4
1st Test – day one
By Tabrez Janjua for Stani Army in Pakistan Cricket
36 ViewsOn a classically placid pitch, one has to ask if the curators went too far in trying to prepare a pitch to counter the threat of Murali and Mendis that they’ve made their own bowlers suffer. Yet this type of pitch is nothing new though as any Pakistan fast bowler will tell you. Again and again we hear of captains and coaches speak of our pace attack as being our main weapon yet again and again they are given dead pitches to bowl on.
Mahela Jayawardene’s century means that he has scored a century against all Test playing nations now. After his recent bad form you could have bet that it would be the Pakistanis who would give him the opportunity to rediscover it. Dropping three catches (all off Jayawardene) and having a generally poor day in the field, it will be interesting to see how quickly the fielding is addressed by our professional coaches otherwise there’s no doubt that a series loss here will see another comity being set up to investigate why.
With Danish Kaneria, Sohail khan and Umar Gull all struggling, one can’t help but wonder if the left arm option of Sohail Tanvir could have been a useful weapon. Of the bowlers, only Yasir Arafat can really hold his head up high.
A depressing four days (if that) lie ahead as the best Pakistan can hope for from here is a draw unless something miraculous happens.
Loading ...
February 21st, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Good point about the pitches. I remeber when England toured few years back and the pitches were dead. We were lucky to have Shoaib Akhtar then, relatively fit and performing well. The clever thing he did was take the pitch out of the equation and mixed it up with his slower balls and fuller deliveries. I remember the slower ball he got Michael Vaughan with…superb.
Arafat did well but I think Gul needs to step up. He is better than what he has shown and certainly has the weapons Shoaib used back then.
February 21st, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Sohail Khan was largely ineffective. Should definitely have kept Tanvir. this looks like a draw or a loss because our batsmen probably gonna collaps.
February 24th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Where is Afridi?
February 24th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Afridi is probably at home wondering why he agreed when they tried to pursuade him to come out of Test retirement!