Pakistan v England 2nd Test

First topic message reminder :

England team:
AJ Strauss(c), AN Cook, IJL Trott, KP Pietersen, IR Bell, EJG Morgan, MJ Prior(w), SCJ Broad, GP Swann, JM Anderson, MS Panesar

Pakistan team:
Mohammad Hafeez, Taufeeq Umar, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq(c), Asad Shafiq, Adnan Akmal(w), Abdur Rehman, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Junaid
Khan


Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat

A patient 50 from Cook

Well done Cook

Spot on from this pair. Even if the partnership is broken fairly soon it should help the confidence of those coming after.
Theres no scoreboard pressure now either. Bowling first and restricting the opposition is a huge things. Broad and Anderson may have played a role in this improvement.

50 for Cook, very well done, sir. Keep it going.

Impressive from Cook. All the moreso as he can struggle against spin, especially with his footwork and playing with a straight bat. Shows the strong mentality he has developed these last few years.

100 partnership Just the ticket, keep going lads.

Eng 127/1.

I have been very impressed by these two's approach to this session. Excellent application from them.

Evening all

Haven't seen a ball bowled today - Australia Day, parties , wives , tennis etc...

... but it seems like a decent day for England so far

Could hardly have cleaned up Pakistan quicker this morning ... now some useful batting apparently.

How has the batting been ? Safe , or have they have to battle?

Better than anyone could have expected after the last test. Chuffed to bits with todays play from England so far.

Strauss was again taken cheaply alfie but Cook and Trott have batted well. Cook looked a little unsure early on but is now batting well.

Other than a plumb lbw against Trott that wasn't reviewed, we have been quite excellent, Alfie. Not the quickest scoring but that isn't an issue at this point. They've played safe and solid. Strauss went to another half forward prod, which was disappointing, but these two seem to have the measure of the spinners for the most part (famous last words).

How's Australia Day?

Thanks billy and fists

Australia Day has been warm and pleasant , lots of champagne etc etc and some good company

Be interesting to see what happens in this last session...

Did you move over there for work, ALfie? How are you finding it?

Yeah England will be extremely well set if they can negotiate this last session well.

What on Earthis Australia day alfie? When i was there no-one could give me an answer...

Its important for Pakistan to take a couple of wickets in this session or England could take command of this match.

eirebilly wrote:What on Earthis Australia day alfie? When i was there no-one could give me an answer...

Its important for Pakistan to take a couple of wickets in this session or England could take command of this match.

Its the anniverary of British soveriegnty. Im guessing the Irish dont have a similar festival.....

I thought that it was the day that Australia was discovered by the brittish but that wasnt the case.

Cook starting to have a go :-)

Billy just checked...its British soveriegnty over ( youll love this) East Holland that started the tradition of celbrating the day, then the formation of NSW was officialy celebrated that day ... then it became the de facto national day of Australia as various States took it on.

If England can get to the close of play around 220 / 1or 3 then it will be a fantastic day for them.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Billy just checked...its British soveriegnty over ( youll love this) East Holland that started the tradition of celbrating the day, then the formation of NSW was officialy celebrated that day ... then it became the de facto national day of Australia as various States took it on.

Ha haa, cheers mate, so the damn Dutch started it all....

Gul with an injury problem?

Australia Day commemorates the day that (I forget his name) sailed in to Syndey Harbour and established Sydney as the first European colonisation of Australia.

Gul ok despite a tight calf.

Australia Day didn't seem to be a big deal until fairly recently - I've noticed a lot more fuss over this sort of thing in the last ten years or so , Anzac Day too ...

This year a newspaper was offering free Aussie flag hats and stick-on flag tatoos ... and the local wine advertising mob ran a campaign urging physical assault on anyone seen drinking an imported drop

Decent excuse for a party anyway...god bless Arthur Phillip

It was pretty big in Perth when i was last there in 99 alfie. Massive day for drinking but there beer wasnt that nice

Runs still seem to be pretty hard to come by out there

For Trott to average over 58 after 25 tests is an amazing achievement.

Must have been such an important point regarding Trott that V2 felt it needed posting twice

Trotts gone

That will be me for complimenting him just 5 minutes ago

OOPS

Wicket rather out of the blue there ... I gather Trott rather lost it for a moment , not like him ...

Need to settle again.

Sounds like Trott was got by a good ball, although maybe could have got further forward in an attempt to smother the spin. However, anything that a lefty spinner pitches middle and leg and hits off stump with is pretty difficult to combat.

Just been watching the tennis. Great partnership from Cook and Trott (reading back). Rehman got a bit of turn there to dismiss Trott.

What KP will we see today? Hopefully the attacking KP that will have a go at knocking the bowlers around....

Trott planted his feet and didnt move. It was a good ball but Trotts lack of footwork made it look a lot better. Still he did a very good job

Very good job. I think KP needs to survive for 10 overs or so, if he can do that then he may be able to go on and get a score. Vulnerable early against spinners on a slow deck.

KP off the mark with a 4. Hopefully give him some confidence...

Rehman is giving KP loads to think about here. KP does'nt look comfortable at all.

KP off the mark with a boundary

With 17 overs left to play, you would think that England would be looking to add at least another 50 runs today. This match is still in the balance but given the scoring rates it could be a very long next 3 days....

Well they finaly got the breakthorugh but it looks to me like Pakistan have been far to reliant on their 3 man spin attack. England did the damage with the seamers, looking at the number of overs bolwed by the slows in this game they really havent been effective threats.

Off the mark with a boundary ... would be nice to see an aggressive KP indeed , although some people seem to doubt his ability to play that way on these pitches.

I suspect he's as likely to fail poking around against spinners and would be better off playing more naturally.

5 dots boundary, 5 dots bounday..... Not too unhappy with that

eirebilly wrote:With 17 overs left to play, you would think that England would be looking to add at least another 50 runs today. This match is still in the balance but given the scoring rates it could be a very long next 3 days....

Hmm I suspect they will bat slower than that, KP will be desperate to stay in overnight and be around for the new ball tomorrow.

It is a very very slow scoring game, but it appears thats the way both sides want to play. Didnt really pan out for Pakistan. Maybe someone in Englands lower order will hit a rapid 30, its that kind of innings that can flip a game like this between close and victory.

Certainly England will need to be on with the bowling again tomorrow.

Cahnces of rain shortening the game ?

I would love to see KP just play his natural game here alfie, it would probably settle him down more...

PSW, i think that KP will settle in and become agressive (at least i hope he does) as that is the way he plays.

I hope Cook gets a ton here as well as he has done a great job today.

alfie wrote:Off the mark with a boundary ... would be nice to see an aggressive KP indeed , although some people seem to doubt his ability to play that way on these pitches.

I suspect he's as likely to fail poking around against spinners and would be better off playing more naturally.

Totally agree, get on with it now but he needs to remember to start again in the morning. To often KP is there overnight but out in the first over the next day.

KP only needs to hit a couple of boundaries and he will start to feel good and attack the bowling. I just hope he doesnt get bogged down.

Rehman is really bowling well to KP here

really good from england so far today


we are playing ajmal better for certain, the pitch turned quite a bit yesterday and has today, however i think our batsman are picking ajmal a bit better, which is good signs.

KP is going to find this tough. Theres got to be a menatl block with him and spinners now. Pakisatn no that too. He also knows hes expedted to see out the day and be set in for the new ball. Then the fun starts, the new ball is where the wickets have been falling in th is test. Sure it may give him a break form the spin a bit but hes going to be expected to not chuck his wicket away till its seen off.

If he can get through all that then we will see him open up. Its a lot to ask though, its right out of his comfort zone.

That was very close for Cook.......