“We won’t be panicking” explained Andrew Strauss; “we’ll
come back strong in the second Test match” was the message from the captain
after England suffered their first test defeat since Perth back in December
2010. For the first time in over a year
we were watching an under-prepared England side, which had under estimated
Pakistan’s ability in the sub-continent.
The third day did give England reason to “panic”, at least a
little. The batting order collapsed
again, unable to master the line and length of Umar Gul and of course Ajmal
struck to take a total of 10 wickets in the entire game.
The morning began with England needing 3 wickets for as
few runs as possible, an easy task for the world number one test side. England did their best to keep Pakistan from
making a large score, but their lower order, namely Akmal, found boundaries
with effective use of reverse sweep.
Graham Swann finished off the lower order, with a little help from
Broad, but it was clear to see that Pakistan had done enough to secure victory. Bowled out for 338 runs, they led by 146 –
far too many runs for an out-of-form batting line up to make up. To make England’s life even tougher, Gul
removed Andrew Strauss just before lunch.
England trailed by 130.
Cook and Pieterson, two of England’s strongest and most
experienced batsmen gave away their wickets cheaply, by misguided shots – Cook feeling
for the ball and gloving it, whilst Pieterson carelessly sent the ball high
straight to deep backward square. The
middle to lower order batsmen followed quickly behind, with Bell and Prior
victims of Ajmal’s doosra and teesra.
Trott was the only batsmen who looked close to his usual playing
standards, but worrying signs of England’s lack of preparation and focus were
demonstrated by a lazy swipe, causing Trott to edge the ball into the
slips. England’s second innings
displayed a team lacking focus and concentration. Players like Cook and Trott, famous for never
giving their wicket away cheaply, displayed a remarkable lack of concentration. England played less than 10 fours and no
sixes in their innings, and chose to play defensively.
Pakistan were brilliant with their bowling and at times
unplayable. However, the skill,
experience and quality of the England batsmen are so great that you would not
expect them to crumble so easily. So why
did they? I believe it was a mixture of
a lack of concentration and inadequate preparation. None of the batsmen appeared comfortable at
the crease and playing the Dubai conditions.
When you compare the performance to
that of the Ashes, England looked settled and happy to play in the
Australian climate, whereas over the past three days England have looked like
they have not adapted to playing in the UAE.
More warm up games, certainly were needed, to acclimatise to conditions
and to bring the batsmen up to scratch.
My view is that the way to solve the batting is to put in more time in the nets between now and the next test match and to snap the boys back into
focus. Talent does not disappear and cannot
be turned on or off, it just relies on 100% concentration, and no batsman
brought that level of focus to the crease.
In theory, this is an easy problem to solve, and will be solved, the
only question is, will it be in time for the next test?
Also, I believe there was a problem with the team
selected. It is not often that you
criticize Flower, but I do think he made a mistake in this match. If you’re playing in drastically different
conditions to home, why put out a team that is so used to playing on English
pitches. If the conditions change, as
management, they needed to ensure that the team changed with the
conditions. It does not mean that
particular players do not deserve their place; it just means that the
combination of players must complement the environment of play. Why was Tremlett there? Why was Monty not playing? Granted, it is unusual for England to play
two spinners, but in the warm up matches Monty was so promising that he should
have been playing and supporting Graham Swann.
Surely the warm up games indicated to the England management, that Monty
was better suited to playing on UAE wickets that Tremlett, or even Swann for
that matter. On paper and in practice,
at home and in Australia, Tremlett has been the better bowler, but in the
experience of the UAE, Monty provided the damage.
England must regroup, refocus and attack. They are a side that does not deserve the
label of losing by 10 wickets. But,
perhaps this defeat occurred at a critical time. By England’s recent performance rumours of
‘complacency’ could be whispered. With
hindsight, you might be able to look back on this Test match saying “thank
goodness Pakistan thumped them; it gave them the kick up the back-side needed to
avoid long-term complacency”.
Only time will tell if this theory is true – but let’s
hope so!
Statistics of Note:
Pakistan 338-all out
England 160-all out
Gul 4-63
Ajmal 3-42 (10 wickets in match)
Akmal 61
Trott 49
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