Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
If Sami isn't killed, I'd be surprised.
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
He did just as well (or worse whatever you prefer) as Umar Gul, so they both should be dropped.
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
Well played England. They deserved to win. We were never in this match. No one performed for Pakistan either with the bat or ball. Losing a test match in 3 days is very painful. Our record of not having lost a series in England since 1982 is in danger and hopefully our team will improve their performance in the next two test matches.
For England 4 players were more than a match for the whole of the Pakistani team and they were, Cook, Bell, Harmisson and Panesar. Hats off to them even though I cannot get over the fact that Monty took 5 wickets, having watched him all day he never bowled that brilliantly, it was the mediocrity of our batting line up which contributed to this disaster. Still good luck to him. Over to the next match. Bloodied but not bowed. Come on Pakistan, you can do it.
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
letsee wot happens in the third test.. .. i've heard Shoaib Akhtar is comin back in da forth test.. is it correct?
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
You guys are forgetting the real culprit, Imran Farhat.
It is because of him that we couldn't get England out for less than 150 in the first match. Three dropped catches and his opening failure cost us a win in that match, after having put England under pressure. Who knows, it all might have been different in the past two weeks had he held onto those catches.
Then in second match again, we persisted with him, as we should have. But he dropped yet another catch and failed twice with his batting.
You can only expect Inzi and Co. to rescure the top order failure so many times. Even law of averages was against Inzi and Yousef firing. Afridi only shines when we need runs and not when we need occupation of the crease, so that was a lost cause.
Opening failures have cost us to disturb the strength of our lower middle order too, i.e., Kamran Akmal.
I firmly believe that we would have won the first match, and had not lost this match this way, even with our weak bowling, had our opening not failed FOUR times in a row.
I am usually in favor of giving people extended run, but Imran Farhat has cost us two matches now. We don't hvae any replacements either. But at least, now I won't be against drastic changes with our opening, be it a recall of Hafeez, and Taufeeq. We don't have any long term prospects, but at this point, I will take anyone, who'll at least provide us a good stand in the next two matches.
Die Imran Die. Die Butt Die.
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
I just hope they call up Moh'd Hafeez, which I'm pretty sure will never happen.
This shud be team for next test...
Imran Farhat (or Taufeeq but prolly not)
Salman Butt (shud be Moh'd Hafeez)
Younis Khan
Moh'd Yousuf
Inzamam
Faisal Iqbal
Kamran Akmal
Shahid Nazir
Umar Gul (or Yasir Arafat)
Samiullah Niazi
Danish Kaneria
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
no he is targeting the 3rd test
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
I never thought that we would be undone by such mediocre players like Cook, Collingwood, Monty. Ehsan is right, we are specialists at making heroes out of zeros. If it was a Treco special, or a Pieterson blitz, or a Flintoff spell, then it would have been SLIGHTLY less painful. But the big guns of England never needed to lift a finger to inflict such a heavy defeat on this clueless, directionless and beleaguered Pakistan team.
Nothing needs to be said about this match, all one has to do is watch the first innings. We lost the game in a 15 min span of madness where OUT OF NOWHERE wickets tumbled before and after lunch. I don't care if you have Akhtar, McGrath, Warne, Flintoff or Lee, a 119 first innings score on a batting wicket is mighty hard to defend.
For the next game, don't expect the changes that matter. For example don't expect Sami or Farhat to be dropped. Don't expect any new blood to be given an opportunity. Instead, bet on another shuffle of the batting order, like Afridi and Butt to open. Who knows what the Pakistan think tank has in store!
Ok, I am done venting. For the next few hours at least, anyway.
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
If our openers continue to play like this, we will not win this series; there is too much pressure on our middle order batsmen. Unless we clear the opening pair mess, we will continue to be defensive with bat and ball. If we can not, please let's not waste a decent batsmen like Kamran so early in the inngs.
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
Look @ the bright side, Pakistan can't do any worse.
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
Little chance of that happening.
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
After Afridi's intorduction in Test Cricket, and seeing his performance, I agreed with Ian Chappell that Afridi should be a part of the Pakistani test team. But now I am not so sure. It's not because of his today's performance, rather what he's capable of. In Test matches, very rarily you are in a position where you need to make a quick 50 in 20 balls, but more often than not, you ARE int he need of someone spending 50 minutes at the crease, to help form a partnership, get the other batsman going, and take the sting out of hostile bowling. This is why we keep track of number of minutes spent at the ewicket as well in Test matches, and I think, we should let Afridi retire :)
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
^Yes, exactly, but from Test cricket only outside subcontinent. lol
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
We made hero of Panesar because wicket was turning. Too bad our trump card Danish was absolutely pathetic and has been thus far in the series. Monty bowled well enough and some of the deliveries he produced were absolutely incredible. This shows how disappointing danish was on this pitch.
There is not much you can do when your bowling spearhead is Sami the indespensible but the meek surrender by the batsmen was disappointing to say the least. They should not have let Kamran open in the first place and I hope sanity strikes and they play Butt-Farhat (who I played well in second innings and showed some positive restraint).
As for bowling, I think Danish needs a rest and Shahid Nazir needs to play. For how long are we gonna keep him as a pessenger? We should recall Mushy instead of Dani. Yeah I know he has done incredily well but we need bowlers who are doing well rather then people short on form.
Come on Pakistan. Show the familiar habit of coming back in the series and make us proud 
I would hope they play the line up
Farhat
Butt
Younis
MoYo
Inzi
Afridi
Razzaq
Kamran
Shahid Nazir
Umar Gul (or if Shoaib makes a miraculous come back)
Mushtaq
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
Does anyone know why Asim Kamal is not in the team? Is he injured as well? He's definitely a better bastsman than Faisal Iqbal.
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
Congratulations to England for a well deserved victory, they were the better team throughout the match, Pakistan never showed the slightest inkling of showing resolve playing on different (bouncy) wickets. Classic, presented with something different Pakistani pplayers crumble.
Losing a test match is painful, but what worries me more is the injuries. Pakistan is to have a hectic season right till the end of this year yet there is no planning for being ready for the worldcup. Sri Lanka is firing on all cylinders, England and SA will have its main players ready back from injuries and Aussies will be their best. What chances does a depleted Pakistani team have? None, what even more unbelievable is the total ignorance in developing a fully fit collection of players who can play under all circumstances.
Blaming individual players may allow venting of angers but does not really solve the problem and that is poor vision ahead of the main tournament. Not one new players has been tried by Pakistan in its recent series, one was given a chance and lookk what he has done? that kid is M Asif, Pakistan has many other players who have the talent and desire to play at the biggest level. It about time we allowed talent supercede cronyism.
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
^ Actually the case with Danish is understandable. We have to remember that Danish is a strike bowler, not a stock bowler. All his match winning performances in the past have come when Akhtar/Rana/Asif were also applying the pressure from the other end.
In this series, not only does Danish have to bowl an insane amount of overs per innings, but he is realistically our only strike bowler. He has to attack yet not concede too many at the same time. Not to mention the fact that seeing Sami, Gul and Razzaq spray it all around and get whacked, doesn't exactly inspire too much confidence.
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
Ehsan bhai some of the deliveries monty bowled were bouncing and turning A LOT. Specially the dismissals of Younis and Farhat were very smartly done and I think he has it in him to be a good spinner. At least better than Giles
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
I agree fully. I have said time and again that in the past 5 years we have seen the same old tried, tested and failed players making continious rounds on the domestic and international circuits. The only way we stumbled upon Asif was thru injuries AND the fact that he was taking wickets like crazy in first class cricket. It’s about time those PCB fat cats earn their money and the national selectors start doing their jobs. Playing musical chairs with the same players doesn’t solve too many problems.
Just look at India, they have infused so many new youngsters in the team, and it’s paying dividents. In fact players like Jaffer and Uthapa have been unable to cement their players because of the competition. Same with Australia, they have inducted several youngsters. In Pakistan, we have conservative culture of central contracts and no accountability.
Re: 2nd Test, England vs Pakistan, 27th-31st July
hayn, game khatam bhee ho gaya aur mere ko pata bhee nahi chala? 
I see Kamran and Farhat each scored double centuries even then we couldn’t win, despite Mohammad Sami’s devastating 7 wicket haul in first inning we couldn’t win the match… what will it take to win the match? Harmison is an impotent bowler he can’t do anything.
Next game, here we come 