Wouldn’t that just mean a draw? I would think Pakistan should still be going for a win. If so, would it be a record-setting successful chase? Curious as to what the highest 1st innings score was ever to be successfully chased.
Sorry, I was joking. That’s not a realistic possibility. Pakistan aren’t going to put up 500 in a day.
Um, they wouldn’t have to in that scenario, they would have to score just over 600 in 7 sessions which is much more in the realms of plausibility. England have yet to demonstrate they can take any wickets at all. Odds for the draw must be extremely short at this point.
Yikes! I forgot this was only day 2.
That’s what I was guessing.
For a guy who grew up watching Tavare and Mudassar as the archetypal opening bats, I can’t get my head around this kind of test cricket.
Pakistan finish on 499/7 and there’s still two days left. Enough time to force a result? Still probably not, to be honest
7 centuries in first 2 innings. Is that some kind of record as well?
I read somewhere that 8 was the record, but what is a first is that the opening stands of both teams’ first innings were over 200
Pakistan need 263 runs, England need 8 wickets!
Any other team, including the England team of last year, would have batted out a bore draw with Pakistan here, but England have backed themselves and got themselves into a position where they are probably favourites, but left Pak with that cracked open, tempting door. Should be a good finish tomorrow!
Pakistan aren’t going to score 263 on the last day. They’ve only been getting in 73 overs a day.
England scored 500 on the first day - Pak don’t have to go anywhere near as fast
Different circumstances entirely. Not to mention completely different mindset. Pakistan lose three wickets before lunch and it’s all over. If England had lost three before lunch on day one, they could have adjusted their approach.
Last 10 overs, 4 runs, 1 wicket.
Pak now 249/5, needing 94, but the 50 partnership is up and Eng need to break this.
One of the problems here is that we don’t know how long we’re going to be able to play. The Umpires have been taking the players off every day but if it gets close either way - or both ways, possibly - there’s going to be some grumbling if the players are taken off. But if they don’t take them off, how can the justify taking them off every other day and losing all those overs?
I’m also reminded of the time Nasser Hussain batted into the dark to win a game in Karachi after Pak captain Moin Khan basically dragged the time out.
Pakistan are favourites now (86 needed) but this absolutely a case of add even one wicket to teh score and see what you think then.
The light issue may play in England’s favour. They can speed up by hustling in the field - if Pakistan want to beat the light they’re going to have to play more shots.
Just seen on Cricinfo that we’ve apparently had 18-23 overs post tea on days 1-4, so that means scoring between 4.8 an over or 3.7 an over. Quite a significant difference in terms of risk profile there.
I know this must have been discussed before, but is there a good reason why the day can’t start earlier (like an hour earlier, not a stupid 7 minutes or something)? I mean in terms of why the regulations don’t seem to allow for that. I get it’s a little trickier for broadcasters and fans, but it doesn’t seem insurmountable (TV coverage usually wastes at least an hour on preamble anyway, just cut that short).
It’s a good question, and it’s not obvious to me what the good reason is.
I do remember some series in England where after losing light consistently they finally started beginning play at 1030 instead of 1100, which was taken as a big move.
I suppose there’s something about the logistics of people travelling in to see the match, but even if they really can’t get in any earlier, they’re not seeing any less cricket this way.
Exactly, and I suspect the vast majority of fans would prefer to (potentially) miss a few overs at the start of play if it meant a grandstand finish, as opposed to starting ‘on time’ and the game ending in a draw 6 hours later, when a few more overs might well have led to a result.
I would also question why, if there have only been 73 overs a day in this test (as per a previous post), they didn’t schedule an earlier start time to begin with - or have they been particularly unlucky with the weather/light? No doubt slow over rates have also played a part and I think the ICC have made bigger efforts to address this recently, though possibly still not enough.
NETA: are England allowed to effectively manipulate the end of the game when the light is fading, by agreeing to bowl spin or not? In other words, if the light is too poor to pick up fast bowling, but still OK for spin, could England bowl spin until it looked like Pakistan were in danger of getting the winning the runs (but hoping to pick up wickets), then say they were going to bring back the pacers, thereby forcing the umpires to call it off? Or is the point of going off at the same light reading each day to eliminate this possibility? Hopefully the latter, otherwise it seems like an unfair ‘free go’ for the bowling side.