Well done S Ravi.
Shocker.
Shocker.
English cricket 2015 - NZ, The Ashes, Pak and SA
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
What a poor decision. He's basically guessed there.
England need to improve their bowling and fielding 2 dropped catches (bell x2)and a wicket off a no ball. It's been clear as day that cook has not had a leg spinner before as he would have known to have a square point in place
We'll recover 
Pakistan going along nicely this morning
Really patient stuff from Pakistan. Just ticking along at a good rate without taking many risks.
Moeen and Rashid look rather our of their depth on a very slow pitch. What are Pakistan's spin options?
Moeen and Rashid look rather our of their depth on a very slow pitch. What are Pakistan's spin options?
Just seen Finn's out of the series. Real shame for him. Gonna need surgery, I assume.
Jordan called up as replacement.
Jordan called up as replacement.
Bad news re: Finn. Not convinced yet by Jordan but assuming he will be backup and they will keep the same XI barring further injuries.
Babar, a left arm offie and Malik. So not much tbh. If Pakistan had Yasir Shah, they'd be heavy favourties now.
If we had Yasir, I'd be tempted to declare at around 550. But without him, I'd keep batting until 30 mins before close/early tomorrow just to pile on more runs. If England bat sensibly, this should end in a draw.
Is Yasir going to be back for the next game??
Is Yasir going to be back for the next game??
Come on Malik, 300 is so on.
Christ this game is dull, who's idea was it to play cricket on this?
Oh great the collapse is back.
245 from a player that wasn't even in the squad 5-6 days ago, not too shabby.
Just get to 550 and declare already.
Just get to 550 and declare already.
Well that declaration came earlier than I expected. Let's see what our bowlers can do now....
There's some England batsmen, short of runs, who have a guilt edged opportunity to get a score on this pitch against an attack missing their best spinner. Fail here and it won't look too good.
Good start.
I reckon this is the worst test pitch I've ever seen.
Doesn't bounce, doesn't spin. No pace, no carry, nothing. Even with scoreboard pressure Pakistan can't really create anything.
Still, well batted Cookie, good knock.
Doesn't bounce, doesn't spin. No pace, no carry, nothing. Even with scoreboard pressure Pakistan can't really create anything.
Still, well batted Cookie, good knock.
Good stuff from Captain Cook.
Agreed. They might as well write it off as a draw and move on to the next place.
Agreed. They might as well write it off as a draw and move on to the next place.
Yep, it's a shame. The test series is going to be awful.
I guess the only saving grace for the next test is Yasir Shah coming back in, wrist spinners tend to get more out of unresponsive surfaces so maybe he might make it interesting.
I'm a big fan of Yasir Shah, but it's going to essentially be 1 excellent spinner and nothing else. If there's no swing, no bounce, and no 'back up' from the rest of the bowling pack it'll be a hard job.
Its better than nothing, what are we up to now? 703-9 across 2 and a half days. Bell's batting like a walking wicket and still can't be got out.
Pakistan are playing some utterly daft bowlers in this game. Neither Rahat nor Imran Khan are anything spectacular and Babar will tie up one end with tight bowling but won't take any wickets. I'd play Wahab and Junaid Khan in the next game with Yasir, Babar and Malik as the third spinner.
Dubai and Sharjah won't be like this. Those wickets will assist the spinners much more than this road.
Dubai and Sharjah won't be like this. Those wickets will assist the spinners much more than this road.
I know England got a bit of stick for having swinging pitches post Lords in the Ashes but I'd rather have pitches where it boomerangs with swing or turns square than this shite. At least it gives both sets of bowlers a chance.
This isn't cricket, it's just batting practice.
This is dire. More atmosphere at my high school cricket games.
Exactly 200 overs remaining of this borefest.
Dropping Cook on 147. Well done 
Poor, poor excuse for Test cricket. Perhaps we could debate the pros/cons of using a nightwatchman? It's always seemed pretty pointless to me and today we've tried it and 1 wicket has almost instantly become 2 for absolutely no benefit to us. Anyone got any thoughts?
I think it can be a good idea if you have someone suited to doing it. We don't. It was silly.
It was ok when we had Jack Russell doing it, he always seemed to annoy feck out of the bowlers and also waste an hour of their time and stamina the next morning.
First, imo, the nightwatchman should only be sent if light is fading and the next batman in line has mentally almost made up his mind to not bat that day. In some cases, when batting conditions are good, proper batsmen don't mind coming out. The concept is weird though because if nightwatchman gets out soon, the proper batsman comes out anyway. Very rarely teams send another nightwatchman.
Iirc, Wood scored few quick fire runs in Ashes and is capable of hitting. That is not the player to be sent as nightwatchman. Anderson is a perfect nightwatchman. Maybe England thought Anderson will be peppered with bouncers late in the day and wanted to protect him from possible injury? Not sure.
Iirc, Wood scored few quick fire runs in Ashes and is capable of hitting. That is not the player to be sent as nightwatchman. Anderson is a perfect nightwatchman. Maybe England thought Anderson will be peppered with bouncers late in the day and wanted to protect him from possible injury? Not sure.
He was. His game has changed completely now. He no longer takes his batting seriously.
Maybe because of the situation? I checked, last time he batted as nightwatchman was in Sydney test, Jan '14. All other innings have been as no. 11, except one at 10 (in that Sydney test only). Since then he played that 81 runs innings as no. 11 vs India and also that great effort when he nearly saved test vs Sri Lanka. I don't watch all England matches and innings, so maybe you are right and he has thrown away wicket few times, but that might be down to circumstances as well? If asked to just stick around for 5 overs, I think he can still do it (unless he gets a ball too good for a no. 10/11).
Definitely clicked with management that sending your best quick out to face a few bouncers at the end of the day in fading light might be a bit stupid I think, no way is Wood a good nightwatchman either.
Pitches like this are a disgrace. The PCB should be fined for this concrete pile of shit. 5 days of solid batting without anything in there for the bowlers is why test cricket is losing interest amongst fans.
900 runs for 5 wickets. Not counting the nightwatchman and the wickets Pakistan threw away in search of quick runs.
This game is unwatchable. There was much criticism in Australia about the pitches during the ashes series however at least they gave the bowlers something to work with if they were good enough, and if the batsmen were good enough they could prosper. Glenn McGrath would get a century on this pitch and he couldn't bat. Kiwi bunny Chris Martin would get to 75 on this.