James Anderson & Stuart Broad Strike; Pakistan Endure another Woeful Day in 2nd Test against England
The Headingley triumph over http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 is barely three weeks old, yet it seems like a historic tale or at best a flash in the pan as the insipid Pakistani batting line-up crumbled for the umpteenth time, bettering their previous lowest total on the opening day of the second Test against England at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
It was another woeful batting display which makes fans wonder what made Salman Butt bat first in overcast conditions where the ball was spitting at times like a vicious snake (seaming and swinging all over the place), making batting an impossible task for the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 team.
On top of that, the approach to batting was completely flawed, as the top order batsmen just stayed at the wicket purposelessly, not attempting to score runs at all. This was the case with Imran Farhat (dismissed for a duck), Azhar Ali (also failing to get off the mark), Salman Butt (a mere 7 runs) and Shoaib Malik (3 runs): after a short stay, they got a ball that had their name on it.
Umar Akmal was the only one who played with any degree of confidence (he smashed the only 6 for Pakistan in the innings), but unfortunately, he could only score 17 before being trapped lbw by Steven Finn.
Stuart Broad and James Anderson were the bowlers that inflicted the most damage, taking 4 wickets apiece.
Eventually the limp batsmen were sent packing for only 72 runs, their lowest total, even worse than their 80 run debacle at Trent Bridge in the first Test match of the series which is turning out to be a horror show for Pakistani batsmen.
They compounded their misery further when they let their bowlers down big time in the final session of the day as they tried to bring the team back from the dead: the fielders dropped three chances, one a dolly off the bat of Jonathan Trott, the second one a regulation chance of Kevin Pietersen, and the third one by wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider, who made Kamran Akmal look like the world’s best as he dived to his left and floored an inside edge of KP's bat in the dying moments of an abysmal day.
What is even more disappointing for the Pakistani fans is the total lack of planning and illogical selections that have added to the problems for the captain and the players who have been asked to fight a battle that is beyond their capabilities.
The tour management continues to ignore one of their most experienced batsmen on tour, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Yasir-Hameed-c2811, who scored two hundreds in his test debut seven years ago, yet failed to establish himself in the test Team after a dream debut.
The right-handed top order batsman has scored 1450 runs in 23 Test matches at an average of 34.52 runs per innings; he has also hit eight half centuries besides the two hundred in his first Test.
The Peshawari batsman finds himself on the sidelines as the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Green-c60723 Shirts deliver one sorry performance after another.
Umar Amin, who had the highest score with 23 runs, averaged 10 runs per innings in the first three Tests of the summer, including the two against the Aussies, yet found himself in the playing eleven even at Edgbaston.
One fails to understand as to who is doing the thinking for the visitors, or if there is any thinking going on at all as they stare at a 2-0 deficit in the four match series.
Their club class batting performance has once again exposed the bitter realities of Pakistani first class system that fails to produce Test quality batsmen, despite many players scoring big runs every season on flat, docile wickets.
The irony is that the second Test is almost as good as over on day one, after the most spineless performance witnessed on the opening day of a Test match in recent years, and if Pakistan wins this one from where they stand as of now, England should just give up Test cricket.
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