Cricket

brewlio

Ok so Anderson took all the plaudits for his haul yesterday, well done Jimmy (and happy belated b'day). But Stevie Finn bowled far better, with pace, genuine bounce and an immaculate line and length. I'm quite excited about this lad going down under for the upcoming Ashes series. When England won the ashes in 05 they then went to Oz in the winter and got whipped 5-0 for fun. Finn is a like a young Harmisonn in his prime. Remember when Harmy took 7-12 all them years ago in the Caribbean? Well this lad Finn could do the same on the fast tracks of Perth. The WACA is tailor made for this lad. The less said about Broady yesterday the better. He bowls the short ball for too often for my liking and batsmen have targeted him because of it. Short and wide gets the treatment, fact.

It's imperative to bowl them out soon as this morning and enforce the follow on. I just get the feeling that the rain will somehow play a part in this test match if Pakistan surpass the 8 runs needed and England have to bat again today.

Neutral

well there goes the follow on

brewlio

Pakistan 182 all out

Thank god for that. After me bigging Finn right up, he went for 30 of his first 9 balls this morning. If England can bat at least the day out it should be game over.

Neutral

It's game over regardless, I don't fancy this Pakistan side to chase even 250 in the 4th innings...

England already have a 172 run lead, so even if they collapse to 200 all out, 372 run overall lead.

The rest of this test match is a mere formality, and a chance for KP and Cook to get into some form.

zing

Prior century and Strauss declares.

15 overs left in the day. Plenty of time for Pakistan to get all out.

EdWeatherall

Nice to see Broad getting wickets, as he had one of those days first innings

11/3

zing

Anderson is awesome.

EdWeatherall

There's no finer bowler in these conditions, the control in swinging it both ways is phenomenal

Sultan

Anderson really needs the conditions to be in his favour.

Can't really judge a bowler on the standard of batsman Pakistan have in their side at the moment.

Allforone

Andersons proven over years now that with the swinging ball hes by far and away the best exponent of it in world cricket theres no better bowler, hes just lethal, unplayable when its like that, he hoops the ball late both ways making it impossible to play, in English conditions Andersons the bowler above any in world circket you’d want in your side.

The critics obviously comes when the balls not swinging, he then looks half the threat and often 85 mph straight stuff on flat decks at the top level gets milked all day, he has to work on his ability to take wickets without the swing but for that alone he should be there, because if the balls moving theres not a bowler out there you’d swap for Anderson he’s that good.

Pakistan will do well to win a test in this series, their battings horrendously weak, and it takes their world class bowling line up to all fire to even keep them in the game beyond day 2! They really need to get Mohammed Yousuf and Younis Kahn back in that middle order otherwise England will breeze this series without breaking sweat, its just not a contest.

KM

Neutral

Valiant effort by Pakistan here...a real show of determination and grit as they grind they way to

60/8

chasing 432 with this being only day 4 session 1.

ha_rooney

65-9. Embarrassing from Pakistan. Yes the conditions favour the bowlers and England's bowlers have been terrific, but the batting is abysmal. K.Akmal finished this match with a pair and dreadful wicket-keeping, the middle-order offers nothing and the tail is left exposed.

I can't understand why the PCB can bring Malik back after all the things said about him and his behaviour in Australia, but will not recall Younis Khan. The middle-order for Pak may be talented but they are all far too inexperienced to be relied upon in any situation, let alone survival mode. It's crying out for some experience.

Atleast Aamer has proven himself to be a world class talent, I hope the fucking politics of the PCB and the influence of people like Akhtar and Asif don't affect his chances of becoming an all-time great. Unfortunately, at 18 he also happens to be the most mature player out of the entire team (imo) and the only one who is consistently performing to a high-level, I hope the pressure to deliver everytime does not affect him.

Northstand

Yeah, what's happened to those guys? I know they had a ban of some sort, but I understood these had been lifted.

Ten wickets for Anderson just now. I agree he's the best around in favourable conditions.

Neutral

It will get to Mohammed Aamer

Pakistan play 6 tests in 8 weeks...the work load and poisonous dressing room atmosphere will wear him down.

ha_rooney

I don't know if the bans got lifted but Yousuf's retired from cricket but I believe Younis is still available but won't be picked (or might still be banned)

Agree Anderson is a terrific bowler, can't think of a better swing bowler, when the conditions favour swing he is almost unplayable, but I stand by my original comment he is average when the ball doesn't swing. If it doesn't swing in Australia (which I don't think it does) then he will struggle to have as much an impact.

Neutral

all over

Pakistan all out for 80

England win by a massive 354 runs.

Absolutely nothing positive for Pakistan to take forward other than Mohammed Aamer who bowled wonderfully and showed a ton of heart with the bat, and to a lesser extent Mohammad Asif also bowled well at times.

Allforone

Anderson Match figures of 11 for 71, pretty special stuff.

Pakistan are going to get a beating this series unless they do something drastic with that 'batting' line up of theirs, i wouldnt back them to make 200 on a featherbed with that line up.

Neutral

-Kaneria out, probably Saeed Ajmal in as specialist spinner(dont think he is much better in the test arena).

-Mohammad Yusuf, probably their best batsmen back in.

Good changes, though that retard Kamran Akmal should also have been dropped. But I guess that would be too much of a big decision for the Pakistani board.

ha_rooney

Interesting Yousuf's back, I thought he retired. Would like to see Younis back as well, non-cricket reasons he is not being picked. Good change nontheless. Not so sure about Kaneria being dropped, he was really poor this match but you have to give him another match as he is proven in the Test arena.

I wonder if England will bring in Shahzad for the next test, assuming he is fit.

Allforone

Well apparently during Pakistans recent (calamitous) tour of Australia Mohammed Yousuf and Youns Kahn were causing friction within the camp which was resulting in player infighting and a woefully low team morale, the Pakistani board vowed to leave the 'troublesome' old guard behind and invest in youth which resulted in Yousuf retiring (supposedly) and Younis Kahn being left out of the squads totally, not the wisest of calls but i suppose if they were causing problems in the dressing room no matter how good they are the team comes first of course.

However it appears Younis Kahn is available for selection and it will be interesting to see if the Pakistani board go back on their original word and pick him because frankly their in desperate need of his batting, an average of 50 with 16 test tons shows hes a class act and Pakistan are simply not in any position to turn their noses up at that, but if he was deemed a troublesome influence only a few months ago then itll look an even more ridiculous decision to go running back to him at the first sign of trouble, they’ve made a rod for their own back on this one really.

Personally I hope both Younis and Yousuf come back into the fold to be honest because at the moment i can see this series passing by very clearly because as it stands there’s no contest whatsoever, England are so inferior its actually quite shocking.

Northstand

I'm sure that's not what you meant to say!

Pakistan have announced that Mohammad Yousuf has indeed been brought back into the side. We'll have to wait and see about Younis. As you say, it will help make the series more competitive.

zing

They need about 5 new batsmen, not 1..

oleonenumber20

I think they have named an unchanged squad, and no doubt the team will be the same.

Its true Anderson is unplayable in swinging condition but I think he can get wickets down in Aus too, especially with the help of Saker.
They know that they need to work hard with the Kookabura ball to get anything from it, so we might see a few more cutters from Anderson

Neutral

shahzad failed a fitness test, so Tim Bresnan has been called into the squad, but the actual playing XI will stay the same, barring a late injury.

KM

Harbhajan doubtful for the next test, our bowling lineup is gonna be so .

Ishant
Mithun
Mishra
Ojha

zing

Harbhajan hardly setting the world on fire in test cricket atm, is he?

And I don't understand why Ojha's playing test cricket. Alright limited-overs bowler, but not the man for me in test cricket.. Mishra's much better.

Our problem is really the seamers. The 'attack' looks so pathetic it must give confidence to opposition batsmen. The spinners, I think, will come into the game if they have some decent backing from the pacebowlers. It's a overall confidence thing. The seamers are so bad it just puts a negative outlook on the whole thing.

I'm just waiting for this tour to get over, we'll finally stop seeing India vs Sri Lanka for, hopefully, quite some time.

KM

He's best of the bad bunch, Zing.

Can't understand about Ojha either, if the selectors really wanted a left arm spinner they should've looked at Karthik who has been bowling well in English Conditions. Mishra is much better I agree.

and also I'm sick and tired of India Sri Lanka Matches, apparently we have a tri series involving them and New Zealand coming up next

Allforone

Whats happened to Indias bowling attack? last time i watched them live in a test match was on their tour of Australia, the likes of Ishant Sharma were making Ponting look like a pub player in his own country, Ponting was literally his bunny, Sharma looked a million dollars back then whats happened to him? And wheres Zaheer Khan? always rated him as one of the best around big fan of his fantastic bowler.

KM

Zaheer Khan is injured and Sharma has gone back in his development due to the crappiness of pitches here. He used to bowl around 145 regularly in that trip of Australia, but now his speed has gone down a lot. Still a good bowler on his day but sadly needs an experienced partner like Zaheer to bowl properly.

Sultan

Indian bowling coaches have a knack of making fast bowlers worse once they enter the test arena.

Neutral

soft dismissal....

SL 157/3

Neutral

SL - 260/4

with 10 overs left in the day. Looks like this pitch is not as placid as the monstrosity they used in the 2nd test.

EdWeatherall

BBC Sport - Cricket - Andrew Flintoff to miss whole of 2010 season

Flintoff out for the whole summer, but close to agreeing a deal to play Australian T20, that could be his future as a freelance T20 player

Neutral

DAY 2:

SL 425 all out

India 180/2

Looks like this match is moving at a much faster pace than the last borefest, and things at the moment look like there might be a real tussle!

KM

Sehwag is just ridiculous, what a player!

Ole's_toe_poke

Fixed

KM

Yeah that's why he has 59.50 average in Australia scoring 833 runs in 7 test matches with an amazing strike rate of 74

Flat track bully, Indeed.

Ole's_toe_poke

Doesn't mean a thing. He struggles when the ball moves like most batsmen and usually loses patience and gets out cheaply when the wicket doesn't allow him to bludgeon the ball and hence he will never in my eyes be a great despite his phenomenal record. IMO

KM

You said he is limited on seaming pitches, doesn't having an average of nearly 60 on possibly the most bowler friendly pitches in the world proves that statement wrong. Also, he is an opener and so bats at the time when the ball is moving the most(Day 1, New Ball and Fresh Pitch) but yet according to you he struggles when the ball moves. Your also wrong about his patience, just because he scores at a quick rate doesn't mean he lack patience, his record of converting 100's into big hundreds is just outstanding. This record is a prove of his patience