***Official*** Pakistan in England

[ClownSymonds]

Well, the Poms actually gave Pakistan a challenge. Par batting by them, great batting by the big 3 for Pakistan (Younis, Yousuf, Inzamam), poor from the rest (besides Hafeez, who looked good before the amazing runout). Pakistan bowled ok, not great. Shoaib Akhtar is stupid for thumbing the ball on camera. Inzi's average finally goes back above 40, I think. Perhaps he should retire now.

 

[Barney Rubble]

It's alright, guys, Ian Blackwell will be fit soon - he's at least twice as good as our current bowling attack, and probably better than a few of our batsmen too....

 

[BoyBrumby]

It's alright, guys, Ian Blackwell will be fit soon - he's at least twice as good as our current bowling attack, and probably better than a few of our batsmen too....

Be a first for him , wouldn't it?

 

[Barney Rubble]

Be a first for him , wouldn't it?

Touché.

He'll be fit enough to bowl - and he'll still be able to stand at the crease and wildly swing the bat, though, which will probably yield better returns than Tresco's current "let's not hit it at all" approach. As for his fielding, well, he's better than Monty....

 

[marc71178]

Dalrymple busy killing the run-rate

To be fair, the last thing needed was another wicket at that stage, so better he got through some time to make sure they reached the 50 overs.

 

[marc71178]

Any predictions on how many England will score?

http://forum.cricketweb.net/forumdisplay.php?f=65

 

[marc71178]

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.

Read can do the job coming in in the late overs IMO.

 

[marc71178]

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.

When our tail includes Saj and Lewis, it is an achievement, especially if wickets have just fallen so batsmen are coming in without a sighter.

 

[marc71178]

If you're going to post in purple, at least increase the size so everyone can read. And secondly, the complaint that he is a racist occurs because of repeated behavior involving lots of south asian teams

NZ, SA and WI are all South Asian are they?

 

[marc71178]

If he is shown to be guilty, he needs to be suspended for like ten tests.

The way he's going though, he'll be injured until the next time Pakistan play England, then he'll come back and destroy us!

 

[marc71178]

Egg-jhaktly. Who knows, he could have taken umpire's permission before cleaning teh ball ?

Don't they have to do such things under the umpire's view though?

IIRC, that was what got SRT in trouble, it wasn't what he did, but where he did it?

 

[marc71178]

It's more the fact that Lewis has been the best bowler and Strauss is wasting 2 overs that could have took a vital wicket in the middle or late-ish in the innings that could have a big effect on the result.

So had he used Lewis in the middle, who was left for the death then?

Rikkis is bad enough, but perm 1 from the other 9 and it would've been carnage.

 

[marc71178]

Sorry, but...is there honestly any difference?

Yes, it weakens the attack further.

 

[Scaly piscine]

So had he used Lewis in the middle, who was left for the death then?

Rikkis is bad enough, but perm 1 from the other 9 and it would've been carnage.

There's no point saving your best bowler for a situation where you've already lost by the time he comes on. If Lewis had got his wicket in the middle of the game it would have far more influence on the outcome of the match. England only stretched the game to the death in the first place because Pakistan imploded.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Heh @ Channel 5 and Simon Hughes saying Shoaib should be careful about 'cleaning' the ball as the footage of him taking big swings of his thumb at the seam.

Whether he was actually cleaning the ball or not he should be charged, you can't do stuff like that away from the umpires otherwise it'd be a cheat's charter to do what they like and then claim later that they were just cleaning the ball. Then the TV will just be inconclusive because it doesn't zoom in far enough.

 

[silentstriker]

Whether he was actually cleaning the ball or not he should be charged, you can't do stuff like that away from the umpires otherwise it'd be a cheat's charter to do what they like and then claim later that they were just cleaning the ball.

For once, I actually agree with you. He should be punished, provided the TV shows him cleaning the seam with his nails. I haven't seen it, so I don't know. But even what he is puported to be doing is against the laws, so defiantly he should be charged, fined and suspended.

I don't have a problem with charging people if there is evidence. If Hair had said, "Look here, I saw that Asif guy take his nails and dig em into the ball, so I'm putting this penalty.", then I would be thought it justified. But without directly seeing it, you can't accuse someone.

 

[Fusion]

Heh @ Channel 5 and Simon Hughes saying Shoaib should be careful about 'cleaning' the ball as the footage of him taking big swings of his thumb at the seam.

Whether he was actually cleaning the ball or not he should be charged, you can't do stuff like that away from the umpires otherwise it'd be a cheat's charter to do what they like and then claim later that they were just cleaning the ball. Then the TV will just be inconclusive because it doesn't zoom in far enough.

Sadly I must agree with you as well (someone shoot me now). Though he didn't take "big swings" (he only had one downward motion with his thumb), there is no excuse for what he did. If he was cleaning some dirt, he should've done it in front of the umpire. After seeing the footage, I don't think he was tampering. Though I'll be perfectly honest and admit that I'm being partial and giving him a HUGE benefit of the doubt. Regardless of what he was doing, it was just plain stupid and he deserves to be punished.

 

[archie mac]

Well he was found innocent and fair enought too, if that was ball tampering, then D. Hair will win the ICC umpire of the year award

 

[pskov]

Tres has pulled himself out of the Champions Trophy:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/5318880.stm

Well, is he a doubt for the World Cup now? He says he still wants to play in the Ashes, but this is just going to get very irritating for Fletcher and co. if he feels he can pick and chose which tours to go on. That got Croft and Gough in the bad books, don't see why it couldn't affect him (although he is more important than either of those two were at the stage in their respective careers).

 

[marc71178]

To be honest, when Gough pulled out, he was the key bowler still (the first time he pulled out)

Last year he was useless anyway, so it was a benefit to us.