Here’s today’s thoughts on the 3rd day’s play of the first test in Dubai..
Bring back Aftab Habib*
Misbah (right) and his man tats
Maybe not. That would be a bit too much of a knee jerk reaction. But England’s batting performance over the course of the last 3 days shows that England aren’t as good as the majority of people thought. England may be the number one ranked team but great teams don’t get bowled out for less than 200 twice on a placid pitch (this wasn’t a green seamer in England or the WACA remember). Watching the highlights, England looked a bit clueless. Alistair Cook for example. Today he seemed to get out the way I get out. It goes something like this through my head “I can hit that. Yeah, I’ll have that. Actually, no I won’t I might get out. Shit I’ve got bat on that. I’ve neither left it or larruped it. I’ve got out like a tit”. In his first innings he was a victim of his over confidence – trying to impose himself on a spinner early in the game. In his second innings he was a victim of pessimistic indecision. Very English, you wouldn’t have seen Hayden, Langer or Waugh get out like that.
KP
I didn’t want to go on a rant about Kevin Pieterson but unfortunately I appear to have no control over my fingers this evening. I like KP – I’ll get that out there to start with. But, having seen his shot today (live as I had it on in the office) I wanted to get his bat and ram it up his sphincter fat end first. “It’s the way he plays” “He averages over 50” – bollocks. In no way should a professional cricketer get out 8th ball slapping a long hop to backward square leg. In Monday’s Times he claimed that he never played well in the warm up matches and that the first 10 balls of a series are the most important in the context of the rest of the series. Having scored 2 runs from 47 balls I can only presume he’s now thinking he might as well go home.
Losing
The thing that I found the most disappointing about this test was that England were rolled over so easily. In the first innings, possibly understandable – alien conditions, new ground, a little under prepared. In the second innings, having been taught how to bat by the Pakistani’s for the best part of two days, I’m not so sure. Let’s hope that England can bounce back in the second two tests and make a good series of it. Well done to Pakistan though they executed their skill sets, performed well as a unit and showed great unity. Enough media clichés in that sentence for you? Hope so, it’s like reading the transcript of every England press conference over the last 3 years.
Misbah
Are they moobs or pecs?
*For those not in the know Aftab Habib played two tests for England in the 1990′s scoring 26 runs in 3 innings. He played in an era when England chopped and changed the team everytime they lost. Habib, who averaged over 40 in first class cricket, was one of said players that was drafted in to try and save England. He looked a bit like a hamster.
