Now that’s better. A lot better. The fifth day finally provided some kind of entertainment. The pitch finally, finally starting to offer the spinners a bit of help. And finally, finally, finally the spectators had something meaningful and exciting to watch.
I thought that yesterday’s play was one of the most promising days of test cricket England have had for a long time. The Ashes were great, don’t get me wrong, but they were a bit of stitch up. The games we won were on pitches tailor made for our seamers. What’s more, we made a complete pig’s ear of two of the five matches. Had this team really turned a corner, or were we just wallowing in home advantage and capitalising on an out-of-form Australian batting line-up?
Yesterday was different – joyful almost – because we got close to winning in alien conditions. And the star of the show was an English leg-spinner. A year ago we’d have celebrated the emergence of any kind of spinner at all. To see a leg-spinner turning matches our way was like discovering the Holy Grail.
We shouldn’t get too excited yet. It was just one game. But I was hugely impressed with Adil Rashid. He showed enormous character. His first innings debacle, in which he recorded the worst ever bowling figures for a debutant in test history, is no longer a blemish on his record. It’s actually a badge of honour because he bounced back and got a five-for later in the game. I doubt anyone will mention the former without the latter in the future.
It wasn’t a lucky five-for either. Sure it helped that Younis Khan slogged one in the air etc but I always think leg-spinners are most useful when it comes to mopping up the tail. England have struggled to do this for ages. Rashid accomplished this with skill and panache. He looked like a bona fide test leg-spinner. His five-for was the first by an English leggie for more than fifty years.
Pakistan’s collapse set up a dramatic run chase in fading light. I have to admit I never really thought it was on. This pitch was as flat the proverbial throughout most of this game, and made it extremely easy for batsmen to survive, but it was never the fastest surface. Big hitting was tricky.
Having said that I think England gave it a good shot. It was good to see them tinker with the batting order – although Alastair Cook once scored a T20 century for Essex – it’s just a shame things didn’t work out. The light was always closing in rapidly. At least we gave Pakistan a scare.
By the way, I have no problem with Pakistan’s time wasting at the end. Yes I agree it was very unsightly but every test team in the world would have done the same, including England. It’s just one of those things that’s crept into the game. We don’t have to like it but we have little choice but to accept it.
Of course, it all brought back memories of Moin Khan and Steve Bucknor in Karachi all those years ago. This time the umpires decided to be consistent, and finish play at roughly the same time as the first four days, rather than teach the time wasters a lesson.
Overall though England should be delighted with the outcome – our record in the first test of series abroad is appalling. A draw is a good result and gives us something to build on. The key is likely to be how we play Yasir Shah in the next two games.
James Morgan
I think the light level “to go off” had been set by a decision earlier in the match, so the umpires had limited discretion. That’s the way the rules work now.
England have plenty of form in the time-wasting stakes, so I have little sympathy for the outpouring of self-righteousness. If we actually wanted to win the match we should have batted with more intent.
Of course, with more overs to survive, Pakistan may well have batted a little differently too…
First five-for on debut by an England spinner since Peter Such in 1993.
Such is now the spin bowling coach at Loughborough. Hopefully Rashid will have a similar role in approximately two decades time!
Don’t blame the teams, but the regulations clearly need looking at. Both in terms of punishing deliberate time wasting with run penalties, and not finishing early for bad light unless the batsmen are genuinely in danger.
Didn’t we have this a few years ago with England-Australia? Why was nothing done after that?
Never ceases to amaze me the lengths cricket administrators will go to make sure the game is as disappointing a spectacle as possible. It’s almost as though they feel the public should be punished for watching. After 4 days of the most turgid sport imaginable, just when it gets exciting someone comes along and says “Oi! What are you lot doing? Enjoying yourselves? Entertaining people? That’s quite enough of that! Break it up, now! Nothing to see here…” Only cricket could come up with a set of rules deliberately designed to prevent a result!
I think the umpires were very lenient yesterday – they clearly let things continue until it was darker than on day 4, when they strictly aren’t supposed to. They came off 10-15 mins later. That said, I also think they came off too early on Day 4 – if they’d bowled those last 3 or 4 overs, England might have nicked it. Credit too to Pakistan for bowling 11 overs in an hour in those circumstances. I thought they’d bowl about 8. I think that’s what the WI bowled in similar circumstances about 25 years ago on the tour Graham Gooch captained.
Oh and one last thing. Contender for dimwit decision of the year : Jos Buttler reviewing his LBW instead of running off as quickly as possible. Doh!
Trinidad 1990. Ian Bishop took 11 minutes to bowl one over. Desmond Haynes managed to rearrange the field after every ball (then change it back again). Would have been quicker posting the ball in. Genius.
Slow track that takes hitting out the game.. Yes please. Get rid of odi slogging from test cricket. Trouble is you want it fast for the pace men to really test batsmen out like Johnson did to find out England (Ali for example would be toast).
Every team would time waste, no blame attached. The laws should be made so over rates through the game are such that if you. Don’t bowl your overs +25 per non bowled over is added. That would deter time wasting and if a batsmen isn’t ready for the bowler from his normal run up a warning, two warnings and you’re out. Any injury and you either carry on or go off retired and come back on at the end. No drinks or glove/bat changes unless it’s drinks as that’s the point of drink breaks
Get rid of odi slogging from Test cricket?!? Then we would not have had ITB’s heroics in ’81 in our sporting folklore, for a start!
T
Fds
A