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Imam (90*) & Shafique (89*) take Pakistan to 181/0 at Stumps on Day 2 in reply to England's 657

I will ivve benifit of doubt to pakistan in this innings. Bazball takes Sometime to get used too i am sure bowlers were taken a back by this approach and hence lacked the counter strategy needs to see how they respond.

BazBall is an established strategy, Pakistan has had several months to prepare for the series.
 
The biggest mistake Pakistan did is playing only 4 specialist bowlers.. unforgivable!
 
Extremely timid of Saud to run around the ball rather than attack and catch. Add to that the chewing gum swag he's looking like a doll out there.
 
Every tom dick and harry come out swinging lol Never seen such a test match at t his level.
 
BazBall is an established strategy, Pakistan has had several months to prepare for the series.

Its one thing to know and another to face it first time. No one expects England to do it in sub cont where they usually play like scared kittins
 
England played it smart here with so many batsmen, they will score quick and heavily all series and know full well pakistan batsmen cant handle scoreboard pressure.
 
Easy run out chance but ends up going for 4 :)))

When it rain it pours. . . .
 
When Pakistan bat, the shouldn't look to replicate England's method. Just look to bat long periods of time and bury the English bowlers by forcing them to bowl 180-190 overs.
 
Awwww. I hoped England could get 700. I actually feel short-changed with just 650 after 500-4.

Just 650 he says…..
 
Get ready for imam and Azhar blocking half volleys and half trackers as they score at 1 Rpo
 
Lost 6 wickets today for 150 runs.
Pakistan field placement was good today.
 
Pakistan should have kept men on the boundary and adopted a T20 death overs mindset from Day one and looked to challenge the English players to keep hitting sixes and risk them getting caught on the boundary.

We conceeded far too many runs on day one. In test cricket you can keep 8-9 men on the boundary. You have to counter bazball especially on these flat conditions with some out of the box T20 thinking
 
If the pitch is that bad then Pakistan should score similar. England is not even playing with outstanding bowling lineup. It's damn average bowling lineup by England. Let's see.
 
Buttler: What we expected - but a big job ahead for bowlers

England white-ball captain Jos Buttler, speaking to Sky Sports...

"Stokes charging down to hit that one for six first ball showed very much what England were all about. Brook's shot-making again was second to none - he makes it look easy with shots all around the wicket. It's very much what we expected and now it's a big job with the ball ahead."
 
Just grind now. Bat till end of day 3 at least and save the follow on.
Griding at 2rpo is the worst thing Pakistan can do now to embarrass themselves further and keep England in the game for the next 4 days.
 
Cant understand the mindset of pakistan management and players. Playing in home with perfect home conditions and still playing like aliens
 
Deadest track in the world being complimented by some good dead batting
 
Irrespective of conditions, bowling attack, pitch, outfield, there is one target. A strike rate of 30
 
England's field placements are spot on. They know the pitch well and that bowling straight at the stumps is the way to go.
 
Now Pakistan will kill the interest of whatever fans are still watching by batting at 2 an over on the same pitch on which England batted like they were playing a T20.
 
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Now Pakistan will kill the interest of whatever fans are still watching by batting at 2 an over on the same pitch on which England batted like they were playing a T20.

You cannot expect a team facing 657 to take risks
 
England is effectively playing with one quality bowler Anderson who can be neutralized because of no help for swing. Pakistan should be able to score big here. Otherwise it's just another normal flat deck and Pakistan bowlers made it look like worse.
 
Pakistan has to grind now , no other way about it. Can't play fancy shots and get dismissed here when trailing by 650 runs.
 
Now Pakistan will kill the interest of whatever fans are still watching by batting at 2 an over on the same pitch on which England batted like they were playing a T20.

:))) We all know your excited about Azhars 10 off 350 ball inns coming up.
 
“We deserve this humiliation”

Saying that statement unironically this time lol.

It’s like rickshaw racing a Ferrari when you compare the approach and quality of the two batting line ups. On a dead track mind you. This isn’t an evergreen pitch on a breezy morning in Trent Bridge.
 
What is England's approach with the ball?

Former England captain Nasser Hussain, speaking to Sky Sports...

"What you like to do is look down on a field and see what the planning is. For a large part of yesterday, you looked at Pakistan and didn't know what the plan was.

"Within a few overs there, you can see immediately what the plans are from Stokes and England: We know we're not going to get caught slip like we do at Headingley, so we're going to bowl straight as it's going to be lbw and bowled.

"We also know from yesterday this ball started reverse-swinging after 30 overs - so immediately after every delivery the ball gets thrown to Root, so we have to get the ball reversing.

"When it does that, then Stokes becomes absolutely vital for me as a bowler."
 
What is England's approach with the ball?

Former England captain Nasser Hussain, speaking to Sky Sports...

"What you like to do is look down on a field and see what the planning is. For a large part of yesterday, you looked at Pakistan and didn't know what the plan was.

"Within a few overs there, you can see immediately what the plans are from Stokes and England: We know we're not going to get caught slip like we do at Headingley, so we're going to bowl straight as it's going to be lbw and bowled.

"We also know from yesterday this ball started reverse-swinging after 30 overs - so immediately after every delivery the ball gets thrown to Root, so we have to get the ball reversing.

"When it does that, then Stokes becomes absolutely vital for me as a bowler."
They can do whatever they want, but our batsmen will have to be the worst in the world to get bowled out twice on this pitch against this pop-gun bowling attack.

Babar instructed the curators to prepare such a pitch, here is his chance to get a triple hundred :facepalm:
 
As usual we’re playing like sitting ducks. It’s so obvious that the best time to bat is with the new ball. We’ve yet again gone in to our shell immediately
 
Griding at 2rpo is the worst thing Pakistan can do now to embarrass themselves further and keep England in the game for the next 4 days.

Disagree - Pakistan cannot win, but should look to wear out Anderson and Robbo for the second test.

It shouldn’t be hard as Stokes doesn’t bowl much these days. I think Leach will bowl a lot of overs.
 
England is effectively playing with one quality bowler Anderson who can be neutralized because of no help for swing.

Robinson averages 20 in tests. He is England’s best bowler.
 
Would much rather have Fakhar Zaman as a Test opener in Pakistan instead of Shafique
 
This is good stuff from Pakistan. Just force them to keep bowling and bury them.
England will miss Wood here, this bowling attack will do absolutely nothing on the current pitch. Pakistan will just bore everyone to death with their tuk-tuk and make a few records of their own.

Australia had genuine pace to make something happen.
 
Would much rather have Fakhar Zaman as a Test opener in Pakistan instead of Shafique

Yeah.....drop the best opener in Pakistan after he scored a match-winning 4th inngs hundred in the previous series, just because he isn't that flashy
 
England will miss Wood here, this bowling attack will do absolutely nothing on the current pitch. Pakistan will just bore everyone to death with their tuk-tuk and make a few records of their own.

Australia had genuine pace to make something happen.

It's not about boring anyone but about grinding England down. England can play Bazball for 100 overs but can they toil in the field for 160 + overs and come back with the same intensity in the next test?

The Aussies not only had the quality but had the tenacity and endurance to survive 2 attritional battles before making it count at Lahore.
 
Pakistan should aim to score 850 and give England 200 runs to score on last day. I’d expect Zahid the magician to devour England is such a situation
 
Pakistan batters doing a good job so far.

Nothing to gain here by going for glory shots to match Eng and risk getting bowled out for 300.

Even if Pakistan score 500 in a day like Eng, they can't win here.

The only option now is to just keep batting for next 2-3 days and tire out the Eng bowlers, which might help in upcoming games if the pitches are better.

The key is to keep batting at around 3-3.5 rpo and not go into a shell and start playing maidens.
 
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