Baggy @ Faislabad 2

By Bagpuss
November 29 2005

The second half of the second Test courtesy of Mme Bagpuss on the eve of the third. Everything to play for and everything to lose. The third one has produced a result for us before...remember Thorpe in the darkness a few years ago?

DAY 3

The morning papers are full of stories of the injustice of Inzamam's dismissal on day 2, with only a few words on what is a far more serious matter. During the gas-cylinder-explosion delay Afridi was spotted, and indeed filmed, altering the state of the pitch. Basically he was pirouetting on a length and whilst he may claim he was merely auditioning for the next series of Strictly Come Dancing the ICC took a dim view and he will be banned for one Test and two ODIs all in Lahore.

England need a solid start today. Will it be KP's day? Will hope triumph over experience? It seems to be doing so as both Bell and Pietersen cope with all that is thrown their way (not a bad turn of phrase for the Pakistan attack). The 150 is passed, Bell reaches 50 (117, 3) followed by Pietersen in almost half the number of balls (67, 5). The 200 is passed then the 100 partnership. Pietersen is dropped on 64 by Kaneria off the bowling of Afridi (moral - cheats never prosper) then a few moments later another possible catch again picks out Kaneria this time at mid on. Having been warned for running on the pitch earlier in the session this is proving to be a bit of a mare of a day for the only Hindu in the village.

England last the session without losing a wicket, going to the break 217-3 with Bell on 69 and Pietersen overtaking him with 70. After lunch the spinners are back on, Kaneria and Afridi though Malik gets a couple of overs. The appeals are coming thick and fast but the umpires are unmoved and possibly a little frustrated by this. It comes to a halt when the new ball is taken after the 80th over. Surprisingly Shoaib Akhtar bowls the last over with the old ball - strange considering he finds it a chore to bowl spells of more than half a dozen overs anyway - and Naved gets the new cherry. Next Akhtar over and Pietersen goes for the no guts no glory shot - the six brings up his second Test hundred (136, 6/3). Not content to rest on his laurels he tries to do the same next ball when Shoaib fires one in a bit shorter and a bit faster - late on the ball the mistimed shot goes straight to midwicket. Hopefully one day he will learn . . .

If a little bit of Flintoff is what the doctor ordered he was disappointed as the new ball and Shoaib strike again - not a silly shot this time just beaten for pace as he is bowled through the gate. England have gone from 261-3 to 272-5, ok so the follow on target has been passed but there is still a long way to go to get even safe in this match. Time for our keeper-batsman to live up the the second part of that billing. He ushers England past the 300 and is there to congratulate Bell as he gets his second test hundred ( 232,6). Bell's stint is finally brought to an end when he gets a fine edge to the keeper off Afridi. Out for a vital 115.

The spinners have taken over and malignant appealing is the order of the day. Occasionally the umpires will humour them by referring a stumping to the 3rd umpire but otherwise they are unmoved. Tea arrives - half an hour later than the first day to add a little confusion, with England 353-6, Jones 36 and Giles 12. The final session start just before 3.30 - cant see more than an hour or so being possible for the light goes. The 7th wicket pair stand resolute, Giles in particular fending off Akhtar with aplomb. Jones gets a well deserved 50 (65,8) and the 50 parnetship is up, followed almost immediately by the loss of Jones as Afridi gets one through and he is lbw. 378-7, the deficit now less than 100 runs. Spin twins Giles and Udal last out till the light inevitably brings the day to an end with England 391-7 off 121 overs. Giles 23 and Udal 6. A start tomorrow and maybe the first innings deficit can be kept below the 50 mark.

DAY 4

England are still 71 runs behind the pakistan first innings total and need to get as close as possible with these last threee wickets. Shoaib Akhtar and Shahid Afridi - Pakistan's "Spice Boys" (chucker spice and cheating spice??) bowl first up. Afridi bowls Giles in the second over of the morning with only 4 added tot he overnight score. Not what the doctor ordered but he has added 26 runs. Four overs and four runs later the same bowler is taking his fourth wicket to send Hoggard back to tjhe pavillion with the total yet to reach 400. The milestone is passed as Harmison coolly sweeps his first ball for a single. Lets try to get the deficit below 50.

About half an hour of mayhem and madness follows as Udal and Harmison get the fielders chasing leather to all parts of the ground. Harmison is reverse sweeping like Andy Flower-a fielder is put back for this. There are mi****s aplenty but the fielders cannot hold on to anything. With the deficit just 16 runs a yes-wait-no moment between Udal and Harmison denies Afridi a five wicket haul in the innings. Cheats never prosper.

Pakistan have about an hour and a half to bat till lunch. Hoggard and Flintoff are again the opening bowlers, Harmison replaces Hoggard in the 9th and Giles Flintoff in the 12th. But in a carbon copy of the first innings opening batters Butt and Malik seem little troubled. The 50 is up in the 17th over and this is the score one opver later when lunch is taken.

After lunch Flintoff bowls form the other end and gets Malik with the fifth ball, caught by Bell at short extra cover. 54-1. Unlike the first innings though more wickets do not follow and Younis and Salman Butt are settling into a good partnership. Giles, Harmison and later Udal all try with no luck. During the drinks interval Trescothick is having a word with the umpires - are the batters running on the pitch? Certainly seems to be the case. Dont they know cheats never prosper?

Concentration of the saggy eared one is lost when the Chief of Police arrives with many minions bearing food parcels - OK cans of Pepsi and packets of crisps - for the england supporters. Since the Exploding Pepsi Stand Gas Cylinder incident all drinks vendors have been eliminated from the ground. In addition the chap down by the boundary fence in our stand selling curry sandwiches which he heated in a very ancient small microwave wired I think directly to the Sky electric supply has also vanished without trace, as has the Pizza Hut stand. Since the latter brought pre-cooked pizza to the ground from its premises about 100 yards away I hardly think they were a health and safety risk. Anyway with no food or drink inside the ground and very fierce policemen with sticks and guns on the gates to prevent anything being brought in we were starting to struggle. Hence the arrival of the police with supplies. Whilst his underlings handed out the goodies he spent the time on his mobile phone asking if he was on the telly yet!

Back to the cricket. The hundred is up in the 37th over - no a very dynamic scoring rate if these guys want to secure a series-winning 2-0 lead. Hoggard replaces Harmison in the 39th and as he so often does gets a wicket with his first ball-Younis lbw for 27. 104-2. Butt is stuck on 49 for what seems an age but eventually gets the single to pass 50 for the third time in this series (135, 4). The next over, the 42nd, sees the controversial moment of the day. Butt takes a single, umpire Darrell Hair calls a dead ball and sends the batters back to their original ends. Why? It seems the batasmen were blatently running down the centre of the pitch and Mr Hair had had enough. So had the gods as Udal gets Butt lbw with the very next ball. 108-3. Cheats never prosper.

In the 50th over Yousuf skies one from Udal. Harmison chases but is looking into the sun and the breeze is taking the ball away from him. Not even really that close in the end. Much closer was the lbw shout against Inzamam by Flintoff just before the tea interval. The ball seemed to keep low. Was there an inside edge? Cant think what else would have saved him. The score is 133-3 off 51 when tea is taken at 3.05 pm - I cant get the hang of these timings, they seem to change each day!

After tea the score potters along until the 59th over when Flintoff bowls Yousuf. No doubt about that one Darrell, he has to go doesn't he? If Flintoff is the batsman who empties bars then Afridi is the batsman who empties mosques. He gets a loud welcome of differing types from the two nations of supporters. England supporters were somewhat drowned out. The call for prayers can be heard but unlike previous days no-one is leaving their seats. Not for about two minutes anyway - just long enough for Afridi to walk to the middle, be bowled first ball and make his way back to the pavillion. Mass exodus from the ground follows. Did I ever mention cheats never prosper?

Just as things are starting to drift Harmison gets Kamran to edge to his opposite number Jones in the 66th and what proves to be the final over of the day. They close on 183-6, just 199 runs ahead. Rumours are rife this may be reduced by five runs overnight as Pakistan are penalised for running on the pitch, but either way England have played themselves right back into this game.

DAY 5

For the past few days us England supporters have been getting some hassle as we leave the ground - a bit of friendly stone throwing etc. England's security advisors have done their best to get us better protected but having spent a day in the ground outnumbered it seems by 2 to 1 by police of varying types, at close of play they seem to magically disappear. But no troubles last night. Freddie was successful where other attempts had failed, and the locals were keeping a low profile!

So on to day 5. Quick wickets this morning and England should be chasing a target somewhere around 220-230 to win and level the series. Not as easy as I make it sound though - remember in Multan they failed to make just under 200 to win, this is a last day pitch (though so far apart from a few keeping low doesnt seem to be behaving too badly).. The biggest problem could turn out to be lack of time - if Pakistan slow the over rate down we could end up with less than 80 in the day.

The plan starts well as Flintoff and Harmison take the ball and Harmison gets Naved with his third ball of the morning, chasing a wide one he should have left well alone, the edge is taken by Jones. Shoaib Akhtar joins Inzamam and is still there as the captain reaches 50 (82, 5). There are 14 overs to be bowled this morning session before the new ball is due, if England have to wait for the new ball to mop up the tail Pakistan could be too far ahead for a successful chase. Well there are no further wickets from the old ball but economical bowling by England combined with a reluctance by Pakistan to push the total means theye are only about 225 ahead when the 80 over mark is reached. Hoggard comes on in the 81st over, but it is Udal warming up on the boundary in front of us and who comes on tho bowl the 82nd. Looks like its still the old ball, but what Hoggard does with it is what counts as he gets Akhtar caught behind in the 83rd. 234-8, a partnership of 47 not good for England.

Now surely the new ball will be taken. But this doesnt seem to be the case. Udal continues and the ploy nearly works except Strauss shells the catch at deep midwicket off Inzamam on 80. Flintoff replaces Udal in the 88th, next over Hoggard gets Sami lbw. 244-9 becomes 250 in the 94th over. Eight fielders are back on the ropes for Inzamam and they are trying but failing to stop him getting the strike off the last ball of the over. Eventually the inevitable - Inzamam reaches his hundred (134, 9/1) and immediately declares with the total at 268. England need 285 to win, probably considering likely loss of overs at the end of the day at a run rate of about 4.75. Pretty unlikely ask.

England have just the one over to survive before lunch, which they fail to do as Akhtar bowls Trescothick not playing a shot of the third (legitimate) ball of the innings. There is a shout for lbw against Vaughan last ball before lunch, but it is turned down. 5-1 at lunch.

A bad start but it gets worse after the interval as Naved bowls Strauss in the first over and three overs later Akhtar takes the wicket of Bell, caught by the keeper. England's number 1,2 and 4 all out without bothering the scorer they are 10-3. Need a captains innings from Vaughan of more than the 9 runs he makes before he becomes Naved's second victim. 20-4 its all going biltong. The Pakistanis, and the packed crowd, are appealing for pretty much everything as the spinners are on. The 50 is up in the 11th over - still up with the run rate then but all thoughts of victory pretty much flown. However Pietersen and Flintoff seem to have brought their thinking heads out with them and put togetjher a vital partnership of 80 runs before Pietersen is out about three overs before the tea interval for 42. At 2.53 tea is taken with England 107-5 off 31.

After tea England have at most an hour and a half to survive to save the match. Naved and Shoaib run in for one last effort - Flintoff takes fours of Akhtar's first 3 balls to reach his 50 ((86, 8/1). He adds only six more runs to his total but more importantly lasts another 6 overs before Akhtar gets his revenge. 138-6, Jones and the King of Spain in and probably about another 8-10 overs of light left. or a little less as yet another drinks break is taken. First ball after the drinks break Akhtar hits Jones on the hand resulting in a little more lost time. Akhtar tries coming in off a shorter run to move things along but England's seventh wicket pair are immovable objects and survive until the umpires call a halt to proceedings at 164-4. The match is drawn, Inzamam is man of the match for his hundreds in both innings (the first time he has achieved this feat so maybe I have more sympathy with him continuing rather than declaring). Now England must win in Lahore to level the series.

And the odds on that happening are........