I agree... very very poor. the only two who showed any sort of game was vince and woakes and both just played solid. The pakistan batsmen just hung around.. they just waited and picke doff stuff and built that lead while england should little patience and chased in both innings. What we proved was that they have very little batting especially down the tail but that while we have batting we've guys who are indisiplined and lacking patience. I agree with you. You could have stood there all day hitting it back where it came from or padding it away. It was the same v all the left handers. they were coming round wicket to right handers so the ball was always pitching outside leg so no lbw but we still managed to **** that up.
I said at the start of the day there were plenty of bad balls to get the runs from. It was more a case of England losing it than Pakistan winning it. Although that doesn't take anything away from their win. Loved the celebration at the end. Great to see that from Pakistan 6 years after their humiliation. Redemption is a wonderful thing
Yes, there is a love of cricket at an absolute street level that isn't matched anywhere outside the sub-continent (well it doesn't seem to in the West Indies for 25 years or so). Amir had so much promise when he got mixed up in that stuff: some say he should have been banned for life, but I will say that nobody else ever gets a second chance now. I was at Headingly in the 80's when Wasim, Imran and Waqar were at their peak, and I thought they should have won the WC in 2000 in England (or thereabouts) before they imploded into nightclub and betting stories then. The raw talent is there in abundance. They need another Imran to discipline them though.
We threw that away in first innings losing 6 wickets to a leggie that barely turned the ball. Everyone got out to stupid shots really, but... It's first defeat in a while so no need to panic. Few positives in Woakes but Finn is letting side down at the moment. Needs to go back to county cricket, get stokes and Anderson back in for bell and Finn and team will be very strong.
Yup i agree. Finn is totally out of form. For me vince saved himself there in the end. he's got a lot to do but at least he should something. If I were a selector it'd be anderson and stoke straight back in alongside woakes and broad for next test and ali as back up. Cook, hales root, ballance, vince, bairstow stokes ali woakes broad anderson.... there isn't much debate. Buttlers broken thumb sees to that. He is very unlucky in that.
Ali needs to do more with either ball or bat. At the moment his batting isn't adding anything extra that a proper bowler could do and his bowling isn't good enough to play him instead of a normal batter. Problem is, England need a bowler to tie down 1 end even if it's just for overs. Could root do that job? Then you can either get a proper batsman or bowler in.
yeah but he does have the credit in his pocket right now still.. and we need that spin option so Rashid must be knocking on door shortly. I agree you have to have that guy there but ali is expansive at times. I don't think root can do that... I think he's too part time and not accurate enough
Good. Hope Rashid is not just there to serve drinks. We need a spinner at OT, for sure. Pakistan will have two.
They lost by 2 wickets... Not awful. Sussex aren't doing any better though, been **** this year in div 2, no one can bloody get a score other than Ross Taylor.
hale not really getting set at all... another lad who is decent and in fact very good at one day but at this level needs to learn defense.
