ScoreCard End Day 2

Bulletin End of Day 2

England end on top as Trescothick cruises to century

The Bulletin by Jenny Thompson

November 13, 2005

Close England 253 for 3 (Trescothick 135*, Bell 71, Hoggard 0*) trail Pakistan 274 (Salman Butt 74, Inzamam-ul-Haq 53) by 21 runs


England love it when a plan comes together, and their team were certainly on their A-game today as Marcus Trescothick hit an imperious century to complement his bowlers' earlier destruction of Pakistan's tail. By the close he was unbeaten on 135, with his side trailing Pakistan by just 21 runs in the first innings, and with seven wickets left.

Full match report to follow

3.55pm England 220 for 2 (Trescothick 109*, Collingwood 3*) v Pakistan 274 (Salman Butt 74, Inzamam-ul-Haq 53)


There was some relief, finally, for Pakistan in the evening session as Shoaib Malik edged out Ian Bell for 71. The other Shoaib, Akhtar, believed he had got his man earlier - and he certainly celebrated as if he had - with a clever slow yorker that bowled him; but a not-so-clever overstepping gave the batsman a stay of execution. It wasn't to last.

After the wicket-that-wasn't, Bell pulled himself together to concentrate, so much so that he faced a delivery from the world's fastest bowler without the aid of the sightscreen. Some frantic waving from the England dressing room later, and Bell had sorted it out: despatching Ahktar to third man with a sweet late cut, and digging out a second attempted slower ball as if to confirm things. But then Malik struck with a decent ball which Bell inside-edged to Salman Butt at forward short leg.

England won't be too alarmed - Bell's innings will have restored his confidence no end - and Marcus Trescothick cruised to his 12th Test hundred, his second against Pakistan, soon afterwards.

Tea England 174 for 1 (Trescothick 87*, Bell 60*) v Pakistan 274 (Salman Butt 74, Inzamam-ul-Haq 53)


Marcus Trescothick and Ian Bell batted fluently to bring up their 150 partnership just before tea and hand England firm control of this match. By the break they were 174 for 1, just 100 runs behind Pakistan's 274, and holding all of the aces.

England bossed proceedings throughout the first two sessions of the day, skittling out Pakistans' tail in the first hour - taking their last four wickets for 30 runs - then batting calmly, serenely and at a fair pace, too. They coursed along at nearly four an over, although Inzamam-ul-Haq did slow proceedings after lunch with the introduction of Shabbir Ahmed and Danish Kaneria.

Yet the loss of Andrew Strauss for 9 has been the only minor blot on an otherwise very healthy landscape indeed for England. True, they were helped by some wayward bowling - from Mohammad Sami in particular - but their timing and self-confidence has been second-to-none.

Trescothick has been England's mainstay in their warm-ups, and he led them well today, too. He was assured and his timing was imperious as he caressed his way to an unbeaten 87 by tea. He could count himself very lucky, though, that Billy Bowden kept his finger down when he was on 48, when Kaneria brought one back in at him which was going on to hit middle.

Bell, who England had more concerns about, responded to Trescothick's example, and played well, particularly off the backfoot. If his confidence was shaken before the match by the knowledge that he was only included because of Michael Vaughan's absence, you wouldn't know it. Where he had hesitated against Australia, today he was positive, organized and decisive: sweeping here, picking the wrong'un, there. His 60 not out was well deserved.

Nevermind England being poorly prepared before the Test - so far, they have shrugged off such concerns and more - it's Pakistan who have looked the undercooked side. They will take heart from knowing that they were 160 for 1 and fortunes can change in their favour. But even their premier bowlers, Ahktar and Kaneria, were thoroughly out-thought by England, so much so that at one stage Inzamam turned to his part-time spinner Shoaib Malik in desperation, but to no avail.

England's bowlers set the tone for the opening sessions, bowling full and on the money. At the start of the day England had aimed to dismiss Pakistan for under 300 and they did just that, making great use of the new ball and swinging conditions.

Matthew Hoggard was the first to strike, with just the third ball of the day he found Sami's edge, who fell for 1 without adding to his overnight score. Andrew Flintoff then accounted for Inzamam five overs later.

Pakistan's captain had wasted no time in bringing up his 40th Test fifty, working the ball round the ground and playing with confidence. But he was turned inside out by one which was leaving him - his first false shot of the day - and the edge fell to second slip where a confident Strauss made no mistake.

Five balls later Flintoff had added Ahmed, who was at sea during his short stay. Before the batsman had time to find his sea legs, Flintoff had found his middle stump with a searing yorker. It was Flintoff's fourth wicket of the innings.

Steve Harmison needed just two balls to end Pakistan's innings. The second ball after drinks a short-pitched delivery had Kaneria flashing to Ashley Giles at gully. England were be mightily pleased with their bowling effort: with the exception of Paul Collingwood, they all conceded fewer than three runs an over.

But then came a stern test against the pace attack of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami, who used the pace of the quickening pitch well. They had the odd loose ball as they found their radars, but there was no doubting Sami's arrow straight delivery which trapped Strauss for 9 in the fourth over.

Akhtar had earlier sent down a beautifully straight bullet before Strauss was off the mark, but a thick inside edge saved the batsman from the trigger. Strauss went on to hit two fours from Sami's second over, but he fell to the last ball. Enter Bell.

How they were out



England


Andrew Strauss lbw Sami 9 (18 for 1)
Beaten for pace and swing

Ian Bell c Butt b Malik 71 (198 for 2)
Inside edge scooped at short leg

Paul Collingwood c Akmal b Shabbir 10 (251 for 3)
Pushed hard at innocuous straight one

Pakistan

Shoaib Malik lbw Flintoff 39 (80 for 1)
Chose to go back and there was no doubt

Salman Butt c Jones b Udal 74 (161 for 2)
Slashed loopy delivery to slip; Jones snatched the rebound

Mohammad Yousuf b Flintoff 5 (166 for 3)
Undone by inswinging yorker

Younis Khan lbw Harmison 39 (181 for 4)
First ball after tea, ball nipped back sharply

Hasan Raza b Harmison 0 (183 for 5)
Sixth ball after tea, inswinging full delivery

Kamran Akmal c Trescothick b Hoggard 28 (238 for 6)
Useful first-slip catch as the ball was dying

Mohammad Sami c Jones b Hoggard 1 (244 for 7)
Beaten by regulation awayswinger

Inzamam-ul-Haq c Strauss b Flintoff 53 (260 for 8)
Turned inside out and sent thick edge to second slip

Shabbir Ahmed b Flintoff 0 (260 for 9)
No answer to yorker

Danish Kaneria c Giles b Harmison 6 (274 all out)
Steered backfoot cut to gully

Jenny Thompson is assistant editor of Cricinfo

© Cricinfo

Ok there is somethign really serious going on here.

First day:
Pakistan start really slow. They playing lazy shots (i.e. M Yousef and H Raza) and either they go for it hard or its a dot ball. More than 480 dot balls Pakistan made in their 1st innings. The middle order collapsing not because the bowlers are damn good but because they r in a shell. My idea of what happened is that the media had flintoff, hoggard and harmison so much on top our players got scared and went into a shell. Also Bob Woolmer's theroy of staying longer at the crease is mis-interpreted (i.e. they make a dot ball to save a wicket!). Absolutely no running in between the wickets. Where there were three runs our players (espically inzamam) took 2 runs. This is totally different style of playing! This is not similar to what we did in India in bangalore! Is there a stratagey we don't know???

Second Day:
Pakistan start with a good aggresive pace bowling. But after the fall of the first wicket every ball was randomly pitched (mostly half volly and short pitched) and every ball was TOATLLY MISCUED!! Is that what we bowled with half of our bowling strength in India and drew the series! Then the sloppy feilding. The wickets on no balls AND billy bowden giving wrong decisions again!!! Who is to blame???


We totally sucked in all three departments. Why pls somebody explain me why after so much promises and hype before the series we still fail miserably!!!

Well the main reason for the extremely slow batting in the first innings was I think because every player was aiming to play a long innings so they were trying to settle in and not focusing much on the scoring rate....that turned out to fail because in the end we ended up with very few runs as no one really managed to play a long innings.
But I agree..the singles were really lacking..

get rid of sami! Man is a liability! I have to say this is one of those days where we could have done with a seam bowler that know trhe english and is like the duracell bunny...he keeps going onn and on!....none other than rana at least we would have had a little more sting in the tail as this dude could bat a little. Or even umar gul!

Our bowlers didnt even bother england...they where making singles at will!

That kala erm clive Lloyd said that the pak batsmen only blocked or went for boundaries! I think wolmer needs to clear up this staying at the crease confusion and give them bell's and trescothicks innings as an example! keep busy, make singles, dont play rash shots take your time go for singles and hit the occasional loose ball for 6 or 4!

First of all two factors should not be laid aside. 1
1) Pak didn't play test since June
2) Pak is weak in Test cricket
There is another factor that Eng just won ashes.
However, no excuse whatsoever. Pak should work hard to defeat Eng.
English team defeated Aussies by hardwork. I read that there was 1 LBW decision not given of Trescothik on 48... if that is the case then its not good. Bad Luck !!!. Pak should have played with good run rate. Singles definitely plays big role in test cricket.
Now on 3rd day they should try their best to bring Eng team down as soon as possible. But I think they can take lead upto 150 runs. Now second innings of Pak requires some sensible batting from 1-10

Its not about Pakistan being weak in Tests, its about our reliance on playing too much ODIs.

I think it was a case of the batsmen trying to feel the wicket after not playing a Test for like 6-7 months. Sami was as always useless today, Shabbir was good but the batsmen played him really well, Danish needs sometime to get back in his groove while Inzamam needs to be more active and more in command than he was today in the field and attack tomorrow.

__________________
BOO CRICKET:tdown: - HURRAY FOOTBALL :tup:
[B]Bad things always happen when you mix religion with politics.[/B]

"AND billy bowden giving wrong decisions again!!! "

i musta missed this part of the match.. can someone please explain what happened. thanx

-MuhammaD KhaN-

__________________
-Muhammad M Khan-

i think we should give billy the crooked middle finger!

Drop sami and bring in rana, gul , arafat anybody! With sami on the team we are playing one man down!

well if england get a lead of over 100 runs, then it will be all over i think...but if inshallah pak manages to get them out somewhere under the lead of 100 runs, they can come back in 2nd inns....remember, england is gonna have to bat last (if needed inshallah)

__________________
[FONT=Arial Black][SIZE=5][COLOR=red][B]:angel: :angel: :angel: PLEASE DONT CALL ME A PLAYER!!!! :angel: :angel: :angel: [/B][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

i hope this test match is a start of a major debacle in pak cricket which will end in both inzi and uncle bob bob woolmer losing their jobs. hopefully they both will be sacked before indian series and moin khan will return as captain.

for those that think this is imposibble: remember in pak cricket anything is possible
u surely will be surprised when it actually happens

it is more likely that england will bat only once and pak will have to bat last. rain can only save us then and if u ask anyone that comes from multan he will tell u it rarely rains there

I know Eng are infront but tomorrow is the deciding day whoever comes out infront tomorrow will go ahead in the Series. Unless Akmal and Raza (no Razzaq, but razas name is close enuff) can pull off another miracle.

sir u r forgetting that it was sami who took the first wicket to fall down. he went for runs trying for a wicket. in all likelihood if sami hadnt taken that wicket openers would still be playing

2nd day of a 2 month series and ur already at the end. Hold on lots of cricket tobe played

I bring u the truth:

How Shoaib Malik got out:
Freddie bowls a leg cutter and malik jumps at the crease. The ball hits the top of the pad and silly billy gives Malik as out. Side angle shows that the ball was going over the sumps...wayyy over the stumps!

How Younis Khan got out:
Harmison bowls a leg cutter and the ball (if u see casually) is stuck between bat and pad. A TV reply suggests that it hit the bat first and then the pad but sissy billy was there to ruin the tempo of the game.

How Trescothick was NOT given out:
Kenieria comes over the wicket to Trescothick. A legbreak turns sharply from just outside off stump line and hits trescothick on the pad. A loud appeal for lbw turned down. When Keniera asked billy why it wasn't out billy pointed kenieria to go back to his runup point and went up to inzi and said ur bowler is misbehaving. A tv reply says it was plumb. If it had been given out we had trescothick on a mere 50 runs! BUT NO!!! SOFB BILLY WAS THERE TO F*** IT ALL UP!!!!


I mentioned it a million times and now i will mention it again to ppl who say i am wrong for million + 1 times that umpires shd be taken off and tv replays shd be there to make decisions. Also if umpires have to be there consenses of opinion between the TV umpire and the 1st umpire shd be done. I just dont get it...how can u give a not out on a plumb!!!! PLS SOMEBODY EXPLAIN HOW CAN Y GIVE A NOT OUT ON A PLUMB