Azam goes to what turns out to be the final ball of the day. 24-3.
He’ll get another chance to rescue this match in the second dig but someone is going to have to stick with him. Rizwan maybe.
There you go. I was old-fashioned enough to think the indelible black spot against Buttler was his non-Test standard keeping.
Would have thought Jos getting 70 odd, England closing at 450 and hen getting Azam with a leg side stumping off Bess a better gold pass.
No space for him in the line up without the gloves. But averaging 45+ this summer with the bat, won us a test match in a run chase and scored 150. Worth enough with the bat to set aside his sub standard keeping to spin (he’s ok to the seamers) and keep him in the side.
I suppose we could remove an opener and shunt everyone up one, to make space for Foakes at 7. Cant see them doing that though
Dobell pointed out that that is exactly what they did in Sri Lanka when Foakes got his games in, Buttler played as a batsman (and did decently well, he averaged 41 and got 250 in the 3 match series) and Foakes kept. Foakes actually got a similar number of runs in that series (277) but averaged 69 because of his not-outs.
Buttler’s keeping is still a problem to chew over, but he’s Ed Smith’s wonderpick finally come good (with the bat, at least) and he’s going to be in the team for the forseeable on the back of this.
Ton up for the captain, Azhar Ali. With the rainy weather around for the next two days, this partnership is going a long way to forcing a draw in this game.
I thought England might not enforce the follow on, since this would be the last chance for their batters this summer, gets some runs, but if forecast is rain, then yes they will.
Azhar has saved his place and probably his job with this innings.
As an aside, the ICC announced its new Hall of Famers. Kallis, some Aussie chick, and Zaheer Abbas. Well deserved.
Though looking at the Hall of Fame, no Inzamam, Mohammad Yousaf, Shaun Pollack, Desmond Hayes, Aravinda, Jayasuriya or Chris Carines but lots of Aussies and Poms, including players who were clearly inferior to these guuys like Arthur Morris, Tom Graveney, Bob Simpson, Neil Harvey.
Sri Lankans esepcially, get zero respect. Only representative in Murli.
Jayasuriya and Cairns are never going to get honoured for their exploits on the field, given the anti-corruption charges levelled against them.
Sri Lanka will get Kumar and Mahela in there in the fullness of time. They’ve not been retired long enough yet.
That you don’t rate some of the names you’ve raised says more about you than them.
Buttler has taken two of three sharp chances today - bit of confidence that his place is safe with the bat maybe helping his keeping.
I dunno, @Cumbrian, the list does have more than a sniff of ‘old boys club’ about it. And it would be a real shame if Jayasuriya never did on the list after his reimagining of the way ODIs were played in the 90s.
What is going on with the catching? Anderson’s had 3 catches dropped in the last 2 overs!
I think the idea that Simpson and Harvey don’t belong is asinine. Simpson should get in for his coaching job, turning Australia around to a world beating unit, alone.
The list reflects the racism of the game prior to WWII at minimum as a time frame. That’s a problem for cricket. But it doesn’t obviate the idea that those guys played, on uncovered pitches, and were good. Babe Ruth never played an African-American but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t belong in the Baseball Hall Of Fame and neither does it wipe clean what happened for these blokes.
Should they put in more non-Aussies and English? Of course. They’re going about it the wrong way though. They inducted 55 at the opening of the hall - which is where the bulk of these guys come from - they shouldn’t be putting in three at a time. Block in another 55 from outside those two countries and even this thing up.
As for Jayasuriya - bluntly, who cares? Shall we make a place for Azharuddin too? The guy is credibly charged with corruption by the ICC and I don’t see any convincing repudiation of those charges.
On the game at hand. Better than decent knock by Azhar there. England don’t look too penetrative unless the ball is new, so if it is going to rain and a fair amount of time is lost, they need to sharpen up their slip catching. Not seeing where the wickets are coming from post over 35 of the ball on today’s evidence.
I absolutely rate them less than some of the players mentioned who aren’t in. Inzamam, Yousaf, Sehwag, Aravinda. Graveney has a lesser average than Saeed Anwar and that guy doesn’t belong in such a Hall. Hell Gooch and Gower average less than Inzi, Yousaf and Sehwag.
Right. I mean, why the hell is Larwood in it? Less than a 100 wickets. If Larwood is in than both Saqlain (inventor of the doosra )and Sarfraz Nawaz, (the originator of reverse swing) should be in and the entire Indian spin quartet besides Bedi (who already is in). Not saying that they should (I don;t think any deserve it) but seriously WTF.
There is a big cohort of the Pakistani press which says he should open, which is what he started off as and has done from time to time.
I think he should. Your opinion.
I don’t care about intergenerational comparisons of players. It is more interesting to have a museum, or a Hall of Fame, that reflects the history of the game. Graveney played on uncovered pitches, it is no surprise that there are plenty who averages more than him in an era where pitches were covered and bats were better.
You’ve made a convincing argument (not that I need convincing) that the hall should be bigger and include more players. Saqlain? Not checked the list but if Bernard Bosanquet (inventor of the googly is in), no problems from me having Saqlain in.
A more interesting question to me is whether Graveney in particular deserves to be in, in relation to the people who played in his era. It is perfectly possible that players who deserve to be in from the 50s and 60s that should be in are not, and are now being overlooked as they put in (too few) players from more modern eras.
On the evidence of this series, I wouldn’t be against Azhar opening.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that it’s fairly difficult to open in England. Even guys that average big numbers elsewhere can struggle with the lateral movement (see Warner last year).
A question might be, how are the guys currently opening going to do elsewhere? I thought Shan had cracked it in the opening test of this series for instance but Anderson is like his kryptonite. Do you judge him on that?
I don’t know. It’s worth a go, probably. The bowling attack needs runs on the board. One more seam up bowler/an all rounder and, if everyone stays fit/Yasir keeps playing, Pakistan look set from Rizwan on down. Runs is the issue.
Another thing to consider is that Pakistan are about to finish a tour of England, in weird circumstances and facing Broad and Anderson in these conditions, and have just come off a tour of Australia, playing Cummins, Starc, Hazelwood and Lyon. They’re not going to play India any time soon.
If the guys in the batting order aren’t going to get it done, switching them now might make sense, so that new players can bed in, with home series and away series that aren’t in Australia or England. The same should be said of if they think they guys in the team are going to get it right.
It’s probably time for some hard decisions to maximise the opportunity that is about to come through with the fixture list.
The cupboard post Misbah and Younis is pretty bare. There are some good young players in the youth setup, but they need to be introduced gently, like M. Huraira, but they need to be introduced gently.
The best opener in First Class cricket for the past few years is…Salman Butt, who as you can well imagine has certain issues. Selecting him would be a hard decision at least.
There is another Butt, Imran Butt who scored pretty well this last season and at 25 isn;’ too young or as far as I know, a fixer, but I think they did the right thing not taking him,
So, Ali hasn’t come out to bat after all, and Pakistan’s openers have managed to bat an hour without much alarm, although Jos has dropped another one off Anderson just to keep things interesting.
A lot will depend on how much cricket we get in - there really isn’t much prospect of play tomorrow, so England need to do the bulk of the work today, you feel.
If yesterday is any guide, and given the rain forecast for Day 5, I think this has the makings of a draw. England didn’t look threatening with the old ball (indeed, neither side have looked threatening this test without a new ball in their hands, given Pakistan took quickish wickets in the first innings before it went soft and Crawley and Buttler were able to get to work) and haven’t made inroads with the new one today, so it could be a long period in the field, unless something happens that we’ve not seen yet (old ball wickets or Bess somehow coming to the party with spin).
My prediction for today: Root will take 2 wickets.