***Official*** England in Pakistan

[luckyeddie]

Anyone else just see that? One of Pakistans fielders was caught scuffing up the wicket during the break after the explosion, naughty naughty.

Shahid Afridi - quite deliberate and deceitful, under cover of the scare.

If Bell gets banned for 'claiming' the catch, Afridi should get double.

Regarding Trescothick's dismissal, just as out as all the others - look in the book.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Only seen one replay of it, but it looked like he missed it to me.

EDIT: Just seen it again. Definite nick.

Aye, good call by Taufel, and a good low catch by Kamran - no matter what the foreshortening replays show. Anyone going to whinge here? No? Quelle surprise...

 

[Pedro Delgado]

53 match ban for Afridi!

Great decision there by the two umps.

 

[Jono]

LOL @ Afridi's naughty pitch business. As wrong as that was, it was hilarious to see the way he did it, with the little dance move and all. How devious.

Also that gas tank explosion was extremely weird. I'm sure we all thought the worst, or at least hoped it wasn't the case and thankfully it wasn't.

Regarding the cricket, Tresco out. Huge wicket.

 

[Slow Love™]

I didn't read the article as particularly offensive - fairly 'matter of fact' for him.

Mind you, he had a dig at Botham, so he should get extra bonus points for that.

Not offensive - hysterical. His articles always seem to be written in between bouts of hand-wringing and hanky-squeezing. God knows what is the whole "two wrongs don't make a right" thing at the end was supposed to suggest. Anyhow, I agreed with the general theme that all three umpires need to be called to task and we need clarification on what responsibilities the umpires have in these situations.

 

[Slow Love™]

Also that gas tank explosion was extremely weird. I'm sure we all thought the worst, or at least hoped it wasn't the case and thankfully it wasn't.

Has anybody checked to see if Flintoff's all right???

(OK, sorry...)

 

[luckyeddie]

Not offensive - hysterical. His articles always seem to be written in between bouts of hand-wringing and hanky-squeezing. God knows what is the whole "two wrongs don't make a right" thing at the end was supposed to suggest. Anyhow, I agreed with the general theme that all three umpires need to be called to task and we need clarification on what responsibilities the umpires have in these situations.

I look forward to tomorrow's diatripe (good word that - says it all) about Afridi's attempt to dig up the pitch then.

 

[luckyeddie]

Has anybody checked to see if Flintoff's all right???

(OK, sorry...)

Winner

 

[Unattainableguy]

Shahid Afridi - quite deliberate and deceitful, under cover of the scare.

If Bell gets banned for 'claiming' the catch, Afridi should get double.

Regarding Trescothick's dismissal, just as out as all the others - look in the book.

It's not as bad as claiming a false catch is.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Is it just me or is Ian Bell looking very, very solid indeed - I'm a lot, lot (okay, I've been up nigh-on seven hours and I seem to have run out of adjectives) more confident/less concerned when Bell's facing as opposed to KP.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Bad light stops play. Eighteen minutes remain until the official close.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Was KP just having a go at Afridi when coming off over the pitch thing?

 

[UncleTheOne]

It's not as bad as claiming a false catch is.

Maybe not, but if one from Danish or Afridi spits out of the rough created by him and causes a dismissal then it would be a different story.

 

[luckyeddie]

It's not as bad as claiming a false catch is.

Rubbish - it's attempting to claim 18 false catches (the number of opposition wickets still to fall).

On second thoughts, it's in keeping with series between England and Pakistan.

 

[Dasa]

Hmmm...there should be bans for Afridi and Bell...which would hurt both teams equally given the way the series has gone so far. Personally, I think too much is made of the 'danger area' of the pitch and the umpires are far too quick to give warnings...however, what Afridi did was absolutely stupid and he definitely should have some action taken.

 

[Jono]

What a ridiculously crazy day of cricket.

We had Inzy's run out, the explosion and Afridi's pitch antics all in one. Add Bell's catch yesterday and it's quite the test match. Add the 3rd umpire run out mistake of Butt back in the first test, and its quite the test series.

KP having a go at Afridi over what he did with the pitch was hilarious, although KP was obviously not mocking but rather just angry. I wonder how they got along during the Super Series?

 

[Slow Love™]

I've gotta get me some highlights of yesterday's play and today's. This stuff sounds insane.

 

[supereddi08]

Did anyone notice KP's little move as he came off the pitch... think he's looking to audition for idol... quite right though, what afridi did was deliberate and an attempt to gain an unfair advantage... that's cheating in anyone's books...

 

[andyc]

What exactly did Afridi do? Obviously he was tampering with the pitch, but what's this about doing a dance?

 

[supereddi08]

Afridi dance

What exactly did Afridi do? Obviously he was tampering with the pitch, but what's this about doing a dance?

As the players were all looking at what had exploded on the boundary he got into the middle of the pitch just about a good length and did a full pirouette (360) with his spikes to create nice little patch of rough for him and Danish... Unlucky for him but Darrell Hare saw it and so did the england team, KP was letting him know just what they thought as he walked off...