***Official*** England in Pakistan

[Shahid_Afridi_6]

it is thrilling to watch shoaib akhtar bowl, i still cant get over that 1st test's giles wicket....pure quality

He's the second best pace bowler in the world, behind Mcgrath.

 

[Mecnun]

The penny drops! S_A_6 is Peter Roebuck!

Just been watching the highlights. Nice to have a largely controversy-free day, Shoaib's turkey-trot aside (what was its significance, if any? I'm intrigued to know). Full respect to Shoaib too, he bowled a storm today. He out hetero'd KP & Fred (what was Fred's shot supposed to be, BTW?) and his over to Gilo was amazing. Yorker after yorker on the reel which Ash did rather superbly to keep out.

I've decided I love Danish Kaneria too. Not because he had an iffy day today, but because he's such an old fashioned specialist of the like we don't see too often nowadays. Not only is his batting charmingly cack, but his fielding is delightfully dismal as well!

Good day for us I thought. If Gilo & the tail can get us to within 30 we might have a game on our hands. I think the draw is favourite now, but any result is conceivably possible. I think Inzi's best chance of winning the game is to leave us with a faint sniff, whether that means scoring quickly & being bowled out or a sporting-ish declaration. However @ 1-0 up I think Pakistan will go down the pragmatic route to ensure we can't win even if it lessens their own chances of forcing a result.

You might hate us, but our series are pretty damn good to watch!

Have no idea what thee chicken thing was about. he should have been doing the skunk dance anywayz. BTW do skunk's dance? can they dance? If they danced would they be better dancers than Afridi? All deep questions..

Yeah kanereia is a bit of traditionalist in his approach to batting and fielding.. He is all legs and teeth..wait so was sherga!!

I think it a draw mate..cant beleive they let the game go out of hand with all the misfields today..I am well peeved..

 

[Shahid Afridi]

pakistani players had alot of things in their mind:

- inzamam run out case
- afridi's cheating
- shoaibs match fine
- 'thought they had the game in their hand' which was wrong.

i believe pakistan should forget all the current issues and just bowl in very good length, and set like 300 runs in the total for the final day.

mushtaq ahmads gonna play in lahore and its gonna be 1 hell of a spinners pitch !

 

[greg]

For the most part, it was an exceptionally mature, restrained (and lucky) knock, but his eyes definitely lit up when Shoaib came on for that second spell.

My guess is that Pietersen just viewed it as another challenge, and having taken apart the world's second-fastest bowler at The Oval, he thought 'why not?' and had a dart at Shoaib.

Immature? Probably. Flawed? Definitely. Entertaining? OH YES.

The fact is that Pietersen HAS to take on the pace bowlers. Anyone who watched the contrast between him batting before and after lunch on the last day at the Oval could see that. Even today you could see he started off batting "normally" and was getting into trouble trying to fend them off his body. In general if his attitude encourages fast bowlers to waste the noball (even if they have success sometimes) bowling bouncers then it can only be a good thing.

 

[Mecnun]

who told you Mushy is playing? shoaib got fined, did he really?

Still it no escuse for missing 5 odd chances..this test match would in the bag if they had taken their chances..

 

[Shahid_Afridi_6]

mushtaq ahmads gonna play in lahore and its gonna be 1 hell of a spinners pitch !

They should get desperate to win like England did when they tried the pack the batting tactic in the final Ashes test and instead of a like for like replacement of Jones with Anderson they used the scared option of Collingwood who bowled about 1 over.

 

[open365]

it is thrilling to watch shoaib akhtar bowl, i still cant get over that 1st test's giles wicket....pure quality

defintely.

his bowling today against Giles was superb,i can't belive Giles managed to stick in there.

i think he get s a lot of un-fair critisism,especialy about his fitness.
i don't think his detractors realise how much effort it takes top bowl like he does.

another knock from Pietersen littered with missed chances,his poor catching seems to be infecting the other side when he bats. Hopefully in time he'll become a bit less reckless and win more games for England.

Nice to see Bell bat like a tortoise today,slowly turning into the next Thorpe...

 

[greg]

They should get desperate to win like England did when they tried the pack the batting tactic in the final Ashes test and instead of a like for like replacement of Jones with Anderson they used the scared option of Collingwood who bowled about 1 over.

So you've not watched much of Jones and/or Anderson bowling then?

 

[luckyeddie]

who told you Mushy is playing? shoaib got fined, did he really?

Still it no escuse for missing 5 odd chances..this test match would in the bag if they had taken their chances..

From this morning's commentary, I got the impression that he'd already been clobbered 20% before the Pietersen 'incident'.

Bumble said something like "By Criminy, tha' blather yed'd better stop that or ah'm afeart ee'll be owin' ICC before t'match be finished."

 

[luckyeddie]

They should get desperate to win like England did when they tried the pack the batting tactic in the final Ashes test and instead of a like for like replacement of Jones with Anderson they used the scared option of Collingwood who bowled about 1 over.

Still hurts?

Good.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

So you've not watched much of Jones and/or Anderson bowling then?

He's not seen much of Collingwood batting either it seems.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

i think he get s a lot of un-fair critisism,especialy about his fitness.
i don't think his detractors realise how much effort it takes top bowl like he does..

I don't think a lot of people mean his literal "fitness" when they make comments about his fitness. It's more to do with the times he's been "injured".

 

[Shahid_Afridi_6]

Still hurts?

Good.

Prepare to have to bowl out Atherton and Boycott at numbers 10 and 11 when they get Pakistani citizenship in time for the third test.

 

[BoyBrumby]

From this morning's commentary, I got the impression that he'd already been clobbered 20% before the Pietersen 'incident'.

Bumble said something like "By Criminy, tha' blather yed'd better stop that or ah'm afeart ee'll be owin' ICC before t'match be finished."

One of the commentators (might've been Raja) said it was because his bracelets contravened ICC advertising regs.

Said "Coke" instead of "Pepsi" probably....

 

[luckyeddie]

Prepare to have to bowl out Atherton and Boycott at numbers 10 and 11 when they get Pakistani citizenship in time for the third test.

Boycott's mum, please, Shane.

 

[wpdavid]

Good day for us I thought. If Gilo & the tail can get us to within 30 we might have a game on our hands. I think the draw is favourite now, but any result is conceivably possible. I think Inzi's best chance of winning the game is to leave us with a faint sniff, whether that means scoring quickly & being bowled out or a sporting-ish declaration. However @ 1-0 up I think Pakistan will go down the pragmatic route to ensure we can't win even if it lessens their own chances of forcing a result.

For there to be any chance of us getting a result, we have to do something spectacular with the 1st new ball. I know that's a big ask with the Kookaboro (please excuse spelling) and the wicket, but just maybe it can happen once in a while. Their openers are *supposed* to be iffy, so who knows. As for Inzi making a sporting declaration, I would imagine that's about as likely as him signing upto the Atkins diet.

 

[Shahid_Afridi_6]

Their openers are *supposed* to be iffy, so who knows.

Well they spanked Giles out of the ground and the attack twice, so what does that say about him?

 

[wpdavid]

Well they spanked Giles out of the ground and the attack twice, so what does that say about him?

That he's sent down a load of pies in this series, which I think we already knew.

 

[chris.hinton]

Why is it that Pakistan Fans Always think that the Worlds Against them in cases like this, Cricketweb user Shoaib thinks so does he forget that the only nation to Fix and Throw Matchs, Tamparing and Doctoring Ball, Abusing Umpires and Messing with Pitches is Pakistan... they love to cheat and more action should be taken oh i forgotten that there are Chuckers

Yes Other counties have cheated in the past but it never far away from Pakistan

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Pakistanis have never forgiven David Constant for all the appalling decisions he gave against them.