Story Pakistan's International season [BLIC]

[nightprowler10]

Pakistan vs England - 2nd Test (Faisalabad)

Preview:

The second test match of this series, that the home team now leads 1-0, is scheduled to be played in Faisalabad (formerly known as Lyallpur, name changed to Faisalabad to honor the late Saudi King Faisal). The venue, Iqbal Stadium, seems to be a difficult one to win in for either one of the teams. England have played three tests against Pakistan in this venue and have drawn all three. Pakistan on the other hand have drawn eleven, but managed to win six, and suffered 5 losses.

The last time these two teams faced off on this ground in a test match was in late November of 2000 when England were on top of the game throughout the match but a heroic century by Abdul Razzaq saved Pakistan from defeat and forced a draw.

Iqbal Stadium was named after the revered poet/visionary Allama Iqbal
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Line-ups:

Not many changes in either line-ups. The exception was Yasir Hameed who was injured during a practice session and is being replaced by Imran Nazir.




Pakistan win the toss and elect to field:

Once again Pakistan have won the toss and once again Inzamam-ul-Haq has decided to field. Seems like he has a lot more confidence in his team's bowling than he does in its batting. With three spinners on his side who will be bowling on a dusty pitch, he will be expecting them to get some odd bounce that might help them out earlier in the game.




The match will be starting soon.......

 

[gold639]

I hope England win,to level the series

 

[The Champ]

Its a dusty i dont know why Pak decided to bowl, WOW WOw If they lose here then this question will arise:upray

 

[nightprowler10]

England suffer early losses, but Butcher fights back

Sorry for the delay guys. I played through lunch all the way to tea to make up for lost time.

England got off to a bad start as they lost their opener Strauss early in the match to a slow delivery by Sami at the score of just 8 runs.

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But unlike the last match, the English batting order didn't crumble after losing one early wicket. Instead, Butcher and Trescothick played some wonderful cricket and were able to get the score to 50 without a problem. This partnership was broken when Trescothick got stumped while trying to hit Saqlain Mushtaq for four.

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The next two batsmen, Vaughan and Thorpe, weren't able to make any contributions to the total and got out by the time ten more runs were scored. First to go was the captain, who got runout in an attempt to take a single where there wasn't one. Then, Thorpe got out LBW to a sharply turning delivery by Danish Kaneria.

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Luckily for England, Thorpe's wicket marked the beginning of a wonderful partnership between Butcher and Flintoff. Both batsmen successfully fended off all of the Pakistani attacks and have taken their partnership close to a hundered by tea time. Butcher was able to score his fifty in 104 deliveries. At tea, England were 151/4.

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England 151/4 - Tea (Day 1)
M. Butcher 73*(144) | A. Flintoff 30*(73)​

 

[gold639]

England in a not-so-good position here.

I hope Butcher makes a century

 

[The Champ]

ENG need to rehabilitate their innings after those early wkts. Butcher has to stay there till end

 

[gold639]

He's made half of England's total.

 

[m_vaughan]

Yes and he has the dangerous Flintoff with him, and this two need to build up a good partnership.

 

[gold639]

Flintoff isn't very dangerous in test matches.

 

[Will p]

He can be, he can come out with huge innings in test maatches! 162 vs West Indies par example!

 

[m_vaughan]

Flintoff isn't very dangerous in test matches.

He can win matches by himself!

 

[nightprowler10]

Amir strikes but Flintoff unshaken

Great to see such interest in this match.

In the first over after tea, Butcher hit Amir for back to back fours. Amir kept offering Butcher bad deliveries so he could create an opportunity to get the seemingly invincible batsman's wicket. Unfortunately for England, Amir's plan worked. Butcher tried to hook on one of Amir's many bouncers sending the ball flying to Akhtar who took an easy catch, thus ending a wonderful 99 run partnership.

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Amir was able to pick up another couple of wickets. In the next few overs he got Jones and Giles to edge his deliveries back to Inzamam.

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With the team 7 down at the score of just 175 runs, Flintoff decided to take charge and has batted beautifully throughout the rest of day. He reached his half-century in 90 balls. On the other end, Hoggard kept playing defensive taking runs only when he could. At the end of the day, England were 245/7.

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England 245/7 (83 overs) - At Stumps (Day 1)
A. Flintoff 90*(156) | M. Hoggard 19*(61)​

 

[gold639]

I hope Flintoff doesn't reach his century

 

[The Champ]

Excellent intrigiung test match on cards here, Pak slightly on top i would say and superb contribution by flintoff

 

[gold639]

Now Hoggard must concentrate on trying not to get out,he should give Flintoff most of the strike.