England in Pakistan

[m_vaughan]

Kaneria was pretty ordinary in the first innings.

 

[UsmanCHADDA]

Kaneria was pretty ordinary in the first innings.

Kaneria was not ordinary. I think there were a few balls where the batsmen were left guessing. Pieterson's dismissal comes into mind :

 

[cc2003btw]

^ He said in the first innings. And it was true. It was an average performance, the 2nd innings was better for him.

 

[m_vaughan]

Yeah, I mean, he doesnt have the ability to outthink the batsman. He depends a lot on the wicket for turning the ball.

 

[cc2003btw]

^ Which is why Warne is who he is. He's a smart bowler, he plays with the batsmans mind. Like with Bell in the ashes. First he bowled him two leg breaks turning from middle to outside off, to scare him. Then he bowled a zooter iirc.

 

[dniniyan]

Which is why Warne is who he is. He's a smart bowler, he plays with the batsmans mind.

But for the Indian batsmen ofcourse.

 

[valvolux]

The fact remains that Flintoff and Pietersen could have quite comfortably seen England home if they hadn't batted like fairies. The fact that they batted like Steroid-filled baseball players is hard to understand given the circumstances.

this comment holds no weight - they are both at their best when they act like steroid-filled baseball players. fortunately for them, it seems to work more often than not - i don't think they're going to change their approach any time soon, because i don't think they know how to.

Suprising result, mainly because the wicket was ideal for seam bowlers (isn't that england's strength?) and the pakistan line-up is short on both batting and bowling. Yet the pakistan batsmen dominated the english bowlers at times, and their bowlers made them look like school boys. It would appear that the poms are finding it hard to adapt to the conditions, and with only 2 tests to go, injuries, child births and family problems, it's an uphill battle for the poms from here.

Don't discredit Kaneria, he is a class act - this guy will torment the english for the rest of the series. He and Afridi were awesome when they were recently flogged by australia. He will only get better as the series goes on.

I don't understand the bit about the poms dominating 4/5 days - it was very level pegging for the entire match in my opinion, with only a single individual effort pushing the advantage slightly in england's favour going into the final day. It was obvious that once tresco was out in the second dig that a collapse was just around the corner. The rest of the english batting order looked all at sea in both innings, their spinners were ordinary and the pace attack only good in spurts. But i'd expect to see the Poms reverting to the mass resting of bowlers between spells to try and fix this.

This will give india great confidence for their coming series - they are heavy on batting, and will prepare pitches for spin - england's biggest weakness. It will be infinately harder than in pakistan. I predict the pakistanis will hold onto this series, and the indians will go undefeated in the next.

But where was the crowd? I thought the pakistanis were just as fanaticle as the indians? Or is it just when the aussies are in town?

 

[Sureshot]

The poms aren't playing Pakistan you're playing West Indies.

We really need a class English spinner just so our batsman can learn how to play spin. As only Tres looks comfortable.

 

[m_vaughan]

I agree with the above post. Though Giles has served us extremely well, I think we need a world class spinner who can win us games in the subcontinent.

I can bet a million bucks that we can thrash Pakistan in any other part of the world!

 

[Sureshot]

Probably, Loudon is more dangerous with the ball than Giles.

 

[Stephen Bailey]

this comment holds no weight - they are both at their best when they act like steroid-filled baseball players. fortunately for them, it seems to work more often than not - i don't think they're going to change their approach any time soon, because i don't think they know how to.

They can play differently, and they both have quite recently. Pietersen had a number of innings in the Ashes where he played patiently for a long time (Lord's), then he steadily explodes! He's out of form at the moment so he's less to blame than Flintoff. Flintoff has a number of patient innings or innings where he doesn't try to smash the ball under his belt. 102* from 224 balls in the West Indies, also his 100 at Trent Bridge in the Ashes. Good sensible cricket.

Can't argue with the rest of the post though!

 

[ZexyZahid]

A bit good news for England.

Vaughan passed fit for Faisalabad
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/4445860.stm

 

[MAJID-A]

I can bet a million bucks that we can thrash Pakistan in any other part of the world!

Strange, considering that Multan was a flat bed with hardly any spin or bounce for Kaneria and nothing really for the rest of the pakistani bowlers.

 

[m_vaughan]

The wicket on day 5 behaved completely different from the previous four days.

 

[scorpion_rulezz]

Pakistan (probable)
Salman Butt,
Shoaib Malik,
Younis Khan,
Mohammad Yousuf,
Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt),
Shahid Afridi,
Kamran Akmal (wk),
Rana Naved-ul-Hasan,
Mohammad Sami,
Shoaib Akhtar,
Danish Kaneria

England (probable)
Marcus Trescothick,
Andrew Strauss,
Michael Vaughan (capt)
Ian Bell,
Kevin Pietersen,
Andrew Flintoff,
Geraint Jones (wk),
Ashley Giles,
Shaun Udal,
Mathew Hoggard,
Steve Harmison
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/pakveng/content/story/226457.html