England Vs Pakistan 1st ODI,Cricinfo,Abu Dhabi

Pakistan v England, 1st ODI, Abu Dhabi

25 overs England 113 for 2 (Cook 66, Bopara 25 ) v Pakistan

Shahid Afridi wasted little time in advancing his credentials as the best one-day spinner in world cricket during the opening ODI in Abu Dhabi as England's trials continued against the turning ball. England stuttered at their first sight of him as Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott fell in successive balls in his second over. Spin will remain a centrepiece of the remaining one-day matches to come.

What had changed was the identity of the England captain. Andrew Strauss had departed and Alastair Cook was in charge, a one-day captain whose ability in the limited-overs game is hotly debated. He did his reputation no harm, reaching the mid-point unbeaten on 66 as England moved to 113 for 2. With anything above 250 appearing competitive, Cook was keeping England in the match.

Ravi Bopara brought up the fifty partnership off 72 balls just before midway with two successive off-side drives against overpitched deliveries from the left-arm seamer Wahab Riaz, an indication of the sedate nature of the surface once the spinners took a back seat.

Afridi must have watched England's distress against spin during Pakistan's 3-0 victory in the Test series and licked his lips at the fun to come in the one-day internationals. He was not to be disappointed. After bamboozling Pietersen and Trott with a legspinner and googly respectively, he should also have quickly followed up with Bopara, who had made only 2 when he tried to cut a straight one and was reprieved presumably because the umpire, Ahsan Rana, imagined in inside edge.

Afridi had warmed up with five wickets against Afghanistan while England were attempting to restore morale with victory against England Lions. A quicker, turning legspinner ended Pietersen's skittish innings on 14 and Trott groped forward to a googly and was comprehensively bowled through the gate.

Pietersen was at the top of the order for the fifth time in an ODI but there was no escape from the spinners; Pakistan had picked four of them and Mohammad Hafeez took the new ball. A characteristically risky single to get off the mark might have seen Pietersen run out if Imran Farhat had not fumbled at mid-on and even his one shot of authority, a legside whip against Umar Gul looked too manufactured for comfort, as if he had added a frill or two to disguise the poor quality of the cloth.

His troubled innings also included two let-offs from DRS when he was on 2. Hafeez drifted one away to hit his back leg but Pakistan wasted their review as the ball was shown to have struck Pietersen outside the line. Then Pietersen overturned umpire Rana's decision when he wandered across his stumps to one that Gul cut back and escaped when Hawk-Eye suggested the ball was too high. Pietersen's incredulous expression as he called for a review summed up his desperate state of mind. Never has a man formally tapped the top of his bat with such a BAFTA-winning performance.

Cook needed a reprieve himself, on 30, when Simon Taufel's decision that Hafeez had dismissed him lbw was overturned because of a big inside edge. He reviewed in a quiet, matter-of-fact manner, lacking Pietersen's penchant for the stage. His slog sweep against Afridi to reach his half-century was England's most confident moment against the spinners.

England, who chose to bat after winning the toss, brought in Bopara, Samit Patel and Steven Finn. Tim Bresnan and Jos Buttler were both ruled out on fitness grounds. Pakistan kept the same eleven that beat Afghanistan by seven wickets in Sharjah on Friday.

England Vs Pakistan 2nd Test At AbuDhabi Day3 Cricinfo

Pakistan 257 and 125 for 4 (Azhar 46*, Shafiq 35*) lead England 327 (Cook 94, Trott 74, Broad 58*, Ajmal 4-108) by 55 runs

For the first time in their notional home series, Pakistan had a crowd to strengthen their resolve. They came in their thousands after Friday prayers and sat on the grassy banks at the Sheikh Zayed stadium. What they witnessed was Test cricket at its most attritional but they also witnessed a clue to Pakistan's batting future.

Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq came together at 54 for 4 with Pakistan still 16 runs in arrears and England's bowlers coming to terms with the rigours of playing Test cricket in Asia. It is a rare sight to see England with two spinners bowling to an attacking ring. With Pakistan faltering, they were even beginning to think they might like it.

This time Azhar and Shafiq did not have Misbah-ul-Haq at the non-striker's end learnedly chiding them to be patient but they were patient all the same. They ground out 71 at barely two an over and when the third day closed they had drawn the fire from England's attack. Shafiq treated Pakistan's supporters to two successive boundaries off Monty Panesar, Azhar offered a couple of serene drives and a skip down the pitch to loft Graeme Swann over long-on but it was stern-minded stuff.

Their response was essential. Much was made of England's flimsy top-order batting during their 10-wicket defeat in Dubai; Pakistan's looked just as brittle. Panesar and Swann have not been as magical as Saeed Ajmal, nor have they turned the ball as sharply as Abdur Rehman, but in their first Test together for two-and-a-half years they laid down a challenge.

Mohammad Hafeez and Taufeeq Umar fell to nothing more substantial than artfully-pitched straight balls; a substantial sandstorm could blow through the gap between Taufeeq's bat and pad. Younis Khan got a beauty from Panesar which turned to uproot his off stump. Then the old fox, Misbah, fell: a third wicket for Panesar. Misbah looked for a reprieve on DRS but the dispassionate conclusion had to be that the third umpire, Billy Bowden, was right to conclude that the ball had hit pad before bat.

The growing quality of pitches in the UAE has contributed to two engrossing Tests. It was widely anticipated that this could be a tedious series on unresponsive pitches. Instead, there has been enough life for bowlers to relish an even contest. For those watching from England, whichever side they have been rooting for, it has been well worth an early alarm call.

Smart stats Sixteen batsmen were dismissed bowled or lbw in the first innings of both teams, which equals the record for the first two innings of a Test. The record for an entire Test is 26, in last year's game between West Indies and Pakistan in Providence. Saeed Ajmal is playing his 19th Test, and has taken 97 wickets at 27.92. After 19 matches, Graeme Swann had taken 85 wickets at 30.84. Of the 25 Test wickets that Mohammad Hafeez has taken, 20 have been of left-hand batsmen. He averages 21.30 for each of those wickets; against right-handers he averages 91.20. Stuart Broad's batting average at Nos.8 and 9 is 30.43. With a cut-off of 40 innings at those two positions, onlyfour batsmen have done better in Test history.

But the main benefits have come from the advent of DRS. Technology is rapidly making defensive pad play a thing of the past as umpires grant lbw decisions where once they would have looked askance. The game is different now: livelier, more combative and eminently more watchable. The downside is that lbw decisions are at an all-time high but with the future of Test cricket in such doubt, technology has provided a timely shot in the arm.

That England were able to put the squeeze on Pakistan owed everything to Stuart Broad, whose enterprising, unbeaten, 58 from 62 balls gave them a 70-run first-innings lead. England made 116 runs in the morning session at a rate of nearly 4.5 runs an over as Broad poured his frustration with England's careworn batting in the series into every shot. He had made some mildly provocative remarks about his England batting colleagues after Pakistan had been bowled out for 257, remarking on Twitter that it would make no difference if the batsmen did not frame themselves.

When Ajmal had broken England's dominance with three quick wickets on the second evening, frustration had been etched into Broad's face as he watched from the boundary edge. At such times there is something endearing about his unabashed desire to win a cricket match.

He batted like a man on a mission. If it was up there he would hit it, old ball and new. He needed good fortune on 33 when he survived the narrowest of run out decisions by the third umpire Bowden. Azhar pounced on the ball from cover and threw down the stumps as Broad chanced a single off Junaid Khan. As he dived for the crease it was debatable whether his bat was grounded. But he brought up England's 300 by slog-sweeping Abdur Rehman's left-arm spin for six into the Knocking Area - a sanctuary perhaps for the England batsmen he had previously chided.

The old ball was 84.5 overs old at start of play but Misbah entrusted the task of dismantling England's lower order to his spinners. Matt Prior was intent on playing them off the back foot whenever possible but Ajmal had his measure. He was badly dropped at deep square-leg by Junaid and then spared from an lbw decision by the tiniest inside edge. By the time Ajmal had him lbw on the back foot, a decision upheld after an England review, it was apparent he needed to be put out of his misery.

Ian Bell was also dropped, a rasping return catch to Rehman which flew through his hands for four, and was also beaten several times by Rehman's sharp turn. His tremors against Ajmal's doosra were less apparent but he fell to Gul and the second new ball, England failing with DRS for the second time.

Pakistan finally parcelled up England's innings one over into the afternoon as Hafeez, an increasingly redoubtable all-round cricketer, took two wickets in three balls. Panesar, whose last Test innings had been a heroic rearguard action against Australia in Cardiff, this time managed a more prosaic second-ball duck. Panesar, lbw, signalled that he had hit it, but England had omitted to save a review for him.

Abu Dhabi Only t20 SL Vs Pak Cricinfo,Highlights,Score Card

Pakistan 142 for 5 (Misbah 48*, Shafiq 33) beat Sri Lanka 141 (Chandimal 56, Cheema 4-30) by five wickets

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There was no respite for Sri Lanka. In one of the more closely-fought encounters on this tour, it was Pakistan who prevailed by five wickets after their opponents promised to deliver better, only to falter and give it away. First, with their batting, when they began aggressively and scored at around nine an over in the first ten overs before slowing down considerably and eventually capitulating in the second half. And then it happened with the ball, their spinners putting them in control through tight spells and wickets, not knowing Dilhara Fernando and some fielders would fail to hold their nerve at the death.

Misbah-ul-Haq stood tall for Pakistan, doing what Dinesh Chandimal, who made an enterprising half-century, failed to achieve after guiding the innings - seeing his team through to the end and finishing on a high. Pakistan's seamers did what their counterparts failed to do - Aizaz Cheema and Umar Gul cleaned up the innings, taking five wickets in the last two overs, to restrict the visitors to a chaseable score; on the other hand, Fernando doled out length deliveries that brought down the required-rate considerably.

Ajantha Mendis, returning from injury, and captain Tillakaratne Dilshan restrained Pakistan in their pursuit of 142 after Imran Farhat began brightly. He inaugurated the innings with three crisp boundaries off the first over of the innings but brought on to bowl in the sixth over, inside the Powerplay, Mendis struck, removing Farhat, who holed out. Umar Akmal's first-ball duck was crucial in reducing the tempo of the innings further when he adventurously made room to Dilshan and was bowled playing inside the line.

The next four overs yielded just 19, but at one end was Misbah, building up for a flourish at a later stage. He warmed up by slogging a six off Dilruwan Perera over midwicket and triggered the turn in the tide when 43 were needed off four overs, Afridi just having joined him at the other end.

Fernando dropped slightly short to be pulled to the square boundary, and then overcompensated by bowling too full; Misbah unleashed a cracking drive through cover and whipped a full toss behind square to make it 14 in the over. Mendis still had an over left, but Dilshan gave Fernando another go, much to, presumably, his regret. Two length balls followed in the penultimate over - Cheema picked up three wickets at the same stage in the Sri Lankan innings while aiming at the blockhole - and Afridi dispatched them over long-on and deep midwicket. Though he fell off the final delivery, he'd brought down the equation to nine off the last over.

The win was hastened by a botched-up fielding attempt. The first ball of the final over, Misbah drove Malinga to long-off. What should have been a single became two as the fielder took time to get to the ball, and if that wasn't enough, his wayward throw, missed first by Kumar Sangakkara and then by the short fine leg backing up awkwardly, resulted in six runs in total. With two needed off four, Shoaib Malik edged one wide of third man to seal victory with Sri Lanka still appealing desperately, thinking it was a deflection off the pad.

Though Cheema was the star towards the end of Sri Lanka's innings, it was Saeed Ajmal who started the slide. Ajmal's variations have played a major role in his rise to the No.1 spot in the ODI rankings and with expert changes in flight, pace and his mastery over the doosra, he choked Sri Lanka. In a potentially risky move, he was brought on inside the Powerplay, like Mendis, and was launched over mid-off not long after. The next ball, though, was generously flighted and Dilshan was tempted into the slog-sweep which he top-edged to offer a comfortable catch. Ajmal was particularly effective round the wicket, the batsmen often caught confused about the direction of his turn.

Afridi and Mohammad Hafeez slowed down the innings further, making boundaries a rare commodity. Sangakkara, Sri Lanka's best batsman, chipped a catch back to Hafeez while Angelo Mathews and Chamara Silva, from whom the visitors would have expected a surge at the death, were run out. Racing to 91 for 3 at the end of 10 overs, Sri Lanka only managed 50 in the next ten. Cheema added the finishing touches by making up for his troubles early on. In the penultimate over, he trapped Chandimal in front, had Thisara Perera caught behind and bowled Malinga. Sri Lanka fell way short of the target they were on track for. They met with the same fate with the ball.