Defensive http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 collapse against England at Edgbaston
England have taken the honours in the first session of their Test against Pakistan in Birmingham, as the tourists headed to lunch in disarray at 37-6.
Days of speculation of whether Mohammad Yousuf would play in the second Test of the series were ended this morning when the former captain was not named in the XI at Edgbaston, though Pakistan did drop leg-spinner http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Danish-Kaneria-c1314 and wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal for this one after poor performances last match, with debutant gloveman Zulqarnain Haider and off-spinner Saeed Ajmal taking their places.
After winning the toss and electing to bat, Salman Butt and Imran Farhat arrived at the crease seemingly with only one thing on their minds: defence. Loose shots may have seen wickets fall at Trent Bridge, but at Edgbaston, the visitors had clearly decided they were having none of that in the early overs.
After surviving an lbw appeal on the second ball of the match (the umpire Decision Review System agreeing with the umpire’s original assessment of the situation) Farhat set about attempting to block his way through the morning session. But 24 balls into his plan it all came unstuck for the opener, and Stuart Broad had his first wicket of the day when Farhat sent an easy catch to Matt Prior behind the stumps to be dismissed for a duck.
Butt, so watchful for the seven runs he’d squeezed from the 40 balls he faced, was next to fall, the Pakistan skipper seemingly losing patience with the strategy for just one ball and that was all it took as he flashed at an attempted drive and instead delivered the edge to Graeme Swann in slips as Steven Finn got among the spoils.
James Anderson, who swung his way to 11 wickets in the series opener, didn’t wait long after that to take his first of the day as Prior snaffled the diving catch in front of first slip to dismiss Shoaib Malik for three.
Azhar Ali was soon trapped on the pads by Broad and resisted (replays showed wisely) the urge to call for a DRS challenge and outdoing Farhat in a competition where winning is but a dubious honour as he departed for a duck after facing 32 balls.
Umar Akmal at least managed to add 17 runs before he departed as Finn seamed the ball back into his pads, bringing Haider to the crease for a short-lived stay, the new wicketkeeper making a golden duck as Broad claimed his third wicket of the innings as Pakistan collapsed to 36-6.
Somewhere in the vicinity, presumably, a player with 88 Tests and 24 Test centuries to his name – the same one who’d answered his team’s call for reinforcements after their 354-run loss at Trent Bridge, landed in England yesterday and was then perplexingly left out from the team for this Test – was watching.
Penny for your thoughts on the match so far, Mohammad Yousuf.
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