***Official*** England in Pakistan

[BoyBrumby]

actually 10 ODIers is a while for England

Yeah, but IIRC Nas chucked in the test job right after the first SA test because England felt like Vaughan's team already. So you could say it was only the one test really.

 

[godofcricket]

Great aggression by Akmal, even with wickets falling around him, he just kept going. The first promising opening pair since Anwar and Sohail?

Welcome back Gotchya......seen u after quite a long time .

Well i still cant say if this is the ideal pair until they actually play on different pitches around the world. Salman didnt score much runs in Australia either, so unless he scores outside the sub-continent i wouldnt say anything......same with Akmal.

 

[Mecnun]

What a great match...for Pak!!!!

verdict- Carnage, massacre, bloodshed.. call it what you like...

Will be interesting to see how England pick themselves up for the next match. This is where good teams show backbone & fightback and I fully expect it from England. Would be good for criket too!!!

 

[open365]

What a great match...for Pak!!!!

verdict- Carnage, massacre, bloodshed.. call it what you like...

Will be interesting to see how England pick themselves up for the next match. This is where good teams show backbone & fightback and I fully expect it from England. Would be good for criket too!!!

You fully expect us to bounce back with a backbone that we never had?

 

[atlanta]

by the way, is it just me does everyone else think it's funny when botham talks about ball reverse swinging from the very first ball of the inning.

 

[ClownSymonds]

You hatred of England is stopping you from becoming a very knowledgeable and valued poster - you don't have to air it at every possible opportunity, your posts will be a lot more fun to read if you don't. I'm sure I hate Australians just as much as you hate Englishmen, I just don't tell everyone about it all the time.

Feel free to have a go at Australia. It would make things more interesting. Better to have a partisan crowd to liven things up than to have a bunch of neutrals. I'm sure that you, being an England fan, would find my posts to be more fun to read if I didn't bash England, if only because me highlighting England's misery rubs salt in your wounds. However, I don't think that my hatred of England has any impact on the value or knowledgability shown by my posts, since I don't see things as or make things out to be any different than they actually are.

 

[marc71178]

If somethings not there, then it can't be impacted on.

 

[a10khan]

I'm not gonna get too carried away by Pakistan's test performances. They were quite mediocre in the Caribbean only to come back strongly against England, so they are fairly up and down there. But the re-emergence of Shoaib and a slightly more stable batting lineup might result in better overall performances, like we saw in this test series.

In ODIs though, they have been consistently good right from the tri-series they played in Australia last year. They were horribly inexperienced then, but showed some remarkable fighting guts and were in a winning position in both the finals before losing to Aus in both.

There recent record in ODI indicates that they have won 9 out of the last 10 ODIs, and thats damn good. Pak has a host of genuine all-rounders: Malik, Afridi, Razzq, Akmal and maybe Arafat as well now (who was fast enough to clock 140 k's on a couple occassions and produced that scorching yorker to get rid of Freddie Flintoff). And these all-rounders have been pivotal in most wins. Pak's future looks bright and hopefully they will continue to be as good. Its great for us Pakistani fans and also great for world cricket to have a good Pakistan team.

 

[Neil Pickup]

I'm not gonna get too carried away by Pakistan's test performances. They were quite mediocre in the Caribbean only to come back strongly against England, so they are fairly up and down there. But the re-emergence of Shoaib and a slightly more stable batting lineup might result in better overall performances, like we saw in this test series.

In ODIs though, they have been consistently good right from the tri-series they played in Australia last year. They were horribly inexperienced then, but showed some remarkable fighting guts and were in a winning position in both the finals before losing to Aus in both.

There recent record in ODI indicates that they have won 9 out of the last 10 ODIs, and thats damn good. Pak has a host of genuine all-rounders: Malik, Afridi, Razzq, Akmal and maybe Arafat as well now (who was fast enough to clock 140 k's on a couple occassions and produced that scorching yorker to get rid of Freddie Flintoff). And these all-rounders have been pivotal in most wins. Pak's future looks bright and hopefully they will continue to be as good. Its great for us Pakistani fans and also great for world cricket to have a good Pakistan team.

And they're gonna peak around about the World Cup by the looks of things too - 24 months together as a unit.

7-1 with BetFred with a third of the odds each way 1-2. Looks good to me.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Today was the first time I've seen Arafat bowl. He looks useful. He has badly served by Sky's graphic which called him "Right arm medium" too! He's a "fast medium" pretty comfortably for me!

Bowling action reminds me of Andrew Hall a bit, perhaps not quite so chest-on but similar arm-action.

 

[Tim]

Yeah Pakistan appear to be building a fairly stable line-up where-as teams like England & NZ in particular still have a few positions to sort out..although the VB Series & Chappell Hadlee Series is going to give a lot more opportunities now to get it worked out.

 

[Blaze]

A great series would be Aus in Pakistan atm. I reckon they would give the aussies a run for their money.

If Pakistan continues to build and actually turns up at the World Cup then a top 3 finish is very likely IMO.

 

[a10khan]

Are people seriously suggesting England is the second best ODI team? Hard to believe. They simply do not have a good enough bowling attack. Harmison is an out and out strike bowler who will go for runs, and apart from the ever-improving Flintoff they don't have any other top-class ODI bowlers. Plunkett looks promising, but would be fourth or fifth choice in any decent attack.

On the batting side, when they can field a wholly fit team they do have the fast scorers (Trecothick, Pietersen, Flintoff), but they lack a dependable anchor.

Currently, Pakistan do seem to have their balance right thanks to a few very handy allrounders (Malik, Afridi, Razzaq), three good ODI fast bowlers (Akhtar, Sami, ul-Hasan), and specialist batsmen capable of both anchoring and accelerating.

I'd put Pakistan in contention for second with South Africa at the moment, with England languishing in the midfield of mediocrity with the likes of India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies.

I honestly dont find too much wrong in their bowling. The seamers really stood out in the test matches. I was shocked to see Hoggard miss out on the ODI squad Maybe I missed a beat, but I dont think he was injured. Also, as the tour is winding down, Flintoff and Harmison look like a little beaten down, and who can blame them? Anderson shd have bowled a better line but he's only making a comeback after what more then a year?

In any case, for me, England has had such a tough time due to two main reasons.

1. Pakistan's bowlers, they've produced some unplayable deliveries in these matches, and have been a shock factor for the English bats.

2. The batsmen not adjusting properly to the conditions. They have not been very patient and made some wrong decisions with the bat.Which is why I have been all the more surprised to not see Bell in the first XI in any of the ODIs. Bell was easily England's most consistent and confident looking bat in the tests.

Ovreall, its been a tough tour for them. But these things happen. Its a young team, and most of them are touring the subcontinent for the very first time. Thats the only way they will learn.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Hoggard + ODIs + Afridi = match suspended due to running out of balls + children killed in midwicket stands

 

[Barney Rubble]

Hoggard + ODIs + Afridi = match suspended due to running out of balls + children killed in midwicket stands

 

[a10khan]

Hoggard + ODIs + Afridi = match suspended due to running out of balls + children killed in midwicket stands

lol

 

[Dasa]

by the way, is it just me does everyone else think it's funny when botham talks about ball reverse swinging from the very first ball of the inning.

I think it's funny when Botham says anything.

 

[aussie]

This pakistan ODI team is pretty good, they are really building themselves up as a real top contender for the World Cup next year. They got a solid top order & some top all-rounders & a very good fast bowling unit

England on the other hand need to look at themselves in ODI at least maybe new guys like Shah, Joyce should come in now. Also with respect to Englands bowling its practically their best OD line-up only Simon Jones is missing & they are conceeding some big scores...

 

[aussie]

If Ian Blackwell ever wanted to prove he could be the "English Afridi", now's his chance.

for me i hope he comes good with the bat in rawalpindini, big fan of his & IMO and has i said before a consistent Blackwell would be good for england's OD team.

 

[deeps]

The pakistani all rounders are the key.

Afridi, Malik, Razzaq, Akmal are all very very good all rounders. Malik has the potential to be in the top 5 in the world, IMO afridi already is (his test stats are better than Flintoff's) and on recent form, his ODI and test averages have vastly improved. Razzaq has been a little inconsistent lately, but is still a force to be reckoned with, and Akmals batting has improved out of sight lately.

Add to that, The class of Mohammed Yousuf, the Brilliance of Inzamam Ul Haq, and the flair of Shoaib Akhtar, and this is one damn powerful one day unit. In test matches, Danish Kaneria adds even more.

Pakistan have the potential to be number 2 in the world in both facets of the game. infact, in ODI's, i'd put them there already.

They have shown enough, to suggest they can be number one in the world for ODI's, but have yet to reach those heights. Next World Cup will be good