New selectors, new line up, same old scoreline.
England bowled out for 184 in 58 overs, leaving a Pakistan side widely expected to lose this two match test series in an excellent position to get a nice fat first innings lead. There’s a long way to go in the test match yet, obviously, but it’s not looking good for England.
Overcast, good toss to win, moisture in the air, can’t judge the pitch until both teams have batted - any other straws to clutch at that I have missed? Hang on - we won the toss, scratch that one. Replace it with ‘early wicket in reply’.
Looks like Pakistan could take a 200 run first innings lead, it’s a long way back for England here. Need to get about 150 over them and try and bowl them out last innings, but they have shown that they can bat.
So, the end of day 3, and an England fightback that still hasn’t gone far enough to make a proper game of it - we could so easily be all out in half an hour tomorrow and just be giving them a token 80 or so to get.
Realistically, England need to get that 150 to stand a chance, and that’s another hundred runs. They can do it - Buttler is still in, Bess has shown he can bat, and Wood and Broad both have some previous (and even Anderson has a test match 50), but there’s doubts about all of them, and this game is very much Pakistan’s to lose.
Pakistan can lose from any position.
We didn’t. Yay!
Win number 5 at Lords.
Very good performance by the Pakistan team, was very impressed. They beat us in English conditions when we should really have been better, but the batted better, with patience and discipline (not traditionally associated with the Pakistan team) and once they were ahead in the game, they never really let up.
England’s problems continue, and I think I’ve said before that I think the problems are down to attitude and approach to the game rather than the particular players picked.
You know, I am getting a bit fed up with the whole “unpredictable” trope.
In the last 10 years, we have won 2 ICC titles, been to 5 Semis or Finals in addition, beaten Australia, England, South Africa, Sri Lanka in Tests. We have been no 1 in Tests.
You don’t get that by being mercurial.
I politely refer you, AK84, to your own post#5.
In the last 10 years, Pakistan have won 31 and lost 33 test matches (with 15 draws)
England, in the same period, just edge the w/l the other way - they’ve won 52 and lost 44 (with 30 draws).
South Africa has won 48 to 23 losses. They have been a good, solid, dependable side. Both England and Pakistan, whilst they have had their moments, have not had the best decade.
Ireland lost by four fewer wickets.
In other news AL Jazeera have launched another round of spot-fixing allegations. Yay?!
Stoneman out! Jennings in! The revolving door continues!
Better from England, although it couldn’t have been much worse than the last effort.
Jennings looked better than he did at the last outing, so I’m officially jumping on the “We’ve Finally Found An Opener Who Might Be Good” bandwagon until he nicks off falling over himself in the second innings like the Keaton Jennings we’re used to.
Shame Cook went so late, but England will be looking to get up towards 400 on this and bossing the second innings. Good start.
And England win, in a game with surprising parallels with the first game until Pakistan’s second innings, when they didn’t manage what England managed - to overhaul the opposition’s first innings total.
Still lots of questions - only Buttler scored more than 50 (although Bess came agonisingly close as night-watchman), and Jennings never got his chance to get out caught slip chasing a wide one in the second innings. It was a good win, but we’ll have to do better when India come.
Not attacking you personally, but I couldn’t resist quoting this. A ‘series’ (scare quotes because I don’t think 2 matches is really a series) that neither side can be satisfied with.
Agreed, this is crying out for a decider.
(Thanks, Teuton, for letting me know about this thread, btw).
So, the second match was obviously better news for England, but I’m not sure it entirely offsets what we saw at Lords. It’s good that our bowlers performed well on a bowler-friendly wicket, and that our batters were better in English conditions than Pakistan’s were. But generally, getting out in the 40s is considered Not Good. Cook for example, getting out on a well-earned 45 with two overs left, would in all other circumstances be regarded as having at best missed a big opportunity and at worst as having let his team down. It all turned out OK, but it doesn’t leave you feeling convinced that a corner has been turned.
On the bright side, Bess and Curran seemed to enjoy themselves, which is a positive.
The little radio commentary I heard suggested that (contrary to recent matches) a fair proportion of the England wickets were largely down to good bowling on a helpful pitch, as opposed to poor shot selection/technique. I don’t know which applies to Cook’s wicket (or anyone’s really - the only one I heard fall live was Woakes, I think, which was definitely a good ball more than anything) but it does suggest England are moving in the right direction. Albeit there was really only one direction to go after the previous game. Having said that, it may yet prove that this is the blip, and another crushing loss could have been helpful in the long run in that perhaps it would have triggered the wholesale changes that seem to be needed. Don’t ask me what they are - I think Cumbrian stated them pretty comprehensively in a post near the end of the Ashes thread. Bottom line though is we don’t have many alternatives in any of the key positions (captain, opener, strike bowler, all-rounder). And that will only change by increasing the focus on the domestic County Championship, which doesn’t seem likely to happen any time soon. Pity.
I did? Excellent! 
It’s a shame that there’s not another match in this series. I quite like Pakistan as a cricket side, both in general and this unit in particular. They seem well led, full of young lads trying to get better, have proper cohesion as a team and Mickey Arthur seems like the kind of bloke I wished was the head coach of our own side. Put them alongside NZ as my second favourite Test match playing nations and a bunch of guys I wish we played more often. Be nice if they can start playing a few more matches at home. There’s the makings of a good side there - I like the look of Shadab Khan in particular.
Joking aside, I don’t really know what to say about England anymore, as I’ve said it most of it before, probably to the point of everyone else’s boredom. The defining feature of this Test series from an English point of view was an awful decision at the toss at Lord’s by Joe Root (reviewing some old cricket threads, I’ve bemoaned the problems we’ve got getting captains of quality into the England team, since the centrally contracted players play so little CC cricket that they don’t captain their counties and, therefore, don’t get any practice at it). I think he totally over thought it - let’s make sure we get last use of the pitch, as it looks dry and it will bring our spinner into the game. Yeah, dumb-arse, you’ve got the best seam up conditions you’re likely to see all season and Jimmy Anderson in your side.
Then they batted like utter dickheads. But then, if you’re going to treat CC cricket like Rochester treated Bertha Mason, no surprise that no one is any nick with the bat - since all the opportunities for finding form were rained off, or dominated by 75 mph seam bowlers who nibble it about a bit to exploit conditions. I’ve moaned about this before too. England’d better win the World Cup is all I can say, given this focus on white ball cricket from the powers that be.
Positives? We didn’t pick James Vince and we finally did the kindest thing for Mark Stoneman and put him out of his misery. Dom Bess looks like he has a good attitude. I was not hugely pro the return of Buttler but, hands up, I was totally wrong. If he plays like he did in these matches all the time, all well and good. Even better if we can ensure he’s not coming in at fuck all for 5 every innings, as we seem to be keen on ensuring our lower middle order is faced with this scenario at least 4 times a summer. Broad is bowling better. It looked like, at Leeds, someone actually had a plan (bat out of your crease to Abbas to nullify the movement) and it sort of worked.
Question marks? I see Sam Curran a lot, due to my membership down at The Oval. I can’t quite believe he’s been selected for England. Maybe in 5 years’ time but now? He doesn’t have the pace for Test match bowling and will get sorted out right soon. Hopefully this will be a one off and Stokes will be fit for India (though every chance he’s in court). Bess doesn’t turn it enough to trouble decent players of spin - India will hammer him if he plays. Jennings? Batted better than last time he was in the side but unsure he’s a long term answer. I still think Cook has eye problems - drops in the slips and playing more false shots - get him in for LASIK. Other than Buttler, no one scored heavily. Depth in our seam up bowling attack still a problem. We’ll be OK at home, where we know how to bowl. I don’t think Root is a good captain - but we lack alternatives (everyone else is either trying to cement their place in the side, has been tried before, is over-burdened with responsibility already - Bairstow needs to bail out our top order and keep wicket for instance, is potentially too volatile - I’m looking at you Jimmy - or in trouble with the law).
WTFs? I understand that we have to try and work out which of our bowlers could take wickets abroad but I don’t understand why we are trying to do that in this country. Send the guys out to play grade cricket, Ranji Trophy or what have you (especially if we keep treating red ball domestic cricket like a red-headed step-child). Instead, we played Wood at Lord’s because we think he could be an x-factor outside England. But he’s playing on a green top in May??? Why not just pick the players to win this match and work out who to take elsewhere at some other point? Credit where due though - Strauss did say before the series he wanted to equalise performance abroad with that at home - getting utterly gubbed at home is one way of achieving that.
Hmm. Seems I thought of something.
Of course, there is a player who’s a proven leader and captain, he just doesn’t play test cricket. But surely he can’t do any worse than some of the guys who’ve been brought in recently?
That’s right. Morgan in at 7, in the side purely for captaincy, and to get what runs he can. You know it makes sense.
Given the result in yesterday’s Greatest ODI Of All Time*, this does not feel like an odds-on favourite right now.
Short boundaries, batsman’s pitch. Sure. But that goes both ways, and you wouldn’t have bet that the panicky runouts would be by the World Number One side instead of the minnows who couldn’t even qualify for the World Cup.**
*A hell of a lot of Scots woke up today to find out they’d been secretly harbouring a deep love of cricket their whole lives. Which is what these matches are for, after all.
**A wound which started healing around 6.20pm yesterday.
You know, I kind of get the sense from the cricketing press, and Twitterati, that we’re all meant to praise Scotland for what happened yesterday. And, fair enough, they did well enough to put England under pressure, so good for them.
But honestly, England batted, collectively, like cretins yesterday. Two run outs that were utterly brainless and at least three more batsmen gave their wickets away. England should have won that game and didn’t, not just because of Scotland, but because they made bad decisions. The Root run out was not a product of pressure. It was the product of unthinking cricket. There’s a couple in that side that are not going to be playing again for a while, I’d say. Stokes and Woakes from an all rounder’s perspective to come back and Buttler gets shot of Billings too. One of Roy and Hales won’t be stuck with either, I suspect, to accommodate Stokes (if he avoids chokey and the physio’s table long enough to play). Woakes I’d imagine will probably come in for Mark Wood.
We’ve got a series against Australia coming up. Here’s the deal: they don’t mention Scotland and we won’t mention sandpaper. Seem fair?