PAKISTAN v ENGLAND SECOND TEST @ ABU DHABI CC

Thursday 26 January 2012

Scorecard

Day 2

I will be coming into the second day of this Test and a much more promising England situation than Day 3 of the first when the national team could not survive the day and crashed to a 10 wicket defeat in just over half the allotted time.  General impressions will come later as I'm presently in search of a breakfast without pork products at the city's airport.  The gates of the stadium open at 9 and the game starts at 10......

And so welcome to the Abu Dhabi Cricket Club stadium for the first time. It looks formidable from outside (see frontpage picture)... until you turn around and see the view from the other perspective;

Inside it's two stands and some grass.  No-one seems to be sure how many it actually holds.

That is the "Flats End" and the "Pavilion End" has more seats while the sides are simply grass banks.

As far as play is concerned...

Pakistan started the second Day on 256 for 7 and managed to add a run before Misbah found himself reviewing a good ball from Broad in the second over that suggested it might have hit the stumps.  The umpire gave it, the review system confirmed it and the major run maker of the partnership returned to the dressing room with 84 to his name and 1 added to the overnight score.

Three balls later Amjaal played an awful shot all around a Jimmy Anderson delivery and was on his way without adding a thing and  before the end of the fourth Pakistan were gone for 257.  16 balls, 20 minutes and the last 3 fell for 1 run.

So at 10:30 Strauss and Cook stroll out for the 100th time to face Umar Gul (from the flats) and Junaid (Pavilion).  Cook gets off to a proverbial 'flyer' with 10 runs out of 18 but the opposition introduce spin (Hafeez) at the pavilion end after a mere six overs.

Strauss looks so out of touch you are amazed every ball that he isn't walking.. so he'll probably make 100.  After 10 overs they have moved on to 25 taking absolutely no chances against a spinner who is moving the ball only slightly.

But he turns it enough, not as much as Andrew was expecting however when the skipper flips it to the short fielder (Shafiq) on the leg side and is gone at 27 for a very 'unsolid' 11 in the 14th over. Hafeez finishes the over with figures of 4 overs 1 for 6 and he is now bowling in tandem with Ajmaal who is starting to go through his catalogue of deliveries.

Rehman replaces Ajmaal after an unsually long spell for the spinner of 6 overs 2 maidens 13 for 0 and the spin duo strategy continues as England work to grind out the runs at snail's pace.  A massive 6 off the 21st over as we move towards lunch brings the Brits in touching distance of 50 but they don't grab hold of it as Pakistan keep the screw firmly in place for the last 3 overs.  They walk in having not added to that 48 and it all starts again in 40 minutes.

Lunch in the press box is interesting with various things labelled 'spicey' and others labelled 'no spicey' ( I beg to differ in one case) plus lots of desserts that seem to be made by people who don't eat the stuff but make them the way they think the Western journalists want them to be... they don't taste anything like you expect them to and all something that is odd to the receipe for some reason (mango instead of pineapple, syrup instead of jam and so on).  Nevertheless it's a pretty impressive spread.

And then we're back to the cricket.  Umar Gul returns to pace it up after the break and the 50 finally arrives with a boundary off his second ball.  With pace back on at one end (Hafeez is still wheeling in at the other) the rate strats to climb a little and they have 71 before Ajmaal is re-iuntroduced at the Pavilion end for the 29th over.

It's slow work but the England boys keep to the task and by the 37th over the three figure total is slowly hoving in sight. Cook has 42 and Trott has 38.  There is a lot of pundit talk on the fact that Trott has not his a six in his international career - he plays it on the ground as much as possibe (and decreases the bowlers' options accordingly).  We have what sounds like a Yorkshire father and son having a chat about tennis and golf behind us as Vaughan and Boycott get into their stride.

Like those two greats of the past, this partnership seems to take an age to get to the 50 mark.  It finally arrives after 30.2 overs with the total  but it is another 8 and a half overs before the team score passes 100 and 9 more runs before Trott celebrates a 50 off 95 balls with 8 fours.  Jonathan Trott has never hit an international six and I doubt this innings will be the one where he changes that situation.

Graft and grit are the order of the day and Trott is called for LBW and referred twice in this period, both times he is reprieved and the umpires decision is upheld because he is clearly outside the line.  This gives Cook the chance toget over his own half ton milestone and the partnership moves to 98 and then to 99 from 211 hard fought balls - it has been a most uncomfortable afternoon for a batsman trying to make runs. Finally they take the single to move them to 100 with Trott on 57 and Cook on 54.

Tea arrives so slowly as England cut the deficit to 125 and go in at 132 for 1.  A good English fight but it is very hard out there to get off the strip and put together a smooth innings.

After Tea, the first objective is to reach the 150 point but with Gul back on at the "Flats" End that is not easy.  Hafeez starts from the Pavilion but is soon replaced by Rehman as Gul goes off a little stiffly with some kind of muscle strain or pull.  Rehman is on the money immediately and it is back to the solid defence and wait for the bad/loose ball to put away.  Meanwhile Gul is having treatment to the back of his left leg which is being heavily strapped by one of the Pakistan physios.  While this is happening the 150 arrives for England each 49 has taken well over a run a ball with the first 50 taking almost 3 balls per run to achieve.  This is stolid batting rather than aggressive batting but it is accumulating a score and it is tiring out the Pakistani bowlers.

The next target is to get the deficit down to 2 figures.  At 152 for 1 it is presently 105 and with 25 overs to go tonight they will be looking to get the amount needed considerably below 100 but presently there have been 20 runs from 7 overs for no more wicket loss so progress is still slow enough to suggest that England will finish this evening still behind Pakistan.

In the 62nd the 157 total is reached as the batting leader board leans towards Cook on 74 and Trott on 66 again.  The leadership has see-sawed between these two all day with no-one able to take hold of this innings and each batsman hav before reverting back to staying alive and being patient.  Now each batsman starts to contemplate the number of runs to get them to their individual three figure score

But then the valiant work of Mr J Trott comes to an end with a beautiful ball from Rheman which leaves him and just clips the top of the off stump.  166 for 2 as Trott leaves with 74 to his name in a partnership of 139 and in comes Mr Pietersen for his own special little bit of the Test... on comes Mr Ajmaal to add that little frisson of fun to proceedings.

Kevin does get off the mark with a beautiful cover drive after not scoring for about 2 overs but Cook seems to have taken him under his wing and is looking to get him onto stable ground while moving towards his own century as the 200 approaches and the deficit on first innings drops below 75.

 Quite an impressive view of the surface from the top of the spectator seats

The Pakistan tactic seems to be to concentrate on Kevin, give him singles at the end of the over to get him on strike, strangle Cook's ability to score and work on KP's confidence.  They are crowding him on both sides of the wicket and KP's reaction is to shuffle out of the crowd to the pitch of the ball and drive to the boundary.

This is how it continues with the Bwlers trying to tie Pietersen down at one end and him getting out of it and getting Cook on strike.  However at 94he is caught in front, he does not review and the solid base of the England innings is no mare and the complexion of the game changes again as Bell strides out to do battgle with Ajmaal once again.  198 for 3, Pietersen is on 13 and then he is gone as Ajmaal catches him neither forward or back and the ball goes bat, pad, keeper's hands and into the covering Hafeez's hands 203 for 4.  KP goes and Morgan replaces him with Bell on 4 (a sublime drive of Ajmaal's first doosra).  Jimmy Anderson is padded up as we move into the last half hour of the day.

The end of the day comes with Morgan and Bell simply survivingto the end.  But his beautiful spell brings him the edge he was looking for from Morgan and the day ends at 207 for 5.  The English middle just don't seem to know what to do against attacking spinners and eventually just misjudge the length or leave their bats out to dry while making 9 runs in 10 plus overs..  England go into Day 3 with the chances of a good lead for the second innings looking very unlikely.

Back tomorrow with more of the fun from Abu D.

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