Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
I don’t think anyone was saying after the first day that wicket was perth-like and it was your veggie bowlers who couldn’t take advantage of it. In fact, I think most if not all posters agreed that the pitch was flat. No one was denying that. What the point of contention was the incessant whiny little girls like some1 who kept focusing on that.
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
Maybe this article will throw a little more light on what si going on withthe pitch.
Making a pitch for favourable weather](http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/pakvind/content/story/233134.html)
Wasim Akram wanted them hard and bouncy. Inzamam-ul-Haq wanted them fast and bouncy. The PCB, according to its official newsletter, also wanted them fast and bouncy. Yet, a little over two days into the first Test at Lahore, days of five an over merry run-making, days with a storm of boundaries and over 800 runs for the loss of seven wickets, the pitch isn’t either. And it continues to be the subject of criticism, muted, implied and stringent.
Days before the first Test rumours surfaced that a green-top awaited India, similar to the one that pole-axed them in Lahore in 2004. They got only bare brown. Now Michael Holding says he would have hated to bowl on this pitch. Greg Chappell says he was reminded of the Faisalabad pitch on which he scored 235 but one which prompted Dennis Lillee to call it a graveyard for fast bowlers. Inzamam now says, with characteristic understatement, there isn’t much in the wicket.
Agha Zahid, the PCB’s head curator, also wanted to make pitches suited to Pakistan’s pace attack and might have had one here had it not been for the weather. “The way it was made we are happy with. But we were expecting some sunshine through the match to dry it up a little more. And because there was moisture in the weather then the pitch will remain dull which it has,” Zahid told Cricinfo. “Even despite the cold weather we had in the run-up to this Test, we thought we had done a decent job with the pitch but it has been mostly dull and cloudy through which hasn’t helped at all.”
As much as the weather, Zahid says the glut of matches recently at the Gaddafi Stadium hasn’t helped, dulling the pitch’s life, draining its juice. “Too many matches have been played here in recent times. We had a Test and an ODI against England last month and before that, Australia A also played a number of matches here. We have three main strips on which we play on the square but when so many matches are held, the juice goes out of the pitch. It deadens it a little and so preparation becomes that much harder.”
But to badly paraphrase Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edith Wharton: if only we’d stop trying to be happy about pitches we could have a pretty good time watching the cricket. Pitches, before, after or during are always too flat, too green, too dry, too crumbly, too dustbowly. The baldness of Multan’s pitch in 2004 was so mercilessly butchered by Virender Sehwag and journalists afterwards, that Lahore - the venue of the following Test - was turned into almost an exact opposite for the first day. Bangalore last year, where Pakistan scored 327 - only four more than they did here by the way - on the first day, the pitch was also sniped at. The pitches of Multan and Faisalabad during the recent series with England did so again although not with as much relish as India-Pakistan seems to do. Yet all these matches produced results, which essentially is what we want.
Zahid is used to it. “The criticism is always there and it was even throughout the England series although there were results and batsmen made runs, fast bowlers took wickets and leggies did too. So many experts start bemoaning a pitch straight from the first hour of play so that is always there. Pitches change over the course of a match and the weather plays a big part in that, which people don’t take account of. The weather is one thing we can’t help and this time the cold and damp really hasn’t helped at all.”
If specific instructions were forthcoming for its preparation, as the chatter always suggests (see the curious case of Inzamam, Andy Atkinson and Multan, '04), Zahid at least isn’t disclosing. Disregarding the weather, the flood of recent matches, he was magically expected to produce a pitch to please all, players, coaches and the media. “I wasn’t given any special instructions by anyone. I was just told to ensure that a good pitch was made.” Which would be what exactly? “One that helps batsmen and bowlers alike.” If we assume instructions are never likely to ask for a poor pitch that helps no one, then the fuss that surrounds the revealing of the pitch and how it will help who pre-match, seems, to be kind, unnecessary.
Probably the same fuss will begin again next week in Faisalabad. To pre-empt it, here’s a tip, from Zahid. “In Faisalabad work is also being done on the pitch right now but the weather is worse there. It is cloudier, there is a little more moisture in the pitch and generally conditions are mistier and hazier there.” He adds though, “People will still talk.”
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
LEST WE FORGET…
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
well it was India who:chusni: said No we dont want to play 1st Test match @ karachi, even over PCB recommendation, and now crying begin all over from India to Indian fan all over.
Just accept it, it was silly call on part of BCCI and Indian cricket team management.
and plz stop crying coz Faislabad pitch will be much similar and news about the weather is pretty much same. 
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
Yes..even Faisalabad has rain forecast for next week…guess I should go open a thread for the 3rd test.
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
nahi....... :p dont jinx the 3rd test match yet :D
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
Yes and AAP ke non-veg bowler ne to kamal kar diya hai.. Had ho gayee be-sharmi ki..Abhi tak.. they are still commenting on Veggie-bowlers, where as their non-verg bowlers conceded 5run/over with no-wickets.
You are one of those jokers who said same thing earlier in this thread.
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
better yet start looking at ODI series
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
ha ha
http://www.paklinks.com/gs/showpost.php?p=3808689&postcount=29
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
The explanation is simple. We have such a superior and better bowling line up and yet India are still piling on the runs. Shows how the Indian batting line up is so *so *much superior to ours.
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
Biggest lesson for Pakistan, don't expect opposing team's batsmen to give away their wickets just because you do.
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
Even bigger lesson, India is not England in these conditions. Sehwag will kick you all day while Dravid would bat for 4 days if he has to. Play to your strength PCB, and prepare some lively pitches for the next two tests.
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
Here’s an article which shows the other side of the story..
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/pakistan/content/story/233275.html
“The itinerary was finalised so late. India first wanted to come to Karachi and the first Test was scheduled there in the original itinerary. Then they had a change of heart and said we want a practice game and we will come to Lahore first. Between the practice game and the first Test we didn’t have time to get them to Karachi. So we thought if the practice match is in Lahore then the first Test should also be in Lahore. A logistical problem in Karachi meant the practice game couldn’t be held there.”
clearly the problems were on the PCB side..
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
“Real bowlers” who bowl at express speeds without any mission and over the days could only get 1 wicket..this is same set of real bowlers, whom Imran Saab compared to aussie attack.
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
To be honest, you shouldn’t be so orgasmic over India’s batting. Pakistan batted equally well and were 455-2 at one stage. Pakistan’s focus on bowling suffered by the hour because they kept losing valuable time due to rain. Let’s just worry about how disadvantaged Indians will be if Pakistan does prepare a lively track (which I don’t think will happen, but one can hope); I don’t see Pathan and Agarkar troubling the batsmen as much as Shoaib and Rana would if that’s the situation.
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
^ So the culprit were actually the Indians :D
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
you first have to read my comments and then u should have wrote this…During the first 2 days everybody was lamenting India’s bowling. ..Not taking anything away from paki batsmen..they batted awesome..but..but…there was nothing in the pitch…I agree india doesn’t has world class bowlers like pakistan, but they get the job done..yes they are not the “real bowlers” or as some some of them are “veggie bowlers”, but what are they going to do, when there’s nothign in the pitch…everybody was saying wait till paki bowlers come..they would do this and that…and when the moment finally came, inzi was saying “this track is not going to produce a result”. Even ramiz raja said during the first hour of the game, it’s a pakistani batsmen who didn’t wanted a lively track..so who to blame..in 2004 most of the tracks had green on them..go check archives at Cricinfo, we all know what happened then. Now u would say oh our attack wasn’t good then, well things have changed on indian side also…oh and please don’t talk abt rain…what abt the concentration of the batsmen..they are the ones who suffer more by frequent stops…
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
Nobody said that Pakistani bowlers will do “this and that”! Teams don’t make 679 if the wicket is not a bowler’s nightmare like the one in Lahore! And about rain ruining concentration of the batsmen, on this dead wicket I don’t think that would be a big factor. Stop blowing so much air!
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
The game, read my comments after the first days' play. At that time I had no doubt in my mind that this pitch was a "kachra" pitch and tons of runs would be scored. At that time my post my rubbished by saying oh no wait till paki bowlers come...i don't like to blow air, just state the facts..loooks like u still didn't read the previous posts..
Re: Thank you PAK for preparing FAST & BOUNCY Wicket
I think it all went wrong from Curry-eator’s point of view.
Inzimam asked for a “thin crust-easy on the cheese-mushrooms-olives” pizza. Instead they got "Chappati crust-fake cheese-pepperoni " stinker which Indians enjoyed more and even dug into it deeper.
So lets move on and next time order from a tested ‘Pizza-Hut’ 
I say Faisalabad Test will be a thriller with Pak comprehensive win.
