Pakistan vs England 1st ODI - Abu Dhabi

First topic message reminder :

Here we go then, can England score well against the spin heavy attack of Pakistan?

England to bat first. Bresnan isn't fit so James Anderson plays. Otherwise, as expected.

Prediction? Pakistan by 4 wickets.

Shame such intent was missing when chasing a meagre total in the Test series.

hodge wrote:

hodge wrote:270 should be on from here, 5 an over roughly, Bopara should be looking to accelerate here as we have Morgan next i would presume and we know what damage he can do given 10 overs or so

indeed. Morgan gone, Mr Kieswetter next in.

Morgan just looks out of sorts. You can tell he's fighting himself whilst out there, and clearly frustrated with how he's playing.

Same goes for KP, Mike. Two of our finest players are struggling big time, both mentally and technically, it would seem.

More mental than technical right now fists (although it may have started out technical). Thing is:
1) are there any better players out there? (I don't think so)
2) Won't dropping either/both just worsen their mental condition anyway?

How long can you afford to stick with your two best players (in this format) simply not scoring any runs, and, what is worse, not looking like they can get themselves to try to score runs?

I think this series really should be last chance saloon for KP, he's been poor for ages in ODI's and tbh I'd rather Kieswetter was opening right now the way KP played today.

This is going to sound a strange comment, but what an outstanding 2 runs from Cook, given how long he's batted already and had to hold the innings together and score most of the runs. Hits it to deep point, spots the fielder ambling around, runs the first hard and then takes the pressure end for the throw.

Youngsters eager to learn could do worse than watching Cook's innings here: looking for runs at every opportunity, but waiting for the ball to be bowled in his areas (mainly through mid-wicket and point), and fantastic fitness. He's made scoring 126 at almost a run a ball on what is a slightly two-paced pitch look easy. At the risk of jinxing him.

kp=genuine matchwinner keep a little faith in him

I've plenty of faith in KP, and I agree Morgan should get more time, too.

Ajmal bowls Cook. Brilliant innings.

Ajmal has 4-41 without having actually done anything outstanding. He's just one of those bowlers, isn't he, very crafty.

Broad gone, Ajmal has 5 as England make a total hash of a good start yet again.

Game over. 1-0 Pakistan.

It was a great bit of bowling to get rid of Cook, Ajmal is very very good.

Are England messing up an absolutely fine effort from their captain? Hopes the lower order takes them over the 250 mark.
But what a fine knock from Cook. A lot of us includding yours truly had profound doubts on whether he'll be able to crack the ODI format. He showed he could score at a decent clip during the home series against India and Lanka, but not all were convinced about his capability to gather moment towards the latter part of his innings. With this knock, he has again showed his ODI game is pretty much on the course of great improvement.

I would keep Pietersen in the side. I think the fact that he hasn't scored a ODI century in over three years is the main reason that people want him out of the team. But he did quite well against India, which were his last set of matches, so he's not exactly badly out of form.

9 balls left...

Fine little knock this from Samit Patel. At least England has a decent total to defend.

I'd certainly give Pietersen this series at the top of the order. He's a great tallent, but he has to produce the goods now. Past couple of years have been pretty ordinary by his standards, or any top order batter for that matter.

Gonna be difficult for pak i think, 270 isnt an easy target especially with english bowling.

261 to win. Should reach that at a decent canter, I'd have thought. 280+ was par, for me.

I dunno - English bowlers havsnt made things eas for pak but i fuess we'll see. Expect to win but not at a canter.

A target of 261, if England bowlers get their act together, and their fielders back them up, I think this can be a tricky chase for Pakistan.

A weird innings - Cook batted well for scoring over half our runs at just off a run a ball, but other than that only Bopara got going. Could be one of those wickets where getting in and getting going is difficult, but once you're set it isn't so bad.

260 is probably a bit of a low score to just defend - we probably need to keep taking wickets at regular intervals to keep on top of the game.

Trouble is with bopara and patel in the side england are light on proper bowling options. Theres a lot of overs to fiddle through. They will need the strike bowlers to take wickets.

wow just saw cooks score- but was it to slow!

poor mogs , whats going on with him??

Bopara and Patel are better than Trott and KP with the ball. But I thought England should have played Bresnan ahead of Patel today.

Bresnan wasn't fit, MSP.

Here we go then, 4-0 after 1 over from Finn.

actually scrub that out - cook got 137 of 142 balls- thats very good, the rest should have upped there rates,

if we loose this we havent used our resources effectively.

shame

mystiroakey wrote:wow just saw cooks score- but was it to slow!

Only an England fan could look at the guy scoring 130+ (in 140 balls) and reckon HE's the problem in that innings. It only needed one of the fluent players to get in and score a quick 50 and we'd have been looking at a score in the region of 300.

dummy_half wrote:

mystiroakey wrote:wow just saw cooks score- but was it to slow!

Only an England fan could look at the guy scoring 130+ (in 140 balls) and reckon HE's the problem in that innings. It only needed one of the fluent players to get in and score a quick 50 and we'd have been looking at a score in the region of 300.

see abovce- i honestly didnt realise his great run rate!!

get in !! wicket

Go on Finny!!

SWEET!!!!

double trouble

on a hatrick

Take a bow Finny! How quick is he bowling btw? Looks absolutely rapid!

Finn strikes for England, Hafeez gone LBW!.

Now then now now then now then then now!

Now then!

This is putting a smile on my face. 'Mon the Finny!

Just like it did in the England innings, 1 wicket brings another. Finn gets Shafiq first ball!.

Finn beats Hafeez then Shafiq for pace more than anything, and a little bit of inward movement. Then bowls one of the worst hat-trick balls I've seen for a while but hey.

261 is quite a lot of runs you know... How much is the due likely to affect the spinners? Bopara could be effective on this pitch...

Fists of Fury wrote:Bresnan wasn't fit, MSP.

Here we go then, 4-0 after 1 over from Finn.

He rejoined the squad after recovering, right? what's the new issue?

"261 is quite a lot of runs you know"

it is for these two teams yes!!

it never fails to amaze me how so many teams come from not being able to score 200 in tests matches to go straight into scoring 250 plus in 50 overs!

Rather like India last summer, mystir.

MSP, he wasn't quite 100% yet despite rejoining the squad, so he was ruled out.

msp83 wrote:Bopara and Patel are better than Trott and KP with the ball. But I thought England should have played Bresnan ahead of Patel today.

thats the problem. With bresnan injured bopara has come in because england know patel isnt a reliable r0 over bowler, which meeans we will have to fiddle through quite a lot of defensive overs. Finn fortunatly has done the damage upfront, but englands frontline bowlers will have to keep taking wicketsas the run rate required is not huge.

as for buttler as much as the internet loves him its hard to see where he fits in the side, other than replacing keiswetter. Morgan is still the best odi batsman and whilst kps place should be under threat who the hell else is going to open?

kps place isnt under threat from my pov, happy with him to open, but probally prefer him at 3

what about davies to open- whats up with him?

Younis looks in good touch, England would do really well to get him early.

Fists of Fury wrote:Rather like India last summer, mystir.

MSP, he wasn't quite 100% yet despite rejoining the squad, so he was ruled out.

England in recent years have been quite strict on fitness, and that has been one reason for their recent success. Were the circumstances so desperate to call for a half fit Bresnan to the squad? Is he really expectedd to take part in any of the matches?

oh and another one!!

england doing the biz, got to be odds on favs at this point on

Finny!

GODIMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

That's a big wicket and an absolute beauty from Finn as well as a fine catch by Kieswetter.

Watching the cricket today is proving a marvellous distraction from the mayhem at wolves! Finny is on fire, carrying on the good form he showed in india. Is he nailed on for an ODI spot now d'you reckon?

Cook's knock earlier was top drawer, hardly put a foot wrong. Shame all the other batsmen barring Bopara seemed to be playing on a different pitch!

alot of movement out there!!

all out for 50!

bring it on