Pakistan v England Test series

[Fauxstralian]

1st Test at Multan
England fly out Friday, no warm up games & First Test starts Monday

Pakistan win the toss and bat on a green looking pitch
122/1 at lunchPakistan: 1 Saim Ayub, 2 Abdullah Shafique, 3 Shan Masood (capt), 4 Babar Azam, 5 Saud Shakeel, 6 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 7 Salman Ali Agha, 8 Aamer Jamal, 9 Shaheen Afridi, 10 Naseem Shah, 11 Abrar Ahmed.England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope (capt), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jamie Smith (wk), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Brydon C Arse, 10 Jack Leach, 11 Shoaib Bashir

[southbankbornnbred]

Not to hang it on one bloke, but Pope needs to be given a break from test cricket.

His performances have been largely dire for a while, and he needs to sort out both his concentration and the technical problems he's having. He has offered absolutely nothing on this tour.

In his last 13 innings, he has scored 30 or above just once (his century in the third test against Sri Lanka). On nine of those occasions he has scored ten or less.

He's basically the extras column.

[Fauxstralian]

England lead down to single figures

[twoleftfeet]

One of the worse pitches in test match history, it already has a rating over 8 out of 10.

The pitch in the last match on the last day was over 7, makes a mockery of test cricket.

[Fauxstralian]

England win the toss and get to bat first which is justice 
Still say the away country should choose what they want to do without a toss.
Biggest effect would be on India so obviously won’t be allowed to happen.

England 2 down … Crawley 29 Pope 3

[Fauxstralian]

6am start on Thursday for the third & final Test in Rawalpindi 
New pitch so Pakistan have got out the rake, heaters & industrial fans to create something that spins 
Pakistan are unchanged but England have added another spinner in Rehan Ahmed
Ahmed & Atkinson come in for Potts & Arse.

Jason Gillespie reveals that he isn’t on the selection panel despite being promised in his job interview & has no say in the pitch shenanigans 
Not sure how long he will have in the role

[southbankbornnbred]

Yeah, I don't like the attitude towards defeats that is now all-pervading in England's dressing room, which is to "just" accept any loss as part of what happens when you adopt their approach.

It transfers all responsibility for any defeat to the style of the team, rather than their collective or individual performances or choices.

So you end up with Stokes charging down the wicket, throwing his bat closer to deep square leg than the ball while getting his stumps wrecked...and then just sighing and saying it was Thunderbastard wot made him do it.

[Fauxstralian]

I guess they think Bashir has more upside than any of the others
Surprised they didn’t take the young leg spinner Ahmed but maybe didn’t think Pakistan would go down the 9 day old pitch route
Dont think any of their spinners were thought of as a major threat

I know it’s all a bit nicey nicey Kiwi bollocks but this oh well never mind attitude to defeat would be a bit wearing for me
Sometimes players should be criticised and be told they have fucked up
 

[southbankbornnbred]

the worst thing about Spazball - and this is never from the captain or coach in fairness - is that there's always an excuse for losing. This time a doctored pitch (on which we were 200 for 2 in our first dig before throwing it away).

How about the ridiculous selection policy of making Somerset's reserve spinner our number 1 spinner? 6 wickets at 51 in sub-continent conditions. Somerset's number 1 spinner has 14 wickets at 24. Who would have thought it?

We won here 3-0 a couple of years back. They hadn't won a home test in 3 years. It was an extremely poor performance, but thankfully we have a chance to put it right in the decider. 

Griff - spot on about Bashir. The guy has some talent, and he will probably develop, but I wouldn't put him in the top five spinners in England: a country that generally doesn't produce many. He has taken just 50-odd first-class wickets at almost 50 a piece.

Leach has spent a lot longer working out how to bowl those lines on those pitches, and with subtle variation. So he should be England's #1 - but England often fail to pick their best slow bowlers. I'm always surprised how they ignored Liam Dawson for so long, for example. He didn't light up the three tests he did play (although he was thrown in at the deep end in the 5th test in India) but he has 350 first-class wickets at 31 a piece. Plus he can bat a bit. He's 34 now, so perhaps they think he's missed the boat. But he had to be a better option than Bashir?

They left Rashid out of red-ball cricket for too long, too, so he opted to play just white ball stuff (his dodgy shoulder didn't help, either) and that boat has sailed. Bess, Patterson-White, Ahmed and others are probably ahead of Bashir as the #2 spinner, too.

You've got to give yourself your best chance on those pitches. I'm not sure Bashir is that right now. Maybe he will be in future.

But there are better spinners than Bashir out there right now.

[Fauxstralian]

Melbourne & Brisbane are two areas that like England suffer from bad weather during preparation

That Brisbane pitch was definitely one.
Fixing a pitch to be greener than usual when SA’s strength was in their fast bowling of Rabada , Ngidi & Nortje…. That would be a great strategy. S Africa were smashed all through that series as their batting was abysmal

The MCG pitch was when the Ashes were won & a dead pitch helped England avoid another 5-0
The pitch there had been slow & low for years due to weather & probably over use by AFL in the winter

Not sure either were to the advantage of the home team even they had been deliberately prepared 

[Lee Trundle]

Bashir was born in CHERTSEY.

So was the King of Spain (Ashley Giles), ironically.

[stewie griffin]

the worst thing about Spazball - and this is never from the captain or coach in fairness - is that there's always an excuse for losing. This time a doctored pitch (on which we were 200 for 2 in our first dig before throwing it away).

How about the ridiculous selection policy of making Somerset's reserve spinner our number 1 spinner? 6 wickets at 51 in sub-continent conditions. Somerset's number 1 spinner has 14 wickets at 24. Who would have thought it?

We won here 3-0 a couple of years back. They hadn't won a home test in 3 years. It was an extremely poor performance, but thankfully we have a chance to put it right in the decider. 

[Far Cough UKunt]

I still say Australia & S Africa are the two nations that prepare pitches to suit all aspects of the game 


 

Aus vs SA 1st Test - 'Potentially unsafe' Gabba pitch under scrutiny - 'Is that a good advertisement for Tests?' | ESPNcricinfo

MCG on notice after ICC rates pitch 'poor' | cricket.com.au

They don't doctor pitches....much but they do doctor balls, the insufferable cunts.

[Lee Trundle]

I still say Australia & S Africa are the two nations that prepare pitches to suit all aspects of the game 

 

Aus vs SA 1st Test - 'Potentially unsafe' Gabba pitch under scrutiny - 'Is that a good advertisement for Tests?' | ESPNcricinfo

MCG on notice after ICC rates pitch 'poor' | cricket.com.au

[Fauxstralian]

Stokes has said if England were trailing in a home series he would instruct the ground staff to prepare a pitch to suit them.
It IS commonplace amongst most nations 
I still say Australia & S Africa are the two nations that prepare pitches to suit all aspects of the game 
The ideal pitch has some pace but also allows good players to play strokes & has some deterioration on days 4& 5 to bring spinners into the game
I think generally England do try & produce genuine pitches but are often handicapped by poor weather in the preparation period. This even handed policy is obviously not of interest to the likes of the devious New Zealanders Stokes & McCullum. 

[southbankbornnbred]

Pakistan could only have done more to design a pitch specifically for their side if they'd created crescent moon and star-shaped cracks on the track and housed Al-Qaeda's leadership in them.

All home teams put together pitches likely to suit them, but this really was taking it to extremes: using the exact same pitch as the last test and playing seven spinners. But I guess it's little different to England designing skiddy green tops for Anderson for twenty years.

England played poorly and contributed to their downfall. There are still too many batsmen who can't play spin well because they don't face enough of it on those crumbling pitches. But that's always going to be an Achilles heel for England, especially when this side's instinct is to Thunderbastard their way out of trouble.

[Fauxstralian]

There has been a lot of wanking about him going past Tendulkar and that by going past Cook he is the greatest ever for England
There is a lot of confusion caused by more runs or wickets due to more Tests played defining best ever

In regards to this Test have always said the toss should be done away with & the visitors be allowed to decide what they want to do
Only exception would be the WTC final of course. Defeats for England & India makes Australia’s appearance at Lords next year one step closer

[Far Cough UKunt]

Very rare to play consecutive Tests at the same ground & have never heard of playing on the same pitch
Obviously made winning the toss and not batting on a 9 day old pitch crucial
Still a major surprise given we have been told for the last week that Joe Root is the greatest batsman EVER. With Harold Brook second

They are supposedly moving to a new venue for the Third Test.
Obviously any watering will have stopped a few days ago and the pitch will be being dried out for Mr Noman & Sadiq Khan’s boy

No one has said that Joe Root is the "greatest batsman ever" have they? you fake Australian prick.

[Fauxstralian]

Very rare to play consecutive Tests at the same ground & have never heard of playing on the same pitch
Obviously made winning the toss and not batting on a 9 day old pitch crucial
Still a major surprise given we have been told for the last week that Joe Root is the greatest batsman EVER. With Harold Brook second

They are supposedly moving to a new venue for the Third Test.
Obviously any watering will have stopped a few days ago and the pitch will be being dried out for Mr Noman & Sadiq Khan’s boy

[stewie griffin]

A bit pathetic in the end and Pakistan's first home test win since 2021. 

Still, at least India are still get smashed. 

[Fauxstralian]

But not for long

[Fauxstralian]

Pope excommunicated early
Root & Brook together 

[SurfaceAgentX2Zero]

In other cricketing news, the EWCB has decreed that it's OK for women and girls in grass-roots cricket to have their dreams shattered, their trophies stolen and to be injured, maimed, raped and perved over by biological men, but not women in the elite game.

So that's all OK, then.

[ray winstone]

Ah well…..
 

[ray winstone]

114-5, c'mon lads...

[Fauxstralian]

India 46 all out
Won the toss and batted

Pakistan will be looking to get a 250 lead 
100 short with 6 wickets left