Pakistan vs England, 1st Test - Dubai

Early start for this one tomorrow. I hope to catch half hour of play before I head to work.

Bat first is the key on these pitches I feel.

Anyway, thought I'd create the match discussion thread now so that it is there when we wake up. England are playing Test cricket again, I'm going to bed feeling like a kid on Christmas Eve.

Looking forward to the Test and the discussion.

Hafeez on early and gets Cook in his first over. 15-1

Pakistan have only gone with 2 seamers, so they obviously think spin is England's weakness.

Tremlett in for Bresnan.

Just to give the English a little bit of the willies.

Do you lose your number one ranking if you lose to Pakistan?

Not sure to be honest, Biltong. We shall have no such negativity here please

not the best start from England, it was a disappointing shot from Cook really. My one worry with this England side is that none of the top 3 are particularly good players of spin. Trott with a couple of fortunate boundaries off Cheema. England 29/1, over-rate ordinary.

Oh, come now Fists. I had to hear it from all and sundry about how unfair it would be if SA took the ranking away from England by not playing them.

It is called revenge, I am told it is a dish served best when cold.

Trott gone for 17. Soft dismissal to a Cheema bouncer, brushing it behind to the keeper.

30-2.

unlucky Trott, England in a spot of bother. Come on KP, show 'em!

Well hopefully Pietersen has his wits about him today. Applying himself at the wicket, and not causing a mini collapse.

Anyone else already annoyed by the Pakstani keeper constantly shouting 'yeeeessssss' to every average ball. He sounds like mr Burns.

Come on England, big partnership needed.

You can plug in your predicted scores in the ICC Calculator, Biltong.

ICC Test Predictor

I think they would be safe at No.1 for a while yet.

FoF - that is so bloody annoying... also the "shabbah...shabbah" would drive anyone nuts. Someone should tell him to simmer down - a little.

Haha, Linebreaker, I am not really particularly interested in the rankings.

But having a bit of fun with those who were so concerned about their precious ranking not too long ago.

Juat want to do my bit to add to the tension and drama that is test cricket.

They can all thank me later.

Strauss gone now, dreadful shot! England need a partnership now.

KP and Bell need to steady the ship now.

Ooh, ouch, Bell gone.

Bell gone first ball, Ajmal on a hat-trick!

well this is a disaster

Ajmal with three wickets in two overs, England just throwing it away at the moment, terrible batting!

Superb bowling from Ajmal though.

Ouch. Queue all those "are you India in disguise" chants

Bell was a good ball, that's about it. Morgan mis-stumped, England "going nowhere" as Athers says.

the spinners have bowled 14 overs and taken 4-10. England need to sort this out, be more pro-active.

PSW was right, we can't play on these pitches pathetic effort against spin that is accurate but not much else.

Really need to salvage something or we are already 1-0 down.

If ever Mogs needed to score big, its right now. This is probably the innings where we will see if he is going to be a good test player or not. I still think that he should only be in the ODI and T20 squads..

Very bad session for England but it's far from curtains. If we can get the score to 250 we have a chance. I have a lot of confidence in our bowlers as well. Come on England!

250 from here Duty? Thats a massive ask i fear. I would be more hopeful of 150 to be honest.

woke up at 5:30 am this morning on my day off, to watch this game, wish i didnt bother, dreadful from england, full credit to pakistan.

Geoff Boycott is right... have patience, concentration. See off the early overs. That was the game plan. England seem to have struggled to put it into action.
Anyway... still a long way to go.

Linebreaker wrote:You can plug in your predicted scores in the ICC Calculator, Biltong.

ICC Test Predictor

I think they would be safe at No.1 for a while yet.

FoF - that is so bloody annoying... also the "shabbah...shabbah" would drive anyone nuts. Someone should tell him to simmer down - a little.

We can lose 3-0 and still be no.1. Safe.

eirebilly wrote:250 from here Duty? Thats a massive ask i fear. I would be more hopeful of 150 to be honest.

I know it was different conditions but I remember England v Pakistan in 2010.England 47/5 became 446 all out and an innings victory - I'm just hoping for half of that.

God i hope for that as well Duty but i cant see England getting much past 150 in these conditions after the start they have had.

cricketfan90 wrote:woke up at 5:30 am this morning on my day off, to watch this game, wish i didnt bother, dreadful from england, full credit to pakistan.

Sorry for you there mate. Nothing worse than watching this sort of thing on your day off.

hmmm will perserve with it though!

WITH ENGLAND THROUGH THE HARD TIMES AND THE GOOD

Too early to tell. England can steady things and put a decent total on the board hopefully. Someone just has to knuckle down and play sensibly.

Thats true cricketfan

If we can make 200 I will be happy enough from here. I think Pakistan have a fragile batting lineup, and I have plenty of faith in our bowlers, but we need to give them something to bowl at.

Very poor from England, far too passive against the spinners. Hafeez is accurate but does absolutely nothing else, we should have carted him over the top a few times to get on top of him, not play every ball off the back foot and look like prime lbw candidates.

It isn't over yet, but a huge rescue mission needs to be carried out, and then we need to bowl and field exceedingly well.

Linebreaker wrote:Too early to tell. England can steady things and put a decent total on the board hopefully. Someone just has to knuckle down and play sensibly.

It is early but with all but one of Englands recognised batsmen gone it will be very tough from here. 150 in these conditions still a target for Englands bowlers to defend.... I hope

my summary of the morning session

BATTING:

Strauss: dreadful shot, ball was too full to pull.
Cook: should have gone forward too full and not width to cut the ball
Trott: not the first time has got out this way..some say unlucky i say not...he got too far across, if he stood still it would have been easy flick away for runs
KP: not for the first time bamboozled by spin
Bell: only one i say wasnt his fault......fantastic delivery first up, nothing he could do about it.....

BOWLING:

Gul: bowled well but not much swing
Cheema; was threatning and got a deserved wicket
Hafeez: always keeps things tight and got a crucial wicket
Rehman: rarely goes at over 2 an over, and bowled well
Ajmal: the pick of the bunch, phenomenal spell.

Something about these venues. Often middling scores, some quite low (180-250?) which can be enough; or not. Every run counts.

I remember clumps of wickets falling when Oz played Pak - from both sides. It was hair-raising stuff! So it's a case of making the most (value your wicket) and grinding it out.

It will still be a close contest - I think... and England will get better as the series progresses.

Could be the making of Eoin Morgan this, especially as he's strong against spin.

Morgan averages something like 160 against spin in Tests, compared to 28 against pace bowlers. Some stat, and we need those 160 now!

Come on boys, all is not lost...yet.

what do people think about my summary?


(also good to see UDRS being used;)

Bell did get a good ball, but the only one really. KP was a little unlucky, he had been very sensible and watchful to begin with against the spin, but slightly misjudged the one that did for him. Disappointed with Strauss.

posted this on the wrong thread
As soon as I heard that England were not going with the second spinner (Panesar - despite him being the best performing bowler in the warm up event), I knew that England would probably suffer humiliation (although Pakistan themselves are in turmoil from events within Pakistan itself as well as the match fixing scandal).

England were humiliated in the one day matches in India. They really need to change their one strategy mentality..

spot on cric

Don't agree with the bamboozled part, cf, he missed 1 ball. Other than that it is ok, though I think Trott was slightly unlucky to feather it on his inside edge.

Nore Staat wrote:posted this on the wrong thread
As soon as I heard that England were not going with the second spinner (Panesar - despite him being the best performing bowler in the warm up event), I knew that England would probably suffer humiliation (although Pakistan themselves are in turmoil from events within Pakistan itself as well as the match fixing scandal).

England were humiliated in the one day matches in India. They really need to change their one strategy mentality..

Can I ask what not picking a 2nd spinner has got to do with us being 52/5?

Nore Staat wrote:posted this on the wrong thread
As soon as I heard that England were not going with the second spinner (Panesar - despite him being the best performing bowler in the warm up event), I knew that England would probably suffer humiliation (although Pakistan themselves are in turmoil from events within Pakistan itself as well as the match fixing scandal).

England were humiliated in the one day matches in India. They really need to change their one strategy mentality..

What does hit and giggle cricket have to do with the true form of the game? We're no.1 FFS!

Beat me to it Fists, forgot the Monty was a world class batsmen