*Official* England vs Pakistan, NatWest Challenge Thread

[luckyeddie]

England won the toss, put Pakistan in.

No team changes from either side.

Conditions humid, overcast. Forecast is for it to be an absolute scorcher this afternoon (27-30 degrees)

 

[marc71178]

Humid, Overcast, Gough and Anderson make an interesting combination...

 

[luckyeddie]

144-4 - this can go either way (and probably will ).

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

I think it's fair to say that Trecothinck has found form?

 

[luckyeddie]

I thought the last hour was totally absorbing.

Funnily enough, the person I feel sorry for (well, just a bit) is Shoaib Akhtar - he bowled absolutely superbly today.

How he didn't clean Read up with that inswinger I will never know.

Trescothick may well go on to make more fluent hundreds (he could have been run out twice and should have been caught a couple of times too) but he demonstrated that he is much more than a banger today.

Good series.

 

[Langeveldt]

Great win for England, thought Trescothick and Read were brilliant...

However, this current England team strikes me as being very very frail indeed, i suppose that counts for nothing though after tonight

 

[The Argonaut]

I think the England selectors are showing that they are thinking about the next world cup by selecting some new talent early. Sure it may not pay off now but in four years time they'll be ready. Some of them are already showing signs. Anderson will be great if his body holds together and he doesn't suffer from burn out. They'll need to look after him.

Both sides will have found this series worthwhile. Blooding young players in a close series will be beneficial.

 

[Tim]

I see Troughton finally got above 10 runs...he hit 4 fours were they good looking shots?

 

[luckyeddie]

Not bad (well, a couple of them were sparkling shots)

 

[Tim]

I guess with Troughtons County record, alot of people were expecting him to perform straight away but I think he'll be alot more prepared for the next series with S.A & Zimbabwe.

And I hope the exceptional batting all-rounder Rikki Clarke performs too.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

And I hope the exceptional batting all-rounder Rikki Clarke performs too.

He bats too??? The man is multi-talented. :wow:

 

[Tim]

Well thats what I thought he was..although at international level he's probably now a bowler who can bat.

In 2 innings he averaged 2 with the bat 33 with the ball taking 3 wickets so considering that Shoaib averaged 54 with the ball in 2 matches that isn't too bad!

 

[V Reddy]

I think both the teams are very talented . I feel that England should drop one of Mcgrath or Clarke and bring back Thorpe. Although Mcgrath has bowled well till now, i think he will struggle against good batting lineups. Instead Vaughan should bowl more. He is a good bowler. I think he can become a good allrounder if he bowls more. There is also an option of bowling Solanki or Trescothick if one of the main bowler struggles. They need an experienced batsman in the middle order. They have no problems with the bowling. If Solanki,Troughton,etc,. can get some runs against Zimbabwe and South Africa which is very much possible with their bowling attacks then they will have a very very good team within a year or two. They have some very talented batsman and bowlers.

 

[marc71178]

Well thats what I thought he was..although at international level he's probably now a bowler who can bat.

In 2 innings he averaged 2 with the bat 33 with the ball taking 3 wickets so considering that Shoaib averaged 54 with the ball in 2 matches that isn't too bad!

He rarely seems to bowl for Surrey, so the logic in bowling him ahead of McGrath seems flawed to me.

 

[marc71178]

There is also an option of bowling Solanki or Trescothick if one of the main bowler struggles.

Solanki doesn't tend to bowl.

 

[V Reddy]

But i read in some articles that he has an edge over others b'coz he can bowl.

 

[Rik]

He rarely seems to bowl for Surrey, so the logic in bowling him ahead of McGrath seems flawed to me.

When you compare averages it is not so flawed. McGrath's bowling was innefective this series, his batting wasn't great either. But for a superb catch by Solanki he would have ended the series wicketless. Although I think Clarke should never have been picked in the 1st place, what you have said does not make any sense, anyway, McGrath bowls even less for Yorkshire than Clarke does for Surrey...

 

[luckyeddie]

When you compare averages it is not so flawed. McGrath's bowling was innefective this series, his batting wasn't great either. But for a superb catch by Solanki he would have ended the series wicketless. Although I think Clarke should never have been picked in the 1st place, what you have said does not make any sense, anyway, McGrath bowls even less for Yorkshire than Clarke does for Surrey...

There's always the possibility that, because he is the captain of Yorkshire, he underrates his own bowling and therefore uses himself sparingly.

Yorkshire (occasionally) have the following mainline seam bowlers available to them - Gough, White, Silverwood, Hoggard, Sidebottom.

Chuck in Swanepoel, Kirby, Dawson, Bresnan for a few other bowling options and you can see why he doesn't bowl a lot.

 

[chris.hinton]

Rikki Clarke needs to be dropped because he cannot cut it and has no sign of cutting it either and Jim Troughton did not do too well but i will stick by him he may come good.......

Kabir in for Clarke in the next match

 

[marc71178]

McGrath's bowling was innefective this series

In the first game, he didn't get a go, when it was clear Clarke was bowling too many hittable balls.

In the second game he bowled a fine spell per TMS - didn't concede a boundary in his whole 10 overs.