Pakistan wins the second Test against England: Was it the pitch or was it the players?

[gibsyhesperis]

The pitch was helpful to the playing XI that Pakistan chose.
However, it wasn’t a minefield — two players scored centuries, first innings totals from both sides around 300.

I’ve seen greentops in England in Tests (Headingly in the past comes to mind) when sides struggled to get to 250.

I remember in the 1982 series that Pakistan played in England — in three completed Test matches, only one innings was more than 300 (Pak at Lords) — both sides had very good players (Lamb, Gower, Botham, Gatting, Javed, Zaheer, Imran etc).
( it was a great series — no one complained about the pitches; however they were very helpful and totally suited the English players with seam movement).

Home advantage should be exploited in relation to the perceived strengths of your team (and the weaknesses of the opposition)

 

[Cricket Warrior]

i think change of known faces helped pakistan to regain their confidence as a unit and pitch also helped them so its a combo of both in my opinion.

 

[Major]

I think alot of credit goes to the 2 industrial fans and the 6 commercial heathers that were in place, they worked day in and day out to help us win

 

[sweep_shot]

It was a combination of both pitch and players I guess.

If this was a flat pitch, English batters probably would've thrived.

On the other hand, Sajid and Noman were hungry to do well and they delivered.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

Saud played a wonderful knock.

It will get overlooked by statsgurus in some years times because it came at home but his 130 was a fantastic display of test match batting.

England batsmen didn't have the capability to bowl like him nor could their spinners bowl like Sajid and Nomi.

So yet credit to their groundsmen but we must acknowledge how some players played out of their skins.

 

[Buffet]

Pitch, Toss and player.

Since tests happened on reused pitch, toss was critical as well.

Eng entire batting line can't play spin if pitch is turning so just have turn on pitch.

In the second test, Eng batted first so we can now say it was just pitch and players. Toss played no part in winning here.

Entire batting line up of Eng is harmless on tuning tracks. Yes, one two fluke ton by some one will still happen, but over all they are harmless batting line up if pitch has turn. It was crazy to serve super flad roads to Eng for 4 tests earlier.

Saud played a very good knock on turning track.

 

[Minnowbasher]

Pitch was the same for both teams.
Our spinners outbowled theirs, our batsmen outbatted theirs and our fielders outfielded theirs.
We deserved this series win. Brought back memories from our UAE domination era.
Let's now make Pakistan our fortress and work from there.
We can vary domestic pitches to produce fast bowlers, but keep international pitches the same.

 

[shamaan]

I think thier were numerous factors such as England didnt apply themselves well enough and some of the dismissal were due to reckles and not being able to grind out runs however credit to the spinners who bowled with discipline

Four outstanding performances.
Sajid
Nuaman
Agha Salman
Ghullam