England V Pakistan > Reviews (1)

Now the Pakistani cricket team head is straight and they know they don’t dare contemplate any match fixing for a while they are playing to win, what all other test teams fear, truly brilliant on their day. They have always had individual players of great talent over the years and if they do bond then look out. Get your bets on now for them to win the next World Cup in April guys and girls. The only question now is will the young players who were jailed tell all or will they be paid off to keep quiet. Just as drug trafficking is endemic through Afghanistan’s government for kickbacks galore it’s always been felt that Pakistan cricket was broken from top to bottom.

The odds of England winning a test over the years greatly increased with dead rubbers, the one you win to get some face back after being stuffed in the series, accounting for 90% of our Ashes test wins between 1990 and 2005. As Pakistan had secured the winter series in Abu Dhabi 2-0 with one to play I lumped on England to win the third and final test last week in Dubai. An England win would retain the world number one spot and so something worth fighting for. Although England will no doubt improve in Sri-Lanka next month and against the West Indies at home in the summer series, South Africa are also coming and that is going to be very tough indeed and so a test win in the Middle East rather vital to get any sort of confidence back to set up the run at that summer.

The United Arab Emirates population is 75% ex pats and most of that cheap Pakistani labor, Arabs never too keen on the menial jobs in the rich oil centers. With a few thousand packed in to the national stadium on their religious day off a spectacular start to the match saw Pakistan skittled for just 99 in 44 over’s, 13 of those maidens, only Shafiq (45) making a score to recover Pakistan from 44-7. All the England bowlers were pumped up and hit their straps, as the Aussies say, Andersen 4-36, Broad 3-35. The six LBWs in the innings saw the three match test series record equaled from LBWs with 24 in total, and that at tea on day one! Bowlers seem wise to the fact they won’t get batsmen out with disputed catches from replays and so that element of cheating removed and so that appeal not wasted on anymore, the batting teams right to three appeals extra insurance against the umpire ‘shocker’, the point of the DRS (Decision Review System) systems. The bowlers concentrate on appealing LBW’s now on slow and low pitches as they know that if the umpire doesn’t give it the rather flawed Hawkeye machine may, showing the ball in front or just hitting the stumps and your out. Hawkeye has vectored in low bounce and so they all seem to hit on the predictions. The umpires are continually undermined by this technology that seems to be telling them they can’t do their job so they must have made a mistake and so no surprise they are referring more decisions to Hawkeye and so more LBWs.

The two guys who need runs, Strauss and Pietersen, scored only England’s third fifty partnership of the series in the reply after Cook and Trott were out cheap.

But the advantage wasn’t taken and England stumbled TO just five ahead with six down by the close, 16 wickets going down in the day, that signaling the call to the pitch inspectors in county cricket back home. The pitch was no where near that bad and England’s batting woes unexplainable.

Day two

England added just 40 more with Strauss almost carrying his bat with 56 (27 the lowest ever bat carry in tests), for once watching the carnage around him, only his second fifty for ten tests, Rehman 5-40, Ajmal 3 -59 and England 141 all-out. 42 on. Yes the pitch is what the Pakistanis are used to but England are clearly baffled by their spinners and changing their game through fear of the Hawkeye LBWs stacking up, which perpetuated the problem.

After losing the perfunctory two early wickets Pakistan piled up the highest partnership of the series, Azhar Ali and the rather placid but very good Younis Khan this series coming to life with a hundred, his twentieth in tests, the fifth most for a Pakistani. Younis doesn’t do the nervous nineties, converting all but one of them in the 90s to hundreds. He also has a treble test hundred to his name. England simply fell apart and stuck their thumbs in their mouths, demanding to go home.

Day Three and that out of place 216 partnership all but secured the win, Khan making 127. Ali batted on at a run an over to grind England into the ground, putting on 87 more with their excellent captain Misbaq-Ul-Haq (31). Panesar and Swann gave England some hope of retaining their world number one sport as the last seven wickets tumbled for 34 runs all around Azhar Ali’s 157 not out, the pitch reminding the batsmen who is in charge, Monty taking 5-124, Monty trying out his new celebration that involves a hand on the hip, a finger in the air and a gentle sway of the bottom, John Travolta style! England required 324 to win and closed on 48-0. Stranger things have happened.

Day four and the way England have batted it would clearly be the last day of the five day test. Cook held them together for a while but once out at 49 the wickets tumbled from 48-1 to 159-6, Ajmal again in the wickets. The middle order had a slog at Umar Gul, never a good idea, Prior (49*) guiding the tale over the 250 mark to delay the three nil thumping until the last half-hour of the day. Prior would be series top batsmen with that score at an average of 37.50. Monty’s LBW would be the 43rd of the series, a record for ANY test series. Prior managed just five catches in six innings. For Pakistan, victory after being bowled out for 99 on the first day ensured they became the first side since 1907 to win a Test after making fewer than 100 in the first innings. It was their first ever whitewash of England. DRS 1 England 0.

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Pakistan 1st innings: 99 all-out
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Shafiq 45
Andersen 4-36 and Broad 3-35

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England 1st innings: 141 all-out
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Strauss 56
Rehman 5 - 40
Ajmal 3 - 59

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Pakistan 2nd innings: 365 all out
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Azhar Ali 157*
Y.

Khan 127

Panesar 5-124
Swann 3-101

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England 2nd innings: 252 all out
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Cook 49
Prior 49*

Gul 4-61
Ajmal 4-67

****Pakistan won by 72 runs***

3-0 series win.

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Obituary…

England manages just five half-centuries between them in the whole series, Bell, Pietersen and Morgan sharing a pathetic two hundred runs at an average of just 7. Strauss has effectively been played out of form over the last year by Alistair Cook’s runs and Bell, who scored 1100 runs at 100 last year, the type of bat who needs time in the middle before test matches, having that brilliant 2011 because of. Morgan and KP cancel each other out in the top six as they both need a platform to blast away and that only works on bouncy wickets and you can only really ever play one of them, Morgan sure to be the scapegoat here. Bopara with his medium pace and fielding skills was my pick in that middle slot. All the England bats struggled against spin on the slow and low wickets and the fact the Pakistan first five were the top run scorers of the series is all you need to know how undercooked they were. A winter off instead of this sterile non profitable series would have been better.

England bowled very well and so the bowlers carry no blame for this series defeat and the fact Ajmal and Rehman’s spin took 43 wickets between them and there were those 43 LBWs is all you need to know what decided this series. The DRS was agreed by both sides but clearly favors the spinners with that absurd amount of LBWs given. Javed Miandad, Pakistan’s most famous batsmen from past glories, would not have enjoyed the DRS. He was NEVER given out LBW in a test in Pakistan in his test career. I have always said the Hawkeye is nonsense and I feel I have been proven right here. Whether Misbah-ul-Haq can save Pakistan cricket is another story.

England Twenty20 squad: Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire, capt), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Ravi Bopara (Essex), Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Danny Briggs (Hampshire), Jos Buttler (Somerset), Jade Dernbach (Surrey), Steven Finn (Middlesex), Alex Hales (Nottinghamshire), Craig Kieswetter (Somerset), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex), Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire), Kevin Pietersen (Surrey), Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire).