A good account of the match yesterday pretty much backing up the observations of most fair minded people of Gupshup apart from the atrociously biased Sobi who was nearly as bad as England’s hand-picked umpires :nook:
**Fortune beaming on Vaughan**
If cricket is a game of chance and superstition, Michael Vaughan must have had an early hunch that he was on to a winner yesterday.
It all started at 11am, when England’s new captain won a handy toss. After sticking Pakistan in on a drying pitch, Vaughan could hardly make a bowling change or move a fielder without a batsman succumbing to his wiles. And when England came to bat, he soon stood unbeaten on 29, having already been dropped on nought and bowled by a no-ball.
Vaughan’s hopes of doing it himself were ended by an Azhar Mahmood half-tracker, which he thumped straight to deep square leg. But the force remained with England. Even as the middle-order fell away, Marcus Trescothick was gathering himself for the home straight. His unbeaten 108 was his third one-day century on this ground, but his first in a winning cause.
Rashid Latif, the Pakistan captain, must have felt his team had done enough.** “England played well but they were very lucky,”** he observed ruefully. Admittedly, Pakistan contributed to their own misfortune by dropping Trescothick twice - both of them straightforward chances - and Vaughan once. But there seemed to be scores of other incidents where the ball flew off the inside edge, or whistled past the stumps, and ran away for four.
Shoaib Akhtar was particularly ill-served by his final return of none for 40. The man they call the Rawalpindi Express has never produced his best form against England, and had admitted he feels the “need to prove myself to myself, the counties and everyone around England”.
Shoaib spent much of the final overs with his head in his hands, and for once he was not indulging in amateur dramatics. His 95mph reverse inswingers should have accounted for both not-out batsmen: Chris Read survived one adjacent lbw, and saw another vicious banana-ball beat bat, stumps and wicketkeeper.
Perhaps Shoaib’s frustration will carry over into some turbocharged performances for Durham.
“It was tough out there,” said Vaughan afterwards. “The pitch was just nibbling and Shoaib was bowling very fast. Every time we play at Lord’s we seem to end up watching a run chase.”
Asked the difference between the sides, Vaughan replied: “Not a great deal. Perhaps playing in English conditions can be difficult when you’re not used to it. But we also had the best of the conditions.”
Only yesterday morning, Vaughan’s predecessor, Nasser Hussain, was lecturing his troops, on the virtues of batting through the innings. “England need more hundreds from their top-order batsmen,” wrote Hussain in his Sunday Telegraph column. “Thirties and forties keep you in the side, hundreds usually win you the game.”
Finally, Trescothick could appreciate the upside of that equation yesterday.
“When I last played against Pakistan here I got a hundred, but I was second-last man out and we lost,” said Trescothick. “So, to get the hundred here this time and see it through was the best feeling of all.”
The only worry for England was Vaughan’s ongoing flirtation with one-day 20s and 30s. After 28 innings, his average remains stuck on 24.33. England have just had 3.5 years under a captain who made up in leadership what he lacked in electric strokeplay, and Vaughan was expected to be the other way round, in the early days of his leadership. However, yesterday’s victory will more than make amends.