***Official*** Pakistan in England

[Scaly piscine]

Dalrymple busy killing the run-rate and err...

Sky have been showing pictures of Shoaib working on the ball which have caused a few jitters ... let's hope it's no more than him cleaning dirt out of the seam. Michael Atherton offered no more than a "make your own mind up"

 

[TT Boy]

Looked like his thumb was scratching the seam to me...

 

[Barney Rubble]

Looked like his thumb was scratching the seam to me...

Aw, crap.

EDIT: Now Shoaib Malik's bowling.....

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

England are going to get slaughtered on the West Indian tracks if they bat like this. Aside from Trescothick and Pietersen, and to a certain extent Strauss, none of the batsmen seem to offer us anything. You only want one, or maximum two, nurdlers in the middle-order, and you definitely don't want them batting together for a long period like Dalrymple and Collingwood here. How many pushers are in the Australia, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka middle-orders: zero.

 

[Barney Rubble]

England are going to get slaughtered on the West Indian tracks if they bat like this. Aside from Trescothick and Pietersen, and to a certain extent Strauss, none of the batsmen seem to offer us anything. You only want one, or maximum two, nurdlers in the middle-order, and you definitely don't want them batting together for a long period like Dalrymple and Collingwood here. How many pushers are in the Australia, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka middle-orders: zero.

Well said. We're just....rubbish.

 

[PY]

You guys are being bit harsh, they've firmed up our position and given a base for the 80 off the last 10 overs with 6 wickets in hand.

Not like they've been slow either, 4.5 an over isn't horrific for middle overs!

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

You guys are being bit harsh, they've firmed up our position and given a base for the 80 off the last 10 overs with 6 wickets in hand.

Not like they've been slow either, 4.5 an over isn't horrific for middle overs!

We haven't got anyone left to bash 80 off the last 10. Only Pietersen was ever going to plant Shoaib back over his head for six.

 

[Pedro Delgado]

I think they've done okay considering our recent history.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

You guys are being bit harsh, they've firmed up our position and given a base for the 80 off the last 10 overs with 6 wickets in hand.

Not like they've been slow either, 4.5 an over isn't horrific for middle overs!

Yeah, Colly's strike rate per over is actually 5.5.

Doesn't change the fact that KP is never going to bat through the innings from No. 4, though...

 

[Scaly piscine]

To be fair Dalrymple has picked up the pace a lot over the last 20-30 balls where he's probably scored at over a run a ball.

 

[Barney Rubble]

You guys are being bit harsh, they've firmed up our position and given a base for the 80 off the last 10 overs with 6 wickets in hand.

Not like they've been slow either, 4.5 an over isn't horrific for middle overs!

I've just taken a look at the scorecard again for the first time in a while, and we're not actually doing that badly. I still don't rate either of the two current batters that highly, but they're not doing badly at all as it stands. Setting the stage for a Rikki onslaught.

 

[Scaly piscine]

We haven't got anyone left to bash 80 off the last 10. Only Pietersen was ever going to plant Shoaib back over his head for six.

80 off 10 isn't that challenging, it going to be difficult to hit 6s on this ground anyway but there are a lot of 2s and even 3s for half hit shots. A KP is probably needed to score 100+ off the last 10, not 80.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

To be fair to the batsmen, they picked up the rate as I wrote the above post.

Why isn't Yardy playing? We have only one spinner, and from what I've seen so far he could be fairly easy to get after.

 

[Barney Rubble]

Jamie Weapon of Mass Dalrymple () get bowled by Naved for a solid 62, and Rikki strides out to the crease.

EDIT: And then strides back for a first-ball duck.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Gawd I wish the TMS guys stuck in a time warp would realise that getting 260 from being 244-6 with 17 balls left is fairly rubbish actually instead of some astonishing feat.

 

[superkingdave]

listening to TMS on the way home, interesting to hear that Mike Gatting doesn't think Andrew Flintoff deserves his place in the ODI side if he can't bowl. He then went on to say Dalrymple would be more effective at no 8.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Shoaib Scratching the ball?

^^^
Yes very funny


The Sky cameras picked up Shoain Akhtar doing what to me looked like scratching the ball in an effort to make it Reverse Swing, what do you guys think?

 

[Barney Rubble]

listening to TMS on the way home, interesting to hear that Mike Gatting doesn't think Andrew Flintoff deserves his place in the ODI side if he can't bowl. He then went on to say Dalrymple would be more effective at no 8.

Hmmm....

 

[superkingdave]

Pakistan in 40.3

 

[open365]

^^^
Yes very funny


The Sky cameras picked up Shoain Akhtar doing what to me looked like scratching the ball in an effort to make it Reverse Swing, what do you guys think?

Can we accuse them of ball tampering now?