England v Pakistan, 1st Test, Old Trafford, 5-9 August, 2020

The Elephant has left the room, thanks to Jimmeh.

3-141 now.

Very ponderous session as the Wackies hang on grimly against decent Pom bowling.

4-167.

A resolve not always associated with Pakistan batting!

Indeed Peter.

Was thinking that the West Indies would've yielded to this bowling some time ago.

5-187 at Lunch.

Quality (if a little painstaking) ton by Shan Masood.

Well done him.

5-244.

Although thankfully not quite Shan of the Dead.

Pakistan have hauled their way to a position of potential strength.

Perhaps an irony that, given England's new-found religion of grinding down overs and oppositions (after a 3 year flirtation largely with the opposite), they are getting the carborundum treatment themselves. Will their spirits crumble as eventually the Windies' did?



Incidentally, after two more butterfingers spilled catches and another bad missed stumping - as if doing all he can to lose the Test (not suggesting he's deliberately doing that, just the aggregate of his errors) - is there any case for retaining Buttler in the Test team?

It seemed a spirited if controversial thing to do when England were chasing McCullum's ethos. But his "keeping" - for want of a better word - now makes past Pakistanis look quite good.

Pity: I've always liked the look of him - athletic, fleet-footed, quick of coordination, debonair, the sort who tends to excel across different sports. But he's increasingly a failure as an experiment. ...

I could keep about that well, i.e. terribly.

Hyperbole apart, Foakes is 5x better behind the sticks. Even Jonny, with his faults, is not generally that blunder-prone.

And the Jos batting is not exactly a resounding success either.

Time for even stubborn ECB heads to draw the line?

His keeping’s been fine until the last couple of games... was definitely a pointless luxury as a specialist batsman at 7 averaging 30-odd when Bairstow had the gloves, but doing that as keeper is more than OK, just that we expect more of him given what we’ve seen in the white ball game.

Foakes has been very harshly treated, though, as the likes of Read, Foster and even Jack Russell in his later years were, and it would be good to see him get a run of games ahead of the “fashionable” batsman-keeper.

Anyway, Masood teeing off after blocking for a day and a bit. I thought only Stokes in today’s game had that sort of gear change in him.

Shan of the Living.



Oh.



A ton and a half is always a meritorious performance. Even Dizzy's had amazing determination as well as "opportunism" at the time.

This one may yet influence the match heavily. Well played Masood!

Pakistan bowled out for 326, very much an “honours even” kind of score, but England need a decent first innings lead to be batting last on this.

And already that total looks like 600...

England batting in a wee bit of strife*, 3 skittled for a dozen.



*a new feeling, historically speaking ...

Is it too early for a Jon Snow? The tail might be in tonight anyway at this rate...

When I toddled off to bed the Wackies were cruising at 5-260-odd.

I rather suspected they might fold quickly once that 6th wicket stand was broken. Still 326 is a decent 1st innings score.

Can't say I expected the shaky England reply though.

Excellent effort from the Stannies, stoic with the bat and enterprising with the ball.

Just watched the highlights.

Good change of gears by Shan as the tail fell around him.

Then some excellent bowling by the quicks to have England in early trouble. The one that got Stokes reminded me of Mitchell Johnson to Alistair Cook at Adelaide. Nip away to hit the top of off.

Very slow progress by Pope and Buttler this morning, they’re still there I suppose but riding their luck it seems, so probably need to start getting some runs on the board.

Pope's smoke goes up the stack

Good guys have them 5fer

Would be a prime time for Buttler to come good ...

wickets wickets wickets

So a battling/fortunate 30-odd and out, doesn’t advance Buttler’s cause. The long tail will do well to get us within 150, which is probably enough of a lead for them already.

So what do we have a remote chance of chasing down here? 250 maximum?

beamer wrote:So what do we have a remote chance of chasing down here? 250 maximum?

Good guess. It is 244 at stumps. Terrible implosion by the Stans has made the game interesting,

I still think the spinners will probably skittle us for 150, but if we can clear up the last two quickly it only takes a couple of partnerships.

Geez, 14 wickets in the day!!

Has the wicket been watered??

So another 3 day Test in the offing, ay.