***Official*** England in Pakistan

[SpeedKing]

This Blackwell guy mind be useful, the world is going to be in for a genuine shock the day his batting comes off. believe it or not, he will break a few hearts the day he gets in. Wow, i am getting pretty confident for the world cup. Piertersen/Flintoff/Prior/Blackwell/Plunkett/ Tres at the top. All these guys can bloody hit a ball. Jones is annoying me so i will not put him in that list.

Looking forward to returns of Vaughan, Piertersen, Giles, Simon Jones. Especially Jones. the selection meetings will be interesting. The bowlers Harmison, Plunkett, Anderson and even Ali have all been quite good on this tour.

And the spinners, well, Udal should go home and stay there, i am afraid to say but Sehwag, Laxman, Tendulkar and Dravid are going to be lining up for him. Stick with Blackwell and Giles.

Still only four bowling spots to complement Flintoff. Obviously Harmison gets a place but it is touch and go for the rest. Have to chose between Simon Jones, Anderson, Plunkett, Giles, Blackwell and Ali for the remaining three spots. Great dilema[sp*] to have

 

[open365]

What happeed to Freddy?

 

[SpeedKing]

Oh i forgot well played Pakistan, Inzaman, i raise you to the status of most ANNOYING batsman ahead of Kallis and Gary Kirsten [ and Graeme Smith for 3 test matches in 2003]. How can someone look so absent-minded and stll play that well. Does anyone know how many runs he has scored this series [Test and ODIs]? it feels like 10,000. have we even got him out. I honestly cannot remember. The other batsmen backed him well. especially Butt, Mo Yousuf and Akmal.

And your bowlers foxed us. I am still trying to bowl the Shoiab Ahktar slower bowl in the nets. It is purely a fairytale to me. How can someone see a ball early, play with the bat slanting towards the ground about 160 degrees, get it off the middle and then get caught by the bowler. Pure wizardry. Absolutely unbelievable. Kaneria is a match winner through and through. Support act of ul-Hasan, Sami and now Asif aren't bad either.

 

[SpeedKing]

What happeed to Freddy?

He got subbed by Anderson, he hurt his left ankle

"Flintoff, playing solely as a batsman after damaging his dodgy left ankle, provided ballast but no blast-off in his 73-ball 39, " off Cricinfo

 

[open365]

Oh i forgot well played Pakistan, Inzaman, i raise you to the status of most ANNOYING batsman ahead of Kallis and Gary Kirsten [ and Graeme Smith for 3 test matches in 2003]. How can someone look so absent-minded and stll play that well. Does anyone know how many runs he has scored this series [Test and ODIs]? it feels like 10,000. have we even got him out. I honestly cannot remember. The other batsmen backed him well. especially Butt, Mo Yousuf and Akmal.

And your bowlers foxed us. I am still trying to bowl the Shoiab Ahktar slower bowl in the nets. It is purely a fairytale to me. How can someone see a ball early, play with the bat slanting towards the ground about 160 degrees, get it off the middle and then get caught by the bowler. Pure wizardry. Absolutely unbelievable. Kaneria is a match winner through and through. Support act of ul-Hasan, Sami and now Asif aren't bad either.

That Arshad Kahn guy seems to be a pretty usefull bowler aswell.

 

[nightprowler10]

That Arshad Kahn guy seems to be a pretty usefull bowler aswell.

He's only useful on surfaces with some spin. He did trouble some Indian batsmen earlier this year in the last test.

 

[Run like Inzy]

Whatever happened to Saqlain Mushtaq he is younger than Arshad, more deadly, more experienced and has more wickets. Why is he not being selected!!!. An awesome player in my view. Has he recovered from that knee thing?

 

[no1_gangsta_786]

Whatever happened to Saqlain Mushtaq he is younger than Arshad, more deadly, more experienced and has more wickets. Why is he not being selected!!!. An awesome player in my view. Has he recovered from that knee thing?

Yes he has recovered from his knee injury but i remember reading he is not being selected because the PCB think he is not dedicated to his cricket and is more dedicated to a column he has in a newspaper.

 

[shankar]

He's only useful on surfaces with some spin. He did trouble some Indian batsmen earlier this year in the last test.

Actually he was pretty ineffective in the tests. Performed well in the ODIs though.

 

[Run like Inzy]

lol I think he still wants to play cricket for Pakistan. Who would not want to be part of a team which is enjoying more success than its used to. What happened with the Surrey contract I heard they signed Anil Kumble for next season.

 

[no1_gangsta_786]

Yes of course he wants to be part of the team........he has even stated that to the PCB but they have taken no notice.......stupid fools.......but then again from the current team who would we drop to play Saqqi?

 

[Run like Inzy]

i think we could drop Arshad for a game in the ODIs or even play Saqi as the super sub

 

[no1_gangsta_786]

Where would Saqqi fit in the test team?

 

[Run like Inzy]

The test team is pretty full at the moment and there really isnt a place for him unless the track is really spinning. On ocassions where we picked Arshad Khan as a secodary spinner with Kaneria we could use Saqi. But i think bringing him back to ODI first would be good to see if he still has the wicket taking ability. This will be nesscary as Malik is not allowed to ball the doosra and looks ineffective without it. Arshad can bowl it but I still think Saqi can bowl more wicket taking deliveries. Saqi use to take 50-60 wickets a year in ODIs in 90's.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Well it's nice to win & that makes it 2 more ODIs than i thought we'd win on the tour, so can't be too gloomy.

Nice to see Jimmy Anderson getting back to something like form; it was very brave of him to try another slower one after Rana had desposited his previous effort for a maximum. Blackwell's bowling has been another plus, I personally think he's done enough to play himself into the test squad for India. The batting was altogther less impressive; Prior didn't seem to work at the top of the order (and why play two wicketkeepers anyway?), Tres looks badly out of nick & our "leave it to KP" strategy was badly exposed when he broke a rib! Some nice hitting at the death by Plunkett tho, he looks like he has definite potential.

Fair play to Pakistan, outplayed us in every department & throughly worthy winners in both forms. We'd have had 'em at 20/20 tho!

BTW, over 10 years between Udal's 10th & 11th ODI caps (his 10th was earnt v The Windies on 28/05/95), is that the longest gap between appearances?

 

[PY]

Think Asif has chucking issues.....

 

[Barney Rubble]

We'd have had 'em at 20/20 tho!

Afridi and Razzaq versus a one-legged Fred and Blackwell - not so sure about that......... (as depressing as it is ).

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

An England v Pakistan Twenty20 is probably the most exciting game there could be, just imagine all the hitters the Pakistanis could bring in...

Come to think of it, here's my Pakistan T20 team,

1 Kamran Akmal+
2 Shahid Afridi
3 Shoaib Malik
4 Inzamam*
5 Abdul Razzaq
6 Azhar Mahmood
7 Mohammad Yousuf
8 Imran Nazir (specialist fielder)
9 Naved-ul-Hasan
10 Shoaib Ahktar
11 Danish Kaneria (leggie always useful in twenty20)

 

[Scaly piscine]

Not at all.

He is nowhere near the bowler Giles is, and his batting (supposedly his strong point) hasn't been a success.

I don't see why Blackwell couldn't do the 'bowl a few economical overs at over 3 an over' job that Giles does. I also think Blackwell would be far more of a threat on a wearing pitch. I also think Blackwell would bat much more productively in Tests than ODIs, the only problem is his fielding.

 

[marc71178]

Erm, because throughout his career he's not been able to ever to that role even in County cricket?