*Official* England and England A vs Pakistan & Pakistan A in the UAE

[Jarquis]

4, 4, 6. Reverse jinx successful.

Oh that was the plan

Morgan went from 10(20b) to 67*(51b). Great innings.

 

[Furball]

ffs, presenter with the common misconception that Twenty20 is "all about hitting boundaries."

No it's not. The absolutely fundamental skill in T20 batting is minimising dot balls.

 

[TT Boy]

Where's Waqar's accent influenced by?

Doesn't sound as Pakistani as I'd expect.

He lives in Aus. Think he has done for some years.

Anyhow, that was fairly predictable. Pak's top three is frighteningly bad and the wicket keeper seems to be from the Kamran Akmal school of keeping. Absolutely hopeless.

 

[Faisal1985]

He lives in Aus. Think he has done for some years.

Anyhow, that was fairly predictable. Pak's top three is frighteningly bad and the wicket keeper seems to be from the Kamran Akmal school of keeping. Absolutely hopeless.

Dropping Akmal from T20 side was a big mistake.......

Plus you are right Nazir and Farhat only did well in ICL because of the 2nd grade bowling...when you play against intl sides....its a different story..

I really was thinking about Nasir Jamshaid, he could be a great prospect for the T20 openning...along with Akmal....

Bowlers, well, Gul is just in terrible form..i think he needs some break...need to test Talha and certainly need Amir in the side....

 

[Woodster]

Excellent display from Morgan especially, and KP. We no doubt had the benefit of batting second and were able to assess what was required on the pitch and chasing a relatively small total. Morgan and KP both showed that even in T20 it can be vital, especially on a pitch like this, to take the time to get yourself in, working the gaps, run the ones and twos well, get familiar with the track before unleashing a few more adventurous strokes, as Morgan did so well.

Pakistan failed to assess the pitch early enough, continued to go hard at the ball early instead of perhaps settling for a lesser score than initially was in mind.

Morgan continues to excel at this format, his innonvative strokeplay is second to none in this England side, there is no question he should be a permanent presence in the T20 and ODI side, and batting at 5 seems to suit perfectly for now. He systematically put one of T20's finest bowlers in the world to the sword today. Gul's figures of 3.3-0-36-0 does not happen too frequently.

We have seen his ability to bat according the situation, be flexible, his next challenge is to work out how to utilise his skills in this arena and combine it with what is essential in the longer form of the game, to put pressure on England's middle order for Test cricket.

 

[Dano.85]

I thought kp looked good in that ings i hope he kicks on now. And what a knock from morgan. I just hope we can have a better outing from trott and denly tomorrow. And a great catch from broad, god i cant remember the last time i was so happy after an england t20 preformance. Oh yes 05 vs aus

 

[Woodster]

I thought kp looked good in that ings i hope he kicks on now. And what a knock from morgan. I just hope we can have a better outing from trott and denly tomorrow. And a great catch from broad, god i cant remember the last time i was so happy after an england t20 preformance. Oh yes 05 vs aus

Yes KP looked in decent touch. He seemed happy to play second fiddle to Morgan in the latter stages, probably just pleased to make a sizeable contribution in an England victory, and spend some time in the middle.

 

[Dano.85]

Yes KP looked in decent touch. He seemed happy to play second fiddle to Morgan in the latter stages, probably just pleased to make a sizeable contribution in an England victory, and spend some time in the middle.

I think thats just what kp needed a good solid knock and someone with him to take a little pressure off him and morgan done that to a t.

 

[AaronK]

Pakistan lacked the power and aggression of afridi..

so with afridi coming back.. i am hoping that pakistan is going to win the second one..

 

[The_roc]

Never seen cricket from Dubai before, but it looks a decent stadium with a good crowd (compared with some of the empty looking place in the Australia Windies series)

A bit worried about the England openers who failed again. There was talk earlier in the week that this was the squad for the world cup in April / May. Hope not.

 

[Woodster]

Never seen cricket from Dubai before, but it looks a decent stadium with a good crowd (compared with some of the empty looking place in the Australia Windies series)

A bit worried about the England openers who failed again. There was talk earlier in the week that this was the squad for the world cup in April / May. Hope not.

Yes looks a pretty impressive stadium, with a decent enough turn out in the stands.

I agree that England's openers do appear to be struggling and their lack of form will be magnified due to the form of the Lkions' openers Craig Kieswetter and Michael Lumb. I do like Joe Denly and think should we persevere with him, it will pay dividends.

 

[King Pietersen]

Before yesterday's game Trott had made scores of 33 and 51 against South Africa in T20 cricket. Be pretty harsh to drop him after 1 bad innings, also harsh to drop him after only 1 innings opening the batting, especially considering he made over 500 runs in a T20 season last season opening.

 

[Woodster]

Before yesterday's game Trott had made scores of 33 and 51 against South Africa in T20 cricket. Be pretty harsh to drop him after 1 bad innings, also harsh to drop him after only 1 innings opening the batting, especially considering he made over 500 runs in a T20 season last season opening.

Yes you're right he's not in bad form in T20 cricket when he has batted at 3, and it is the pressure from Kieswetter and Lumb that is making us scrutinise the people occupying the positions in which they play, perhaps unfairly.

I'm pretty happy with the 3,4, and 4 combination we have at the moment in KP, Colly, and Morgan, so if Trott is to play, and I think he should at this moment, it has to be as an opener. I think at this moment in time we have the right men in the right positions, while dropping Trott would be harsh, it would not be seen as harsh should the axe fall on Denly, but he is a young inexperienced opener who I believe is worth persevering with for now, he too only has 4 international T20's under his belt.

 

[King Pietersen]

I don't think Denly is worth sticking with atm. He's averaging 3.75 and has not looked remotely international standard. Kieswetter's in excellent form and played brilliantly against England so I think he deserves a go. He won't get a game though, the England team seem to like Denly for whatever reason. I wouldn't be surprised if he and Trott opened in the T20 WC.

 

[The_roc]

Collingwood described the win as a 'near perfect performance'.

If 18 for 3 is near perfect, I would hate to see a dodgy start.

 

[Woodster]

I don't think Denly is worth sticking with atm. He's averaging 3.75 and has not looked remotely international standard. Kieswetter's in excellent form and played brilliantly against England so I think he deserves a go. He won't get a game though, the England team seem to like Denly for whatever reason. I wouldn't be surprised if he and Trott opened in the T20 WC.

He does have a low average, that is possible as an opener in T20's and obviously that is nowhere near good enough. I was impressed when I saw him bat in limited-overs cricket for Kent on numerous occasions and believe the talent is there.

He has struggled to come to terms with the demands of playing international cricket so far, and it's a balancing act between sticking with somebody in the belief they come good (alternatively it could really impact on the confidence of a player the longer the drought goes on), or whipping them out of the action to work more on their game in order for them to be re-introduced down the line. Personally Denly looks a positive batsman, I wouldn't say it isn't havikng an effect on him, but as I've said I'd like them to stick with him for now, if he can get a start today we may see the full repertoire of his correct, yet powerful strokeplay.

They have opted for Denly (despite having a below-par year last year in the domestic T20), so need to allow him the chance to settle in. But if I was to see England make any radical or inconsistent selection choices, it would be in this form of the game.

 

[Woodster]

Collingwood described the win as a 'near perfect performance'.

If 18 for 3 is near perfect, I would hate to see a dodgy start.

That's why it was only 'near' perfect. To be fair we did a heck of a lot of things right in this game. If you look at the game overall, we not only restricted Pakistan in terms of run rate, but we continually picked up wickets throughout the innings. The fielding was sharp, and our throwing down of the stumps was better than usual.

We seemed to have plans when bowling, and to be fair they all executed them pretty dam well.

As you say it wasn't the ideal start, losing wickets at the start of a T20 innings is always possible, for a number of reasons, but the way both Morgan and KP paced their innings and the chase as a whole, was again pretty close to perfect.

 

[King Pietersen]

Nice, get to see Shahzad in action tonight. Sidebottom injured again, surprise surprise. Not too bothered about losing him either, don't think he's looked anywhere near good enough since he's come back in, especially in limited overs cricket.

Kieswetter's been added to the Bangladesh ODi squad too, awesome.

 

[Woodster]

Yes makes sense to add Kieswetter to the ODI squad for Bangladesh, good move.

Yes poor Siddy injured again after diving on the boundary rope, he hasn't quite been the same as the Sidebottom of old. Looking forward to seeing Shahzad in international action.

 

[TT Boy]

Terrible 20/20 wicket.

Must say Razzaq looks ready for the knacker's yard. Now reduced to a mere trundler.