Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss have experienced much during the 100 occasions they have stood together as England's opening pair, but rarely anything like this - a trial by spin in the desert, an examination against Pakistan's slow bowlers on the world's driest Test ground.
Strauss, whose poor run of form goes on, was a captain struggling to cope with unfamiliar surroundings. He was intent on playing Pakistan's spinners off the back foot as much as possible, but Hafeez found a length to befuddle his mind and he departed shaking his head at an indeterminate shot.
Cook and Jonathan Trott survived until lunch, resistance built to the hassle from Pakistan's spinners and the yelps from their wicketkeeper, Adnan Akmal. Put gloves on Adnan and his livewire screeches and gestures immediately identify him as a member of the Akmal family, although his handling is considerably more assured than that of Kamran, his elder brother.
Cook was also uncomfortable, although not as much as Strauss. He has a Test average approaching 50, but presented with the manufactured green of the Sheikh Zayed stadium, he was initially as stilted as a Jane Austen suitor asking for a first dance.
He survived a close lbw appeal on 27 when Hafeez slid a delivery on to him but umpire Steve Davis judged that it was slipping down the legside and had another perilous moment against Hafeez in the last over before lunch when he inside-edged close to short leg. But England had survived six overs from Saeed Ajmal by lunch without mishap. After Dubai, where Ajmal took 10 in the match, that was achievement enough.
Pakistan had been quick to turn to turn to their spinners, Hafeez and Ajmal, but in that allocation of five overs of pace, Cook had played confidently, pulling both Umar Gul and Junaid Khan with authority.
Only three Test cricket opening partnerships have had more longevity than Cook and Strauss - the West Indies pair of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes; Sri Lanka's Marvan Atapattu and Sanath Jayasuriya and the Australians, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer. They are also comfortably England's most prolific opening pair.
But their preferred stamping grounds have been the likes of Bridgetown; where they shared their highest stand, 229 against West Indies three years ago; Lord's, where Strauss looks as if he owns the place; and Brisbane, where their partnership first formulated England's 2009-10 Ashes campaign. Abu Dhabi is a different challenge, an arid land of half-finished building projects and idle cranes where England must recover from 1-0 down in the series.
England began the day with vigour. They needed only 16 balls to wrap up Pakistan's first innings as they took control of the second Test in Abu Dhabi. Pakistan added a single to their overnight 256 for 7 with Misbah-ul-Haq managing their sole run of the second morning before his obdurate innings was ended on 84 by Stuart Broad.
England were delighted by their rapid dismantling of the Pakistan tail, the only disappointment resting with the statisticians. It looked as if there might be that rare thing in Test cricket - a completed innings ending without a catch - but the last man, Junaid, put paid to that as he edged his third ball, from James Anderson, to Graeme Swann at second slip.
The Stuart Broad of early summer is now a different memory, the Broad who wilfully banged the ball in short of a length, imagined himself as an "enforcer," and allowed himself a churlish moment or two when things went wrong. He finished with 4 for 47 after one of his most consistent and mature bowling displays for England.
He was focused from the outset, attacking the stumps with method and aggression and was rewarded with the wicket of Misbah in the first over of the day. Misbah was plumb, but as Pakistan's last remaining specialist batsmen turned to DRS more in hope than expectation before trudging off solemnly.
Anderson then took a hand, another lbw decision as Ajmal made nought in a weak Pakistan tail. The advent of DRS has sent lbw decisions soaring with around 40% of dismissals falling in this manner so far in 2012. There is no sense in this series that the percentage is about to fall.
No comments:
Post a Comment