Hobbs -- 2022 (5)

In other words, comparing Tresco a few months short of his 30th birthday against everyone who has ever played for England, Tresco is the third highest scorer (beaten only by Gower and, marginally, Atherton), and only David Gower had scored more tons. Nine of the thirteen who have scored more runs than Tresco scored more than half of their runs after they passed the age of 30.

If Tresco keeps going and follows the trend, he is practically certain to outscore every other England batsman ever, and to score more tons than any previous England batsman.

So, 'fast approaching world status' seems a bit of an understatement. More like 'vastly exceeding the standard for world status' perhaps?

Shows how promising the future is that Australia are currently picking players older than him as debutants!

 

[greg]

2 good days and all u brits out there have started coming up with bold statements dont b 2 sure till the hindu lad spins though i must admit our bowlers looked worse then Dizzy today.

It's a bit more than 2 good days! The two good days have just served to remove any doubts that might have been reappearing in previously held opinions

 

[PY]

Shows how promising the future is that Australia are currently picking players older than him as debutants!

*ahem* Udal *ahem*

 

[nick-o]

just to add to my previous post:

England's 13 highest scoring batsmen on average scored 39% of their runs before the age of 30, and by an amazing coincidence, scored 39% of their centuries before the age of 30.

Extrapolating from that, we could expect Tresco to score more than 13,000 runs and hit 30 centuries.

Maybe around then we might start entertaining the idea he could be 'world class'.

 

[tooextracool]

Shabbir's list of Test Match bunnies:

3 CO Browne, K Mahmud, M Rafique, JDP Oram, T Baisya
2 CH Gayle, RD King, RJ Peterson, RR Sarwan, GC Smith

So you either need to be a) crap, b) a left hander who plays too many shots, c) both or d) Ramnaresh Sarwan

shabbir can actually bowl pretty well believe it or not, and he was a shadow of himself yesterday, bowling consistently below his best. i'd like to know if hes carrying an injury or not, but its not the first time hes bowled like a complete joke before either(against india in pakistan).

 

[tooextracool]

Does anyone agree that the following Pakistan lineup would have been much more effective?


Taufeeq Umar
Yasir Hameed
Younis Khan
Yousuf Youhana
Inzamam-ul-Haq*
Shahid Afridi
Kamran Akmal+
Mushtaq Ahmed
Shoaib Akhtar
Shabbir Ahmed
Danish Kaneria

any side without asim kamal would be less effective than one with him in it. and why on earth you'd not have salman butt instead of the 2 jokers you have at the top of the order i'll never know.

 

[tooextracool]

Shoaib Malik is a makeshift opener, and surely cannot be seen as a long term solution. Asim Kamal would have been probably my first reserve as a batsman, but who would you drop to accomidate him? This bouncy wicket appears tailor made for matchwinning spinners like Mushtaq and Afridi who depend to a large extent on bounce - they would surely have caused England more problems than innocuous bowlers like Sami and Malik (as I write, Malik strikes ). What is Hasan Raza doing in the team?

where would you fit the 2nd best batsman in the side...... i wonder.......

 

[ClownSymonds]

As far as I'm concerned, England are 166/4 with Trescothick out lbw to Kaneria for 48. The bloody poms never fail to catch match-winningly lucky breaks. They did it with McGrath stepping on that ball, Kasper getting out 2 short, etc. This time it was probably due to them bribing Bowden in order to continue the prosperity of English cricket. Or maybe Bowden's just a bloody idiot.

 

[tooextracool]

PAUL ALLOT and GEOFF BOYCOTT: why did they start with shabbir in the second session it makes no sense??!

WAQAR (in his aus-pak drawl): it was a smart move 2 start with shabbir

i dont know why but i found it hilarious

what waqar does in the commentary box i'll never know. he also stated that Pietersen has been playing for 2 years now.....

 

[greg]

As far as I'm concerned, England are 166/4 with Trescothick out lbw to Kaneria for 48. The bloody poms never fail to catch match-winningly lucky breaks. They did it with McGrath stepping on that ball, Kasper getting out 2 short, etc. This time it was probably due to them bribing Bowden in order to continue the prosperity of English cricket. Or maybe Bowden's just a bloody idiot.

166/3, surely? Bell 71*

 

[tooextracool]

If you weren't so damned predictable, it'd be funny. Because you are so damned predictable, it's hilarious.

The ball that did for Bell was a beauty, but that's not the point.

I was hoping Collingwood was going to do really well, because I recognise that he's got an enormous amount of guts, and that goes a long way with me (and that hour he battled in the final test against the Aussies went a long way to helping us win the Ashes).

However, that delivery he got out to was not a threatening ball in any way, shape or form. It was about as threatening as the one Ponting bowled to get rid of Vaughan, but of course he had just played a quite brilliant knock of 160-odd and was in relatively 'unknown territory' given his recent form, so might have been tired.

Saying that, Paul Collingwood today had batted for an hour so he might also be regarded as having got into 'unknown territory' too, at least as far as tests are concerned.

ive always liked the look of ian bell and was quite disappointed with his performances during the Ashes. My only problem with him at the moment is that hes still dodgy against spin, he seems uncertain as to whether to go back or forward and when he does get forward only gets half forward, something that caused him problems against shane warne. the good thing though was that he was picking Danish Kaneria quite well, and as such hes always backed himself with confidence when it comes to picking bowlers out of the hand(much like he did unsuccessfully against Warne at Lords)

 

[Pothas]

As far as I'm concerned, England are 166/4 with Trescothick out lbw to Kaneria for 48. The bloody poms never fail to catch match-winningly lucky breaks. They did it with McGrath stepping on that ball, Kasper getting out 2 short, etc. This time it was probably due to them bribing Bowden in order to continue the prosperity of English cricket. Or maybe Bowden's just a bloody idiot.

i think someone is rather bitter

 

[Armadillo]

Is it me or is Trescothick becoming much less susceptible to the stock ball outside off stump? The pakistanis definately had a plan to bowl outside off stump to him but he just kept leaving it.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

As far as I'm concerned, England are 166/4 with Trescothick out lbw to Kaneria for 48. The bloody poms never fail to catch match-winningly lucky breaks. They did it with McGrath stepping on that ball, Kasper getting out 2 short, etc. This time it was probably due to them bribing Bowden in order to continue the prosperity of English cricket. Or maybe Bowden's just a bloody idiot.

Yeh. Those bloody Poms who struggled to beat anyone just a few years ago, and had half their squad go down injured the last time they toured Australia. Lucky so-and-sos.

Bleeding much? Karma, anyone?

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Shabbir's list of Test Match bunnies:

3 CO Browne, K Mahmud, M Rafique, JDP Oram, T Baisya
2 CH Gayle, RD King, RJ Peterson, RR Sarwan, GC Smith

So you either need to be a) crap, b) a left hander who plays too many shots, c) both or d) Ramnaresh Sarwan

That's a fantastic assessment actually.

 

[luckyeddie]

As far as I'm concerned, England are 166/4 with Trescothick out lbw to Kaneria for 48. The bloody poms never fail to catch match-winningly lucky breaks. They did it with McGrath stepping on that ball, Kasper getting out 2 short, etc. This time it was probably due to them bribing Bowden in order to continue the prosperity of English cricket. Or maybe Bowden's just a bloody idiot.

Eat it, graceless Aussie loser

 

[Barney Rubble]

Eat it, graceless Aussie loser

Exactly. If only the swear filter was still broken.......

 

[aussie]

Eat it, graceless Aussie loser

but in a way its funny, Trescothick again has proven he's got to be the most luckiest batsman in the world. Either he gets away with drop catches or a poor umpiring decision, but at least he cashes in...