Timid Pakistan, Kamran Abbasi in Dawn

Harmison, Panesar blow away timid Pakistan


By Kamran Abbasi

MANCHESTER, July 29: Rudyard Kipling might have suggested that we treat triumph and disaster just the same but the emotions evoked by a cricket match don't quite behave so sensibly.

Pakistan were crushed by an innings and twenty runs at Old Trafford, a defeat that must rank as one of their worst ever and certainly one of the most dismal under Inzamam-ul Haq and Bob Woolmer.

Andrew Strauss's team played magnificently and aggressively as if stung by the severe criticism of the rather tame draw that they offered Pakistan at Lord's.

It is not just the size of this defeat but more the manner of this abject surrender that will be perturbing Pakistan's coaching staff and players.

No amount of victories and brave escapes on lifeless wickets can hide the fact that too many Pakistani batsmen do not have the technique to negotiate a lively track.

To compound matters, Pakistan's bowling looks toothless without the injured duo of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif.

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan has been missed too but Shoaib and Asif are a class apart. Mohammad Sami and Abdul Razzaq continue to fail as frontline seamers. Danish Kaneria, Pakistan's safety valve, is finding it hard to exert any pressure on England's batsmen.

To see him outspun by Monty Panesar is bewildering.

Friday's afternoon session was the only one that Pakistan won. If this were a boxing match, the referee would have stopped the contest after the second day, raised Strauss's arm and suggested to Inzamam that he save his energy for the rematch at Headingley.

Pakistan have been so thoroughly outplayed in this contest that it hurts. England 's bombardment has been so heavy and one-sided that Pakistan might have called for a UN supervised security zone.

It began with the batsmen who failed timidly to execute their captain's suspect plan of batting first on a seamer-friendly wicket, a performance without heart and little evidence of head getting into line.

The bowlers fared little better, certainly on the first day and final session of the second, making such a meal of finding the sweet spot of the pitch that Bob Woolmer must have considered dismissing Waqar Younis and sending for Dan Brown to help them decode the pitch.

England, by contrast, had no such difficulties. Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar found bounce and movement in their differing ways. If someone had told you that the pitch was changed between each innings you might have believed it.

Any sense of trepidation for Pakistan's young openers this morning quickly became reality when Kamran Akmal was skewered by a brutish lifting delivery from Steve Harmison.

Imran Farhat was brave but edgy, eventually succumbing to an inside edge that was gobbled up by Ian Bell, one of the crowded house of fielders wishing the weather would take itself somewhere else and allow Panesar to dazzle his opponents.

When Mohammad Yousuf joined Younis Khan, who had been earnest in defence, he eased himself into elegance mood with pre-lunch boundaries that brought up Pakistan's hundred.

As dark clouds threatened overhead and the two Ys looked set for a partnership to rival Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, we dared to dream.

But immediately after lunch Pakistan were given the order of the boot. Yousuf failed to drag his footwear over the crease and was smartly stumped off the first ball of the afternoon session.

Sixteen runs later Inzamam-ul Haq prodded another Panesar delivery onto his shoe, from where it leapt up and was grabbed with delight by Alastair Cook prowling at silly point.

Pricked into life by this double setback Younis Khan smote Harmison for two boundaries in an over. Faisal Iqbal followed with twinkling footwork to first loft Pansesar for a six and then carve him away for a backfoot boundary.

Pakistan were hinting at some kind of recovery. But any hopes were quickly smothered. Younis Khan, back in the groove after his lay-off, inexplicably padded up to Panesar's arm ball.

Pakistan's magic middle-order was back in the dressing room, and Panesar — the man almost dropped for this Test — had broken the spell cast over England by Inzamam and Yousuf with a rather powerful one of his own.

Faisal looked in control before and after the showers but fell victim to Panesar's classic left-arm spin, edging a comfortable catch to first slip and unleashing Shahid Afridi into the gloom of Old Trafford and an all-spin attack.

Afridi's brief fireworks display lit up the ground but the English Curtly Ambrose returned to put an end to any ambitions of something miraculous and quickly frightened Mohammad Sami into a second-ball indiscretion.

Harmison polished off Umar Gul and Abdul Razzaq soon afterwards to poignantly complete the first ten-wicket haul at Old Trafford since Jim Laker's historic performance fifty years ago.

Pakistan, completely outplayed and a touch humiliated, will head for Headingley with many problems, few solutions, but more days than they had imagined for preparation.

With two Tests to go the fat lady isn't singing yet but she is exercising her vocal cords. Pakistan need a fresh, aggressive and confident approach to turn disaster into triumph at Headingley. The question is where will they get it from?

i have no interest left in this series,

by the time shoaib comes back we will effectivily be 2-0 down and whats the point of him and asif playing then?

The point is that they will get Shoaib and Asif back to regains some pride and effectively save both the mota and the buddah from getting sacked!

We don't want just pride. We want Headingley. And then The Oval. That is why I agree we must attack. Let's hold our heads high, not back our arses to square leg.