CategoryEng v Pak 2016

I had a sneaking feeling that England would win. When faced with the pressure of batting out time on the final day, Pakistan’s erratic batting unit folded. I feel for them. Two of their three most experienced batsmen (Hafeez and Younis) are completely out of sorts. And when your tail begins at eight, you’re asking for trouble. In the end, it was too much for Sami Aslam, Azhar Ali and Misbah to do on their own. Make no mistake about it. This was an absolutely crushing defeat for...

Another good day for England. Although we lost both Cook and Hales early on, Root, Vince (yes, Vince), Bairstow and Moeen took the game away from Pakistan. Nobody went on to make a big score – although Jonny might seal a century tomorrow morning if Cook decides to bat on – but collectively the batsmen did enough. So now the million dollar question: when should Cook declare. At one point, after I’d got a few ales under my belt, I advocated declaring overnight. “Pakistan...

Ladies and gentlemen. We have a game on our hands. At lunchtime today it looked like Pakistan might bat England out of the match. But thankfully our bowling attack never gave up, limited the damage, and wrestled some initiative back by tea. Pakistan’s tail, which might rival Caddick, Giddins, Mullally and Tufnell as the worst we’ve seen in recent times, proved to be their achilles heel. With the score on 358-6, England’s tail might have added another hundred runs or more. But...

Oh dear. That wasn’t what the doctor ordered. Pakistan are now firmly in position to dominate this game. And it’s mostly thanks to Azhar Ali, who scored a brilliant old fashioned test hundred. Hales and Vince please take note. I wasn’t listening to TMS today as I was at home watching on TV. However, apparently Graeme Swann said he’d eat his hat if Pakistan made 400. It could have been his cat, not his hat, but I got this information second hand. I wonder if he’ll...

So what do we make of that? Overall I think England have had both a good and a disappointing day. That might sound a little bizarre but bear with me. For starters, I think England will be delighted that Pakistan chose to bowl first – a decision I really don’t understand. We’ll now be spared from batting last on a wearing pitch. I can only speculate that Misbah thought his best chance of dismissing Cook and Root was early on the first morning. Personally I think England will be quite happy with...

The 3rd test starts tomorrow and England are big favourites. We’ve got all the momentum, won the last game at a canter, and our record at Egbaston is pretty good. Most pundits expect Pakistan to collapse in a heap again. However, and this is a rather large ‘but’, this is England were talking about. Our greatest disasters often seem to follow our most impressive conquests (and vice versa). What’s more, this is Pakistan we’re talking about. They routinely oscillate between the sublime and the...