Re: Pakistan v England test and ODI series - LahoriMunda's daily diary
LM's Review of the second days play
If England had the slight advantage yesterday they made sure they take full honors today. The day completely belonged to England as they executed their plan to perfection. Absolutely nothing went Pakistan’s way. Pakistan started the day with 6 wickets down and was hoping to score around 320 runs and beyond. It wasn’t to be as English bowlers bowl with discipline and kept putting the ball in the right areas. One by one Pakistani batsmen perished. Pakistan’s only hope, captain Inzamam only added a few runs to his over night total and departed taking the only hope Pakistan had of going beyond 320, along with him. At 160-1 Pakistan was well on course for a big total and the team must be disappointed to get all out around 270.
England started off in a confident manner. Shoaib and Sami bowled with a lot of pace but mostly ill directed. Sami first good ball got him a wicket. It was a great ball, pitched on off, came in and had Strauss plumb in front. That was as good as it got for Pakistan. The horribly out of form Ian Bell came in, and played patiently to get himself back on track. He scored a fine 71 and deserves a lot of credit for the innings. He must have been under a lot pressure but he proved he is a gutsy player and fought it out well. Trescothic was a rock yet again, scoring an unbeaten century.
Everything that could go wrong for Pakistan went wrong. Shoaib clean bowled Ian Bell with a no-ball. Trescothic given not out when the replays showed he was plumb even before he had scored 50. Pakistani bowlers toiled hard throughout the day without much to show for it. While I can understand Inzamam wants to use Shoaib for different reasons like to gauge his fitness, and to get a wicket from his main strike bowler but he must not over bowl him. Shoaib bowled just one less over then Kaneria. While Sami and Shabbir both bowled less overs the Shoaib. Even fully fit a fast bowler still can’t bowl all day.
England is within reach of the Pakistani total and they still have 7 wickets in hands. Trescothic is still there with an unbeaten century. Kevin Pieterson and Andrew Flintoff are still waiting in the dressing room for their turn. England would probably like to bat all day tomorrow and get a lead of around 300 + runs to put Pakistani batsmen under tremendous pressure. Pakistan will have to fight very hard to make sure we restrict England’s lead to as little as possible. It won’t be easy but then again no one said test cricket was easy. If this Pakistan team wants to considered as one of the premier teams in world cricket then they will have to show the ability to come back when they are down and out. After day two England are in the drivers’ seat and would like to take a big first innings lead and firm their grip even more on this test match.