Pakistan vs England - First Test Ratings

So, with Pakistan emphatically crushing England in the first of this three Test series, how did you rate the players of each side?

Here are my ratings, let me know your thoughts:

Pakistan

Mohammad Hafeez - 8 - a solid knock of 88 in Pakistan's first innings to set the foundations of their substantial lead over England, and a bonus point for the early wicket of Cook in England's first innings.
Taufeeq Umar - 7 - played a valuable supporting role to Hafeez in getting Pakistan's first innings off to the ideal start as he made 58.
Azhar Ali - 2 - out for 1 in Pakistan's first innings, playing at one he shouldn't have.
Younis Khan - 6 - fielded well and made a solid 37 to steady the Pakistan ship after the loss of Ali.
Misbah-ul-Haq - 8 - captaincy was excellent throughout, particularly his bowling changes which were timed perfectly, and made a typically gritty if unspectacular 52 to guide Pakistan towards a first innings lead.
Asad Shafiq - 3 - poor dismissal in Pakistan's first innings. Looks to have technique issues.
Adnan Akmal - 9 - 6 catches in the match to go with his impressive 61 in Pakistan's first innings, despite a shaky start. Farmed the strike very well as he batted with the tail.
Abdur Rehman - 7 - bowled well despite not taking many wickets. Exercised a good deal of control.
Umar Gul - 7 - took 4 wickets in England's second innings, which gets him a couple of bonus points, but overall didn't look particularly threatening.
Saeed Ajmal - 10 - the stand out performer, taking 7 wickets in England's first innings, and constantly bamboozling the England batsmen in the flight, despite very little turn being on offer. England need to develop a strategy for playing Ajmal if they are to turn this series around.
Aizaz Cheema - 6 - was quite unlucky not to take more wickets, with his new ball spell at Cook in England's second innings being particularly testing.

England

Andrew Strauss - 6 - captained well when England were in the field, and was desperately unlucky to be given out in England's second innings. His worrying run of form continues, however, but talk of him being under pressure is incredibly premature.
Alastair Cook - 1 - no runs in either innings on a pitch that should have suited his batting style perfectly. Needs a big improvement after a run of five scores of five or less in his last seven innings.
Jonathan Trott - 7 - the one England batsman along with Prior's first innings knock that looked at home in the conditions and against the Pakistan spinners. His team mates would do well to take note, despite his two disappointing strokes to get himself out. Finally became the 'partnership breaker' he is so often referred to as when he took the key wicket of Younis Khan in his first over.
Kevin Pietersen - 1 - two failures. Worked hard in the first innings for his 23 ball 2 before being trapped lbw, and played a rash shot when on nought in the second innings. Could the empty stadium have subdued this player that so often performs on adrenaline?
Ian Bell - 1 - two failures also, his dismissal to Ajmal in the first innings was the only real case of the bowler getting the batsman out, but his failure to pick the doosra is a worry and needs rapidly correcting if he isn't to become Ajmal's 'bunny'.
Eoin Morgan - 3 - fielded well and looked in decent touch with the bat, but got out relatively cheaply both times. Looked to be one of the better players of spin in the England lineup, despite falling to it in both innings.
Matt Prior - 7 - England's stand out batsman in the first innings, batting with unusual caution before being left high and dry on 70 not out. Kept well, his catch to dismiss Shafiq being the highlight, but fell cheaply in the second innings.
Stuart Broad - 7 - the pick of England's bowlers, Broad bowled very well on a batsmans pitch (though England's batting effors wouldn't have you believe that) and had a go with the bat.
Graeme Swann - 7 - took 4 wickets in the Pakistan innings despite not being as economical as he would have liked, and gets a bonus point for two very decent knocks with the bat.
Chris Tremlett - 5 - economical with the ball but largely unthreatening. Not really his type of pitch and may be replaced by Steven Finn for the second Test.
James Anderson - 7 - was economical and dangerous with the ball at times. Possibly unlucky not to have taken more wickets and played a key role alongside Broad in restricting Pakistan's run rate. Scored more runs with the bat than Cook, Pietersen and Bell combined.

The contrast between England's batsmen and bowlers is quite something to behold. Some discontented fans have murmured that Monty Panesar should have been included, but we can safely say that the bowling unit did its job very well (Pakistan's late flurry on the third morning perhaps aside), and only desperately poor batting in both of England's innings contributed to such a sound thrashing.

Well done to Pakistan, who look more of a unified team now than they have done for some time, and it remains to be seen how much England will have learnt from this Test.

Slightly premature, I know, but I don't expect to have to revise them unless England can bowl Pakistan out for about 3 runs.

Maybe another point each for Taufeeq and Gul ?

Bell can't get twice the points of KP and Cook - none of them made any runs. And 6 is surely too much for Strauss just for tactical skills ...

But overall I can't argue with that lot.

I gave Bell the additional point purely for the reason that Cook and KP contrived to get themselves out, whereas Bell was undone by a very good ball in the first innings. Benefit of the doubt, and all that.

I thought Gul deserved an 8. The first innings he had the batsmen in knots and was unlucky not to get a wicket.

Morgan I felt deserved a point more. He got in the 1st innings and got out. Yes cheaply, but still it is bettercontribution then some of the others.

ENGLAND:

Strauss: 3
Cook:4
Trott:6
KP:1
Bell:1
Morgan:3
Prior:7
Swann:6
Broad:7
Anderson:7
Tremlett:5

PAKISTAN:

Hafeez: 8
Taufeeq: 8
Azhar; 2
Younus;6
Misbah: 8
Shafiq: 5
Adnan: 7
Rehman:7
Gul: 7
Ajmal: 10
Cheema: 8

Pakistan 10/10

England 3/10

Cook 4? Are you sure, cf?

yes

Strauss - 2
Cook - 1
Trott - 6
Kp - 0
Bell - 1
Morgan - 1
Prior - 7
Broad - 6
Swann - 6
Tremlett - 3
Anderson - 5

4 is miles off, he was as sure a 1 as you could ever get, along with KP.

in your opinon, each to their own, and is that the last thing i have to say on the matter

Can I ask what cook did do to get a 4?

Cricketfan, I'd much prefer it if you backed up your point. Probably because you can't, given that four is a ludicrous rating to give to Cook. If you aren't going to bother explaining then don't give such bizarre ratings.

im sorry for that reaction, im in a foul mood, i will explain a bit later.

Initial marks are too high for Strauss and Trott - probably knock each down by 2.

No real issues with the marks for England's bowlers - they did a pretty good job on a wicket that didn't really offer much to anyone.

Might be tempted to up Misbah's mark by one, because his 50 came at a time when another quick wicket would have changed the momentum of the match. Stick Gul up a mark as well - solid effort from a solid if unspectacular bowler. Otherwise the only question is how Ali gets a 2 and Shafiq a 5 when neither did much with the bat in their one chance.

Yep, accepted, DH - a little high for Shafiq, in hindsight.

Trott did well, I thought, and looked as at ease with the conditions as anyone. Strauss got a rank bad decision in his second innings so I won't mark him down too much for that, and I thought he marshalled the troops well in the field.

I think Broad deserves an 8. Maybe Anderson aswell. I think the natural reaction is to mark England's bowlers down because they gave away a lead off 140 in the first innings, but if you take it in isolation then restricting a side to 330 on that pitch at a good economy rate is a very good effort by them.

Strauss - 3
Cook - 1
Trott - 6
KP - 1
Bell - 1
Morgan - 3
Prior - 7
Broad - 8
Swann - 7
Tremlett - 6
Anderson - 7.5



Hafeez - 9
Taufeeq - 7
Azhar - 2
Younus - 6
Misbah - 7
Shafiq - 4
Adnan - 8
Rehman - 7
Gul - 8
Ajmal - 10
Cheema - 6

I did ponder an 8 for Anderson and Broad, JD, as I thought they did very well indeed on that surface. I guess the state of the game took the gloss of their performance, somewhat.

England:
Cook - 1: got out cheaply twice to poor shots.
Strauss - 4: captained well, but dreadful first innings shot having got himself in. Unlucky in the second innings.
Trott - 6: a tad unfortunate in the first innings, played well in the second until he appeared to get stuck once Prior came in, bowled well.
KP - 1: a match to forget, didn't look in good nick.
Bell - 1: got a good one first up in the first innings, but must do better. Fielded well.
Morgan - 4: couple of starts but needed to make them count, good in the field.
Prior - 7: very good first innings, and kept very well I thought. Out cheaply second time around but the match was lost by then.
Broad - 8: England's best bowler, kept an excellent discipline and on another day could have had a few more. Couple of ordinary shots with the bat.
Swann - 8: Pakistan played him well, but he didn't bowl badly by any means and ended with four wickets. Two very nice innings with the bat.
Tremlett - 4: looked surprisingly unthreatening. Could be the lack of bounce on offer but he did better on flat pitches in Melbourne and Sydney. Economical though.
Anderson - 7: bowled well without much reward, kept the runs down. a couple of useful knocks too.

Pakistan:
Hafeez - 9: highest score of the match and started England's slide on day 1.
Umar - 7: solid fifty, England should bowl round the wicket to him mostly you feel.
Ali - 1: the demons are back, out poking outside off as he did all too often back in England.
Khan - 5: scored 37 but lost concentration to get out to Trott.
Misbah - 9: gutsy fifty which in the end proved to keep Pakistani's momentum (I wondered at the time), his bowling changes were spot on.
Shafiq - 2: looks uncomfortable in the channel outside off, expect England to test him much more.
Akmal - 7: nice fifty if somewhat fortunate at times, and kept well.
Rehman - 5: picked up a few tail-enders (and Morgan) but generally the least threatening of Pakistan's bowlers. Good containment though.
Gul - 8: fine spell went un-rewarded early on, but made up for it in the second innings with four wickets.
Ajmal - 10: one for each wicket. Superb.
Cheema - 6: threatened with the new ball without picking up lots of wickets, didn't seem quite so threatening with the old ball.

For me, the ratings scores for each team is as follows,
Pakistan 9/10 and England 1/10, with England being lucky enough to get 1.

Pakistan

Hafeez 9
Umar 8
Azhar Ali 3
Younus Khan 5
Misbah-ul-Haq 8
Shafiq 5
Akmal 9
Rehman 7
Gul 8
Ajmal 10
Cheema 6

England

Strauss 3
Cook 2
Trott 5
Pietersen 2
Bell 2
Morgan 4
Prior 7
Broad 8
Swann 7
Tremlett 6
Anderson 7

Before anybody says anything I like to reserve 1s for the very lowest level of performance - examples would be Mitchell Johnson at Lord's in 2009, Kamran Akmal on numerous occasions in 2009/10 and 2010 and some of Phil Hughes's finest displays of guiding the ball to the slips. Therefore, somebody like Cook would have had to have played 2 horrendous shots or dropped a couple of catches to get a 1 from me, even if he didn't score any runs.

Shelsey - didn't see that much of the Test (mind you, there wasn't that much to see! ) but, based on what I did, your rating of 6 for Tremlett seems a tad high. He seemed off the money to me.

As a Surrey supporter, I hope there were some positives I missed.

That's why I opted for a 5, Guildford. I thought that, whilst Tremlett did the minimum expected, i.e. was economical, he really didn't threaten at any point, which is why I feel that it may be a better move to play the extra pace of Finn on a dead pitch in Abu Dhabi.

What can we expect from today's play?

Oh wait.....

The biggest problem with being bolwed out in so few overs, is that the batsmen don't get an opportunity to get time in the middle.

Shelsey93 wrote:

Before anybody says anything I like to reserve 1s for the very lowest level of performance - examples would be Mitchell Johnson at Lord's in 2009, Kamran Akmal on numerous occasions in 2009/10 and 2010 and some of Phil Hughes's finest displays of guiding the ball to the slips. Therefore, somebody like Cook would have had to have played 2 horrendous shots or dropped a couple of catches to get a 1 from me, even if he didn't score any runs.

Cook did play two horrendous shots. And Bell got out twice prodding from the crease which is exactly what you shouldn't do when batting against spin. I prefered Broad's slog to long-on to Bell's prods.