I think this mornings session is going to be critical.
[QUOTE=Cumbrian]
Nice knock yesterday by Misbah too
[/QUOTE]
He is nearly 42. Still firing on all cylinders. Legend.
This spell by Wahab is going to win Pakistan the game. England looking at a large deficit. We look so weak if Cook and Root don’t score big.
Wahab takes the middle order. Yasir takes the tail. This has been great stuff this morning from Pakistan. Far too good for England. They should win this game at a canter now.
Brittle batting lineup that Pakistan has. Far from over.
I think it’s quite over now.
But anyway. I think it’s game over for Bell, and Buttler needs to go back to county cricket and find some form. Bairstow to keep, Moeen in to number 5, James Taylor in to number 3 and Nick Compton back to open.
England need to do something about the batting lineup. When was the last time someone in this time who wasn’t Root or Cook scored a century? Was it Bell in the Caribbean?
England digging in on the final day, trying to hold on for a draw. Funny how Pakistan can bowl their overs quickly now…
Jimmy and Adil have to bat out 11.1 overs.
Decent stuff from Wood and Rashid. A draw would be a bit of a travesty though, let’s be honest. Ever since the start of Saturday’s play, we’ve been second best, and by a distance too.
The batting just looks so brittle when Cook and Root don’t score big. How many more failures can some of these guys be allowed to have? Bell, Bairstow and Buttler in particular are contributing next to nothing with the bat – and the fact that two of them are our wicketkeepers means one of them has to play. Taylor and Hales must surely be given a chance sooner rather than later.
Adil slaps a tired drive to cover and we lose.
It’s the hope that kills you.
You know considering what happened today, I forgot there was a match on. Well done boys.
Does Yasir Shah not look like Messi?
England making a rather better fist of the third and final Test so far, despite losing the toss yet again which I thought would be crucial. Good performance from the bowlers in getting Pakistan all out for 234. England have just reached 222 at stumps on day 2, scoring at roughly the same (rather slow) pace as Pakistan, but crucially with 6 wickets still in hand. Particularly pleasing is the current 83 partnership between James Taylor (in for Buttler as called for by Cumbrian) and keeper Bairstow, on what is apparently a difficult pitch to bat on, especially after a rare failure from Root and missed opportunities by Cook and Bell to convert into a big score.
Presumably England will hope to continue steadily accumulating runs for as much of day three as possible, post a big first innings lead, then bowl at Pakistan aggresively - they may not even need to bat again, or if so it should hopefully be fore a small total.
Bell seems to still be scratching around doing just about enough so that he could justifiably complain if he were dropped. I’d probably keep him in the side for the next series but make it clear he is playing for his place.
Very pleased thus far. Bold selection of the three spinners (though they didn’t bowl especially well yesterday, they are going to be important as the match wears on) and really pleased with Taylor’s knock. There’s a spot open in the middle order and it would be great if he could grab it and hang on for a few seasons. This particular innings was critical.
I watched the first session of Day 2 before I came away for work and it was no surprise to arrive and find that Cook had got out caught at short leg. They put a leg slip in, and two short legs then bowled spin outside his leg stump, and he kept trying to prod and sweep – with several near misses being the result. It’s a leg spinner and a left armer, FFS. Kick the ball away until they put something on the stumps. You’d think he didn’t know the LBW law. Instead, he looked unbelievably all at sea, in contrast to how good he’d looked otherwise.
England must capitalise and put some more runs on the board tomorrow. A lead of 75-100 would be bloody good. The note of caution is that the Stokes injury leaves Pakistan only needing 18 wickets instead of 20 and if the spinners bowl as much filth as they did on Day 1, Anderson and Broad are going to be very overworked in Pakistan’s second innings.
This has all the makings of a pretty good Test.
Final day. 8 wickets. 240 runs. Good test match and been a good series despite the fears of the first 4 days.
It’s all to play for.
That does like nicely poised. I’d favour Pakistan though, runs on the board and all that.
Meanwhile Australia v New Zealand in Brisbane starts this afternoon. I’m hoping the Black Caps continue their good form of late.
England collapsing horribly, Pakistan only needing 3 wickets to win.
England have generally failed to adapt to the conditions here over the three matches. In this game, our spinners have been noticeably lower quality than the opposition, and our batsmen have generally failed.
Why oh why, even after over 20 years of bitter experience, am I still so optimistic about an England team’s prospects (in any sport) just because they have shown a momentary glimmer of competence?
Anyway, while Teuton makes a fair assessment in the above post, you could also say (and people have) that England only lost out in two sessions over the entire series, and unfortunately those two sessions were pivotal in turning both matches firmly Pakistan’s way. It’s hardly a shock that our spin bowling (and batting against spin) is not good given home conditions. Do we need to get more players into the IPL?
Yasir Shah absolutely destroyed the Aussies last year. He is that good.
England started well and faded (or Pakistan bowled well at the death) to get 283-5.
Pakistan are 50-5. Incredible scenes.
After our tonking in the first ODI, this is somewhat unexpected. Is this a better bowling performance, better pitch, poor batting or what?
Alex Hayles did well in the game, getting a maiden ODI ton, and that should press his case a little for consideration to open with Cook in South Africa.
Pakistan’s batting is brittle sans Misbah and Younis.
Indeed!
3 run-outs, 5 gimme catches. England will do well to rival this level of collapse, but we all know they’ve got it in them.