Just ****ing wow. Forget the cold analysis,test, MITO. That's a complete team buying into a ground breaking philosophy. One of the greatest victories I've witnessed in any cricket but on a flat track on the sub-continent, it's utterly phenomenal. It epitomises why I love test cricket. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.
all getting a bit squeaky bum time near the end where i was looking at the light almost as much as the cricket .
the contrast in approaches made it all the more interesting. england 1st innings scored at 6.5 an over... in test cricket... pakistan first innings 3.7 an over. which is quite good "traditionally" england second innings 7.3 runs an over.... and declare! pakistan 2nd innings 2.8 an over by the end were at 3.2 an over and could and should have won it from there. in short one side played like it was ODI and the other played traditional test cricket at a respectable rate. The result could have gone either way, and probably would flip quite a few times if your replayed it but the fact is it wasn't a boring 5 day test where by day 2 one side was playing for a draw. England before this would have not declared when they did and day 5 would have been a flop. the risk made it compelling. **** pitch though. the car park would have offered more.
btw form the fall of the wicket after lunch, their 6th til the end was 16 overs or thereabouts. 96 balls. they lost by 74 runs. Had they the balls to go after the tiring england bowlers with any sort of urgency just to score 1s and 2s they'd have had a better shot. it'll be interesting to see thier mindset in the next test and whether they learn from this. England played like this against south africa, got hockeyed in one and won two? they play NZ and won 3 chasing totals. I don't really see how pakistan were really prepared for a positive england based on that pitch and their approach to blowing on it day 1 especially. Thats 6 wins in 7 for england playing ultra positive and 1 defeat.... no draws.
Don't know what Labuschagnes averages are but he scored 308 in the first test v WI and he is 77 n.o. in Adelaide. Ridiculous
120 no off 235 balls. thats real test match borefest according to stokes. prior match was 204 off 350 and 104 off 110 only that second innings where australia were chasing a total before declaring was at the pace of baz ball. but thats 3 centuries in a row his average is up to 59.
normal service has resumed. A proper turning surface and england are 281 all out in 51.4 overs or in other words 5.44 runs and over. this is still quite positive scoring rate despite failure after failure o get in as Ahmed bowled them out. Poke, Duckett, stokes, jacks and wood chose to just play odi cricket while the others just chose to be ****. Pakistan got 107/2 in 28 overs = 3.8 runs and over. bang on the positive but still a test side approach pakistan brought last game.
Its the leech amd root show today. Pakistan scoring slower means they are 202/9 as the pitch favours spen heavily. England have a lead but need one more before batting. This one is a 3 day test on a turning glitch so the odi style bish bosh game might score enough to scare Pakistan
It's another interesting day, England certainly tried to score at odi numbers but 3 wickets that were not great (2 run outs ffs) slowed it up. 202/5 off 49 overs certainly is not the fast scoring 6 an over but it'd 4 an over. You'd expect this to be an absolutely stonking day tomorrow with two singers at the crease and Pakistan already needing a high score on a turning pitch to win it. Imo no declarations now, it a pure slugfest to score as much before they are out as possible and then 2 days more to bowl spin at Pakistan. This pitch suits bazball. If you try to stick in you'll be out to something turning so you might as well score hard and fast until you are out.
This is the thing. Both teams put away the bad balls. Both teams got out to the good balls. But those middle ok balls, England were putting them away for 4sand 2s, Pakistan were scoring 1s and 0s
England didn't deliver roo.many more today but have 3 wickets. A big task for Pakistan but not impossible and it looks like leech needs to just find his way a little.
Not great session from England. Focus on bashing it in cos they got 3 wickets via smashing stumps out of the ground. No catching slips for wood. Just leaking runs hoping they chip it at someone. Leech needs to find spin cos we are not getting these out without pressure.
50/50 or England favourites? 4 wickets down but 150 odd to get for Pakistan. England heading for a new ball here.
It's looking very bad now. It's not bazball that's failed here. That's worked fine. It's a really poor 2nd innings with the ball on a turning track. Leech should have eaten this up but has failed to get turn second innings
7 wickets with 58 runs needed. 3 wickets to win (need a hero) Or 58 runs. Tight. England not giving up.
and a win it is. First time they've ever won 2 tests in a series in Pakistan. you can't argue with that really.