It's interesting to see the words Athers & Nas have used for this pitch and the idea of a second test on the same pitch. Pretty sure the words wouldn't have been same if it was India
English cricket thread
- Thread starter Samid
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This has annoyed me from before the test to be honest, it’s a mix of England winning 4 on the spin in Pakistan and Pakistan being in a bad way so it’s technically more English hubris but in a subtly different way. I respect England not making a fuss and trying to play the game at hand but it’s a poor way to prepare a TEST match pitch, if someone pulled this in County Cricket they’d get deducted points.
I really respect England’s persistence under Stokes/McCullum but man I think there’s so much in this team if they nail the small details. Reviews, catching, playing out a session with the sole objective of having wickets in hand. If they can make steps there I think they can beat India in England and Australia in Australia.
I'd take being competitive in Australia!
But agree with your general point, a bit of refinement and there's a top side not far off.
Stokes pulls his finger out with the bat, Bashir grows in stature, Archer and Wood get healthy and yeah, there’s a bloody team worth having in Australia for once isn’t there?
Yeah it's just proper hubris because they wanted Pakistan to be competitive, saying stuff like this is exactly how a pitch is supposed to deteriorate day to day after 16 wickets fell on day 3 is a far cry from their previous comments
All on Root and Brook again.
Edit: Nope
Edit: Nope
Not sure why the commentator is moaning about England playing a high percentage of sweeps on a low bounce, turning pitch.
can't understand what's being said from your comments.. mind explaining?
Just looking at the scorecard, looks a pretty decent pitch? 250ish average in first 3 innings..
It wasn’t that bad. England’s middle order collapsed in the first innings and put down multiple catches at crucial moments in the second. With a bit of a partnership somewhere in that middle order the lead could have been cut by 40 or so. The dropped catches probably cost England at least that again.
It could have been an exciting chase if England played a little better, they’ve only really got themselves to blame.
Plus the Pakistan tail scored alot of runs where England couldn’t bowl them out.
Pakistan used a pitch that was used for the first test again and I am saying that Nas & Athers keep talking about how good these conditions are for test cricket & this is exactly how it should be. This isn't really a principled take because they have constantly criticised India for spinning wickets
Both teams scored runs the first 2,5 days, it wasn’t until the final few days where things got tricky. It would have been different if the pitch was playing like it was in the final part from the start of the test. I think that’s a pretty fair pitch that makes for an entertaining test match. To be fair I thought the pitches were slightly better than some of those in the past during the series in India last winter, but it certainly hasn’t always been the case.
But to conclude, the pitch this match was better than how it was in the first test.
England really have serious issues playing on turning tracks, they really struggle to start and while sweeping is great but apart from Root they struggle to nurdle & flick the ball. Sweep in these conditions is good but it's high risk
England lost so I don't really want to make it about the pitch. They got outplayed and deserved to lose.
Yep they seem to lack the ability just to push singles and 2’s into gaps. Something Root and Pope did yesterday evening for a short while.
thanks
I think that test pretty much came down to who won the toss, the wicket was always going to deteriorate quite quickly, so batting first was huge advantage. I don't think England need to worry too much, practice playing spin, congratulate Pakistan and move on to Rawalpindi.
Have they? There was that one deck on a tour a while ago that everyone had a go at. Other than that Nas and Ath in particular tend to be very balanced.
The test prior Root and Brook scored the most singles and twos by any double centurions in test history.
Come on now, that pitch had very little spin
Listening to Hussain and Atherton over the last couple of days they've been very fair I think.They both said its not sustainable for Pakistan going forward to use the same pitch twice but other than that they both said it was an excellent test match.
I’m talking about in tough spinning conditions.
Whats the deal with the pitch? I've seen memes but don't really follow it all anymore.
It's well within the rules to use the same pitch. Pak got it tactically spot on going with only one pacer. They utilized home advantage which every test playing country does.
Yep, they took a risk themselves with that pitch and the toss - got the advantage and used it well. No major complaints.
It’s the same pitch that was used for the first test so it continues to deteriorate more so than a new pitch would day by day.
Pakistan took a chance with their selection, not sure picking 7 spinners was necessary and as it turned out they only used 2, but It paid off and they fully deserved the victory. Be interesting to see what they do for the decider.
Always frustrating to have a pitch where the toss feels so important. Not the sort of thing you normally associate with Pakistan. Taking a leaf out of India's book.
Yes 100% agreed.
Don't understand why people are focusing on the toss so much. The pitch deteriorated like any normal pitch would. The scores were pretty balanced between bat and ball for the 1st and 2nd innings with the ball taking over in the 3rd and 4th. Every toss is a good toss to win and gives the team a massive advantage over the other, don't think it was any different to any other pitch, particularly one in the subcontinent.
I watched pretty much the whole thing as I'm off work this week - it started turning square late on day two.
The toss was big - but that's fine, often been the case in Cricket particularly in the sub continent. England still had moments they could have taken the initiative but Pakistan wrestled it back. No complaints.
Yea I mean if England took the catches for Salman then the chase would've actually been close. I would say England had the advantage in terms of personnel because the ball was reverse swinging too but Pakistan didn't have any pace bowlers to take advantage of that. If Pakistan would've lost this there would've been a lot of discussion of why a pace bowler wasn't played in place of Zahid Mehmood, who wasn't used at all.
Pakistan have held the toss advantage numerous times before but we've fecked up because the pitches exposed our weaknesses. I'm just glad we got our first win at home for ages.
I shall admit my comment was for the benefit of one or two people and should not be taken as a sincere belief that Pakistan didn't deserve the win.
It hinged on a few moments, don't think anyone was comprehensively outplayed.
At one point it looked as if England were going to overhaul Pakistan's first innings total and then the pitch suddenly starting offering extravagant turn.
With England 211-2 at one point, the toss was crucial to the outcome of the game.
Love the second photo. A classic.
Late to the party here.
Bit naughty of Pakistan to play on a used pitch. Reminded me of when England prepared green mambas to beat Australia in 2015. But still, we need to get better at playing on surfaces like that.
Carse looks a gem though. He's in our best XI for me now.
Bit naughty of Pakistan to play on a used pitch. Reminded me of when England prepared green mambas to beat Australia in 2015. But still, we need to get better at playing on surfaces like that.
Carse looks a gem though. He's in our best XI for me now.