| 
Posts and words
Loading ...good summary, Will. Same thing here. Going to bed, See you all tomorrow.
Pakistan v England, 1st Test, 1st day thoughts
By Will 5 years ago, mid-November Add your comment below
A gripping day in which to start the winter series against Pakistan – and an excellent, fighting day by England, one which they must surely be delighted with.
The pitch was always expected to be flat, but not as lifeless as it turned out to be, so Inzamam’s decision to bat first was predictable and justified. Both openers got off to reasonably comfortable starts, with few alarms, until Flintoff trapped Shoaib Malik on the crease. Plumb. Malik had been playing sensibly, but his partner – with a surname to make Sun editors salivate with glee – Salman Butt showed exactly how to bat on this pitch. I’m sure the selectors must have been pleased with the manner of his innings; it was well crafted, or grafted as Geoffrey would say, the only blemish being his departure for a solid (and, perhaps, career-enhancing) 74.
Steve Harmison opened the attack with Matthew Hoggard, but neither threatened greatly – affected, perhaps, by the thought of bowling all day, in intense heat on an ironing board. Harmison eventually woke up to his task, and bowled with great intelligence. After the disaster tour of South Africa, I’m sure I’m not the only one with a keen eye on how well Harmo performs this time round. Although initially tame, it was his first over after tea which sparked the fire within; Younis Khan was trapped in front with the first ball of the final session, followed by Hasan Raza in the sixth (having been unsettled by a bouncer two ball previously).
Shaun Udal outbowled Ashley Giles quite convincingly, by bowling to his limitations and using a lot of nous and clever changes of pace. Giles, on the other hand, was ineffectual at best – although latterly he did improve his length (which simply must be full on these pitches, for all bowlers – but not that full Gilo!). Udal’s first Test wicket was a fair slice of luck – Salman Butt flashed, ball rebounded off the forehead of a dumfounded and concussed Marcus Trescothick, and Geraint Jones reacted quickly to take a very good catch. I haven’t said that too often on this blog…
So to take six wickets, having lost the toss, on a benign pitch is testament to this tough, gritty and resiliant team. And, again, emphasis must be made on team; they work for eachother, as demonstrated by the sharing of wickets around.
A good start by England, who now need to turn the match into their own tomorrow and Monday. See you tomorrow – I’m off to bed.
Tags: england, england-in-pakistan, geraint-jones, marcus-trescothick, pakistan, salman-butt, Shoaib-Malik, steve-harmison |
7 Responses to “Pakistan v England, 1st Test, 1st day thoughts”
November 12th, 2005 at 3.03 pm
November 12th, 2005 at 5.59 pm
So far so good from an England fan’s POV. We need to get through them quickly in the morning – with Pakistan it is usually a case of persuading them to beat themselves (and who better to do that than Fletch 
) – and then the fun really starts when England bat. We’ll score at four an over because we no longer know how to do anything else, but frankly by to-morow’s close it could be anywhere between
Pakistan 330 & 30-0, England 200
and
Pakistan 270, England 270-3
Who’s going to be England’s top scorer?
November 12th, 2005 at 6.16 pm
“Who’s going to be England’s top scorer?”
I’d love it to be Bell, for his sake! But I reckon that our opening pair have to put in a solid partnership to steady the nerves of the rest of the top order.
November 13th, 2005 at 12.25 am
England toughen up
I won’t be doing full on summaries of the England vs Pakistan series, because there’s enough on my plate at the moment, but I did watch large swathes of yesterday’s…
November 13th, 2005 at 3.01 am
As a Jones apologist, I was happy to see him catch that tricky one off Banger’s noggin. I’m also interested to see how Harmison keeps it together away from Blighty. I think once ul-Haq goes, the rest of the wickets will fall quickly (piercing analysis from the Yank there, I know). Hopefully the pressures of captaincy will not adversely affect Tresco’s batting and he can having a calming influence on Bell, KP, et al down the order. I think he is the key to England’s first innings (even more so than usual). If he can stay in, see off the opening attack and then put up a century-plus-some, the rest of the batsmen can settle in nicely and do what they do best (in the case of KP and Freddie, if that means scoring at 10 or 12 per over, more’s the better). I’d love to see Bell and Jones each put up 50-plus to quiet the naysayers. And I’d like to see Gilo put up a breathless 16-ball 30. But I don’t want to see him batting tomorrow.
I say Tresco top-scores for England with something in the 120-150 range (which for him might take a day and a half).
November 14th, 2005 at 8.03 am
Exactly how tough is it to actually outbowl Ashley Giles?
December 7th, 2005 at 7.56 am
dear salman
how’r u keepin?u’v had a scintillating test series against england,ur consistency wil probably silence ur critics who hav labelled u as an ODI player.
i must say i’m a huge admirer of ur soothing n very wristy drives,never seen anybody play that shot.i’l also admit that i luv the way u speak u’v got gud elocutional skills n international cricket will spruce it up further.i admire u the most wen u speak n wen play ur charismatic drives,smooth as silk.
i’m frm ajmer sharief,the holy city of my beloved khwaja.i pray 2 him for ur gud n lasting cricketing career.
bye take care
love micky
Comments
« Pakistan v England, 1st Test, Day One | Main | Pakistan v England, 1st Test, 2nd day »
