greg said:
lol. England had lost this series long before Shoaib suddenly started producing unplayable (by England's batsman anyway) slower balls. The point is that, as SJS says he doesn't do anything clever with the ball and wasn't even bowling it as a surprise delivery (which is the ONLY reason Harmison gets any wickets with his). If it's effectiveness has been helped (and i'm not automatically saying it has, i've seen no slow motion footage) by a slight kink in the elbow, then it may even be entirely "legal" under the ICC limits. But it is a fundamental problem with the ICC regulations that they at no point recognise that bowlers, by varying their speeds, can gain a dramatic advantage over batsmen on even the flattest pitches.
So that still leaves the request for some advice on how England go about combatting it. Because on the evidence of yesterday they would even be in danger of being bowled out by Shoaib in a couple of hours on a first day pitch at Antigua.
BTW, I am amazed how Shoaib is seen as having won the test for Pakistan. Todays papers are full of Shoaib.
Hindustan Times Bombay has a huge coloured pic of Shoaib on the front page. On the sports page it leads with an article
" ALL FOR QUAKE VICTIMS".
It has a byline that goes...
Shoaib Akhtar, who took five England scalps, dedicates win to disaster affected.
Thats what Shaib said he did it for . Wonder who informed him of the earthquake at lunchtime or was there another one yeaterday afternoon
Then the article is mostly about Shoaib.
It has another article on the same page os how Shoaib is now a complete team man !
Indian Express Bombay leads with
SHOAIB PLAYS LEAD ROLE IN LAHORE...with a byline
....Kaneria does well in support cast to plot England's collapse..
Again the article is mostly about Shoaib with another big photograph of him celeberating a wicket.
Times of India Bombay leads with
Ashes to Ashes... and a huge coloured picture of Shoaib !
Really now. It was Kaneria and Kaneria all the way. At lunch time England looked like they might save the game after all. Pakistan, including Shoaib who was looking tired and well below his best except when bowling a few short pitched one's (he was unluckuy with one LBW at leat). Then after lunch, Kaneria came out with a changed line , on the middle and off or outside, bowled from over the stumps and not round (so successfuly marketed by Shane Warne ) and England were wrecked !!
Beautifully pitched leg breaks, which drift in due to the angle of bowling from over the wicket forcing the batsman to play and then deviate away after pitching mixed with deliciously bowled googlies, exactly like the ones above but now curling right through what looked like firmly closed gates, and Englands batsmen were doomed.
This is what won the match for Pakistan. Yes Shoaib came up and cleaned up the lower order but after Kaneria's three wickets it was only a matter of time before any of the Pakistani bowlers did that but without those three wickets, Shoaib, with or without those 125 km per hour slower ones, would have struggled to win the game for Pakistan.
It was a travesty, btw, that on this dead wicket, the bowlers' work went unrecognised and the man of the match award went to a batsman.