The Sub continental drought continues

By Shantam Taneja

Pakistan 338 (Hafeez 88, Akmal 61, Taufeeq 58 Swann 4-107) and 15 for 0 beat England 192 (Prior 70*, Ajmal 7-55) and 160 (Trott 49, Swann 39 Gul 4-63) by 10 wickets

An all too familiar feeling of England being dismantled by a sub continental team returned as the hosts spoiled England’s return back to test cricket. England crumbled to 160 all out in the second innings leaving Pakistan to knock off the 15 runs to seal an emphatic victory over the number 1 ranked team in the world.

It all started well for England as they won the toss and elected to bat on what looked like a dry wicket. In front of empty stands and a location described as ‘a sunnier version of Milton Keynes’ by an England supporter, the hosts drew first blood by reducing England to 52/5 by Lunch with Ajmal being the main destroyer. By the end of the first day, he had his best figures in test cricket; 7/55 from 24.3 over’s and England finishing on 192 all out. The pick of the wickets was the doosra bowled to Ian Bell which pitched just outside off stump and slight turn and bounce away from the batsmen found Bell’s edge which was gladly accepted by the wicket keeper. It could have been worse for England, had Prior not shown any determination and guts. He eventually finished on 70 not out

The Pakistani batsmen showed that there were no demons on this pitch, reaching a 114 run opening stand before Taufeeq Umar got a beautiful delivery from Broad which clipped the top of off stump. Pakistan then laboured to 338 all out with useful contributions coming from Taufeeq, Misbah, Adnan Akmal and Hafeez.  Akmal played especially well, playing with the tailenders to take the lead past 140. He attacked any width the English bowlers offered him and the pick of his shots being the drive placed between backward point and cover which raced away to the boundary. Pakistan eventually succumbed to the English bowling line up who had toiled hard in conditions which were very alien to them.

England needed a response from their batting line up in order to save this match which would be worthy of their status as the number 1 team. However luck wasn’t on their side as Strauss was on the other end of a controversial decision as he was given out for a catch taken down the legside by the wicketkeeper in the fifth over. Strauss decided to review the decision. Hotspot revealed nothing on the edges of the bat but there was a bat like noise as the ball passed the bat so the decision was kept and the most crooked finger in world cricket went back up again. Trott batted for over 2 hours before becoming Umar Gul’s fourth wicket. In between the 2 dismissals, Bell was bamboozled by Ajmal’s doosra again and Pietersen pulled a short ball straight to Abdur Rehaman at deep backward square without scoring. And the main surprise being Cooks failure for the second successive innings as he fended at a short ball from Umar Gul and gave Adnan Akmal a simple catch down the legside. After Trott went, it was left to the spinners to run through the lower order.

In the first innings, Abdur Rehman was asked to contain the scoring rate but due to the absence of Cheema in the second innings, he began to attack more and ended the day with 3 wickets. At one point he was on a hat trick but Anderson just about saw him off with the ball just missing the off stump of Jimmy Anderson. Ajmal finished with 3 wickets to complete his 10 wicket match haul. It was almost fitting in a certain way that he was the one that got the final wicket luring Swann into a false shot which went straight up in the air and was caught by Asad Shafiq at short cover. Swann needs to realise that many better batsmen than him have perished to the eventual man of the match winner but more importantly England need to find a way of scoring against him.

With 15 needed to win the match, Pakistan wasted no time in getting there as Hafeez smashed all fifteen runs which included 3 boundaries. A great win for Pakistan and a lot to ponder over for England. With tours of Sri lanka and India coming up later this year, England need to find a way of playing spin bowling or the number 1 ranking could be snatched from them. More importantly, lets not forget that Ajmal is yet to consistently bowl his newest delivery; the teesra which could cause England further problems.

A superb display from Pakistan which was confirmed by Michael Vaughan tweeting ‘Pakistan confirmed to me this week that they are by far the best team in the Sub Continent at the minute.... By a country mile’. Controversial but nevertheless shows Pakistan’s utter dominance over England in this particular match.