Pakistan vs. England: Strauss wants consistency in current form
England captain Andrew Strauss is hoping that his team will continue its consistent form in upcoming test matches against Pakistan. England won the first game with a massive margin of 354 runs which was the second biggest defeat experienced by Pakistan in its cricketing history. Pakistan will play three more test matches against England in this series. The unpredictable’s were outplayed by the English lions in almost all departments of the game. Pakistan batting was completely outdone by some quality seam bowling from the English pace attack. James Anderson ripped apart Pakistan’s batting attack and picked up eleven wickets to send the opposition back to the pavilion.
Pakistan hardly showed any resistance as they were bowled out at a score of 80 runs in the second innings of the first test match. England may have won the match comprehensively but there were times when they looked in trouble. In the first innings, England had lost early wickets and was well on course for a collapse. It was Eoin Morgan who played a brilliant innings of 130 runs that allowed England to post a strong first innings total. The batsmen was ably supported by some sloppy fielding and dropped catches.
English Skipper Andrew Strauss said that they will work on some of their grey areas so that they are well prepared before the Ashes series against Australia. England’s bowling was superb but it was their batting order that caused them some problems. The top order failed to impress with their prime batsman Kevin Pietersen getting out on scores of 9 and 22. Strauss hoped that his batting department will improve in the upcoming matches, "We had to work hard, very hard, at stages of the game," said Strauss. "But the encouraging thing for me was we got through those tricky situations and came out the other side really well. Our bowling was outstanding throughout, as was our fielding, so there are a lot of things to pat ourselves on the back about. But I think we're also conscious that our overriding aim is to achieve consistency, and you don't do that in one game."
This was England’s fifth consecutive victory in test format of the game. These figures may show an impressive English form but that’s not the complete story. England won four of its matches against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 and then won the last match against Pakistan. England may have won it with a convincing margin but in reality, Pakistan’s batting line up was completely inexperienced. Captain Salman Butt entered the series with a completely new batting line-up featuring youngsters like Azhar Ali and Umar Amin. Pakistan lacked the services of Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan, their two top run scorers in the longer format of the game.
Strauss admitted that playing against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 in their home conditions will not be an easy task. "Against the best teams in their own conditions, we've still got some work to do, but Tests like this give me a lot of heart," said Strauss. "If you want to be a top quality Test team you are going to need guys to get you out of trouble at times, so that's encouraging. And you can say that Pakistan [batted] poorly, but I prefer to focus on the bowling. There's no better bowler in the world when it's swinging than Jimmy, and he was backed up very well by the other two [Stuart Broad and Steven Finn]."
England will be hoping to whitewash Pakistan in the current test series so that they enter the Ashes series with a lot of confidence. On the other hand, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/S-Young-c87719 guns will bounce back, provided they are given the opportunity. Pakistan’s batting line-up got out on a humiliating score of 80 in the second innings of the first test match.
English Captain Andrew Strauss is hopeful that his star batsman Kevin Pietersen along with other batsmen will perform better in the second test match. Strauss was full of praise for his bowling attack that was ably led by James Anderson.
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