James
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You came up against some real opposition and played very badly, I would say that negates 2 good games against county opposition.
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Tour Match: England A v Pakistan [Updates & Post Match]
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James
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Nobody really cares about winning practice games. England have got some very good batting practice and proved they can bowl out the opposition - these are two vital departments where Pakistan have fallen short!
pacman
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Whippy squash said:
Yes, but the game was still neither here or there. The best thing for England would have been that England A won the match. They had Pakistan on the ropes and said, okay we don't want to fight anymore. Who gains from that?
England got lots of batting practice. But the only one who benefitted from that was perhaps Ian Bell. He faced our so called frontline bowlers. Cook faced Butt and Farhat. Sure, its good for him to score some runs. But then Inzi and Yousuf also got some practice today.
I still believe that if England A had tried to win the match, and done it, England would have benifitted from that on Thursday when the 1st Test match starts. What happened in this match has not given England any boost IMO.
pacman
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/5162866.stm
Rain-hit Pakistan game is drawn
Tour match, Canterbury (day four): England A 595-9 dec & 153-1 dec drew with Pakistan 242-9 & 154-2
Scorecard
Cook was unbeaten on 80 when the declaration came
England A's game with Pakistan petered out into a farcical draw in rain-hit Canterbury, after not a single wicket fell in the 84 overs of the final day.
Alastair Cook (80 not out) and Ian Bell (50) hit half-centuries before the hosts declared on 153-1, 507 ahead.
Pakistan opted for batting practice in the afternoon, while England skipper Rob Key used 10 bowlers.
Only Matthew Hoggard, absent injured, did not turn his arm over as even keeper Chris Read bowled three overs.
After a delayed start which saw 15 overs wiped off the day's allocation, paceman Mohammad Sami joined Pakistan's lengthy injury list after he was hit on the knee by Cook while fielding during the morning.
The tourists are already without Shoaib Akhtar (ankle) and Rana Naved (groin), and Mohammad Asif (elbow) is a doubt for the first Test, which begins on Thursday, 13 July.
They have now called up left-armer Samiullah Niazi.
Determined to preserve their remaining pace bowlers, Pakistan used opening batsmen Salman Butt and Imran Farhat as part-time spin bowlers for the entire 34 overs of day four before the declaration came.
First-choice gloveman Kamran Akmal again did not keep wicket as a precaution after bruising his left index finger on Thursday morning.
Then, after Butt and Farhat had survived an hour against the new ball, Key turned to occasional bowlers, including four overs of his own gentle off-spinners.
Butt (50) and Farhat (54) eventually both retired to give Mohammad Yousuf and skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq more time in the middle, ahead of the Test.
Yousuf avoided a pair, following his first-innings duck, but escaped on 18 when a return catch was not taken by Ian Bell.
Bell - whose medium pace may be used by England at Lord's, depending on their final selection on Thursday - sent down five overs of off-spin, all maidens.
When stumps were eventually drawn, after Read and all the remaining players had taken their turn to bowl, Pakistan had reached 154-2.
Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer insisted that the day's events would not affect their preparation for the first Test.
"If anything, it is going to make us more steely about what we have to do in the Test series," he said.
"If I had been a member of the public I would not have been too pleased with what was going on. I can understand why England did it, but I don't agree with it."
"I assume that the England A side wanted to play it 'hard' and keep us in the field as long as they could to tire our bowlers out.
"When that became obvious, we stopped bowling our main seamers. In that respect it stopped being a game of cricket, which was a shame, but there we are."
However, England A coach Peter Moores retorted: "We played really hard cricket for everything but the last hour of the game.
"Once they retired two batsmen it was no longer a competitive game, it was a net and we acted accordingly.
"We played the game hard, I would suggest, longer than they did. We set out to score a big score on what was arguably a flat pitch, then bowled them out and they put themselves in a position of being under the eight ball.
"When we went out again we did so to play proper cricket and bowl with our proper bowlers.
"You would have to argue that when we had only four overs of seam bowled against us they didn't quite do that, in the spirit of the game."
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It really wasn't cricket. England A did not want to have a competetive game. They were holding all the cards, but still prefered to drag it. I cannot understand how Peter Moores can justify playing hard cricket? Did they really think that they would bowl out Pakistan in 2 sessions again. Pakistan has escaped from far worse situations than this.
Rain-hit Pakistan game is drawn
Tour match, Canterbury (day four): England A 595-9 dec & 153-1 dec drew with Pakistan 242-9 & 154-2
Scorecard
Cook was unbeaten on 80 when the declaration came
England A's game with Pakistan petered out into a farcical draw in rain-hit Canterbury, after not a single wicket fell in the 84 overs of the final day.
Alastair Cook (80 not out) and Ian Bell (50) hit half-centuries before the hosts declared on 153-1, 507 ahead.
Pakistan opted for batting practice in the afternoon, while England skipper Rob Key used 10 bowlers.
Only Matthew Hoggard, absent injured, did not turn his arm over as even keeper Chris Read bowled three overs.
After a delayed start which saw 15 overs wiped off the day's allocation, paceman Mohammad Sami joined Pakistan's lengthy injury list after he was hit on the knee by Cook while fielding during the morning.
The tourists are already without Shoaib Akhtar (ankle) and Rana Naved (groin), and Mohammad Asif (elbow) is a doubt for the first Test, which begins on Thursday, 13 July.
They have now called up left-armer Samiullah Niazi.
Determined to preserve their remaining pace bowlers, Pakistan used opening batsmen Salman Butt and Imran Farhat as part-time spin bowlers for the entire 34 overs of day four before the declaration came.
First-choice gloveman Kamran Akmal again did not keep wicket as a precaution after bruising his left index finger on Thursday morning.
Then, after Butt and Farhat had survived an hour against the new ball, Key turned to occasional bowlers, including four overs of his own gentle off-spinners.
Butt (50) and Farhat (54) eventually both retired to give Mohammad Yousuf and skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq more time in the middle, ahead of the Test.
Yousuf avoided a pair, following his first-innings duck, but escaped on 18 when a return catch was not taken by Ian Bell.
Bell - whose medium pace may be used by England at Lord's, depending on their final selection on Thursday - sent down five overs of off-spin, all maidens.
When stumps were eventually drawn, after Read and all the remaining players had taken their turn to bowl, Pakistan had reached 154-2.
Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer insisted that the day's events would not affect their preparation for the first Test.
"If anything, it is going to make us more steely about what we have to do in the Test series," he said.
"If I had been a member of the public I would not have been too pleased with what was going on. I can understand why England did it, but I don't agree with it."
"I assume that the England A side wanted to play it 'hard' and keep us in the field as long as they could to tire our bowlers out.
"When that became obvious, we stopped bowling our main seamers. In that respect it stopped being a game of cricket, which was a shame, but there we are."
However, England A coach Peter Moores retorted: "We played really hard cricket for everything but the last hour of the game.
"Once they retired two batsmen it was no longer a competitive game, it was a net and we acted accordingly.
"We played the game hard, I would suggest, longer than they did. We set out to score a big score on what was arguably a flat pitch, then bowled them out and they put themselves in a position of being under the eight ball.
"When we went out again we did so to play proper cricket and bowl with our proper bowlers.
"You would have to argue that when we had only four overs of seam bowled against us they didn't quite do that, in the spirit of the game."
------------------------------------------------------------
It really wasn't cricket. England A did not want to have a competetive game. They were holding all the cards, but still prefered to drag it. I cannot understand how Peter Moores can justify playing hard cricket? Did they really think that they would bowl out Pakistan in 2 sessions again. Pakistan has escaped from far worse situations than this.
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