Pakistan v England, 2nd Test, Dubai, 22-26 October, 2015

Does Stokes have a bald patch or is that some weird effect created by his ginger-ness?

She'll have your guts for for garters if you keep saying things like that.

Henry wrote:Buttler is an absolute shell of a man out there. Now his keeping has gone along with his batting.

Send him home.

If Buttler could watch the ball as closely when he's batting as he did there then he'd be in good shape.

Poor old Stokesy - he's bowled a really good spell here too.

Who could've guessed a middle order of Bairstow, Stokes and Buttler would turn out to be a bit dodgy?

None of them are Test batsmen. Stokes can be a number seven, but he's too feast or famine to hold a position among the specialists.

Throw in Moeen, who good for nothing more than a cameo, and the meekly retiring Bell, and you've basically got just a two-man batting line up.

This game's gone. And England's inability to address the batting - which had the exact same issues during the Ashes - is at the heart of the impeding loss.

Dello wrote:Who could've guessed a middle order of Bairstow, Stokes and Buttler would turn out to be a bit dodgy?

None of them are Test batsmen. Stokes can be a number seven, but he's too feast or famine to hold a position among the specialists.

Throw in Moeen, who good for nothing more than a cameo, and the meekly retiring Bell, and you've basically got just a two-man batting line up.

This game's gone. And England's inability to address the batting - which had the exact same issues during the Ashes - is at the heart of the impeding loss.

Not the selectors apparently.

That said, who is there around that would fill us with any greater confidence in the immediate sense anyway? I'd take Taylor ahead of Bairstow - only by a little though - and he's more than capably of looking short of test class. 2 height references in 1 sentence, happy days.

I guess the selectors may have thought taking Bell over there was necessary as he's one of the only batsmen with any experience of playing out there. They probably hoped that experience could prove telling, overlooking the fact that he has the presence of a damp and mildewy j-cloth. So do they accept that and kick him to the kerb or give him one last chance to show us how big his malteasers are.

Time to blood some young'uns in SA then - I can't see how that won't turn out well.

Mark Wood's unexpected success on these pitches looks to be the only bright spot for England fans.

It's been a tough venue, the UAE, for England as well as for Australia.

I actually thought that England were in a better position than Pakistan at the end of Yesterday's play and they might go on to take some lead. But their morning session collapse was much worse than Pakistan.

TBH, I don't see another morning session collapse, I think Pakistan will declare before Tea tomorrow with lead of around 500. And England will not be able to survive more than 100 overs with plethora of close catchers...

I think England should have picket Steven Fin not because he is in great form but mainly because I always felt that our players hate facing him and his overall records across all formats against Pakistan is exceptional.... 30 wickets in 11 matches @ 17 odd runs... I would have played him in place of either Broad or Rashid.

Injured!

lardbucket wrote:Mark Wood's unexpected success on these pitches looks to be the only bright spot for England fans.

It's been a tough venue, the UAE, for England as well as for Australia.

If you're talking of just this match, there's a couple of stars again for Cook's and Root's batting - though clearly not gold stars.

But that's the bigger problem. It's been falling time and again to them, to dig England out. They won't always do it.

I'm sorry Trotty, but your commentating is even duller than your batting.

Surely the Paksters have to declare soon. 400+ is more than enough against this lot.

Pakistan back to its blueprint for cricket in this part of the world.

Hard to see England getting out of this.

Hard to see us even taking it into a fifth day.....

So the Moeen experiment has failed again, how would have expected that.

taipan wrote:So the Moeen experiment has failed again, how would have expected that.

Not an opener, never has been, never will be.

Ali opening is a smart move.

Red wrote:Ali opening is a smart move.

Not in the universe that most of us inhabit.

We are officially farked.

If Cook does have a groin strain, he must be a serious doubt for the third test.

Job done Bell, done enough to secure his place for the next 7 or so tests. No work for a while and then another brave 50 or so. We know the drill by now.

Just when you think Bell might finally, eventually, just conceivably be starting to turn it around - for the team as well as himself - another poor (non-)shot.

Looking massive odds-on a Pakistan victory. Could someone bring a couple of monsoon storms over from the East?

But even, as is 99% likely, England lose, the manner in which the batsmen approach and tackle the final day is of some importance, mefinks. I just hope there's not another abject slide down the precipice, for a start. And then an innings of some description from 5, 6, 7, 8 (any, not all, I mean) would be something to save from the detritus of this match as far as England are concerned.

You probably can't logically have a "slide down a precipice".

But England have managed to do it often enough anyway - a wobble picks up panic speed until it's a headlong plunge ...

Isn't anybody talking about Agincourt? By f*ck, you've all got short memories.