Pakistan v England - 1st Test – Match Recap
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 42/0 (15.0 ov) - Pakistan trail by 150 runs with 10 wickets remaining in the 1st innings
On Tuesday, January 17, 2012 England got their first taste of magical spin bowling this year when they went up against Pakistan's ace spinner http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Saeed-Ajmal-c87859, who wrecked havoc on the Poms at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in the first Test between the two countries.
After winning the toss, England chose to bat first on a batting track in a bid to bat their way to domination against the Men in Green.
Once the much hyped clash between the number-one team in Test cricket and resurgent Pakistan got underway, it was only a matter of time before the two teams unleashed fireworks to leave the Dubai spectators flabbergasted.
However, instead of Ajmal, it was all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez who drew first blood as he dismissed http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AN-Cook-c1026 on just three runs. At the time of this wicket, England had managed to post only 10 runs on the board.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/IJL-Trott-c1576 on 17 runs as England lost two wickets with only 31 runs on the board.
After the demise of Trott, Ajmal took it upon himself to incinerate the English batting line-up and he initiated his onslaught by grabbing the wicket of English captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AJ-Strauss-c964, who found his way back to the pavilion after playing an innings of 19 runs. At the time of Strauss’ wicket, the English had amassed 42 runs on the board.
The 21st over proved disastrous for the Poms as they lost the wickets of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/IR-Bell-c1597 (0) by the hands of Ajmal.
With the top middle-order batsmen sent back by Ajmal, the English were surely in a spot of bother as they needed to stay on the wicket to pose some sort of threat against the Pakistan bowling line-up that was running wild.
With 82 runs on the board, the tourists lost their sixth wicket, when http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Eoin-Joseph-Gerard-Morgan-c56032 was trapped in front of stumps by the spinning sensational Ajmal. The batsman walked back to the pavilion after scoring 24 runs.
With England losing wickets at random, it was the face saving knock from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MJ-Prior-c1984 that prevented the English from collapsing well short of 100 runs as the batsman played a stupendous knock of 70 runs to help his side amass 192 runs at the end of their first innings.
Meanwhile, Ajmal finished the day in a staggering manner with seven wickets to his name in 24.3 overs.
Pakistan then hammered 42 runs without losing a wickets at stumps on the first day of the match with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taufeeq-Umar-c92889 on 18 runs.
Tags: