Here’s the first of our daily ‘Game Changer’ features, picking out the key plays and crucial moments from the day’s cricket. After a start to the series dominated by Pakistan, Ed Kemp says the door was opened by some clever captaincy and The Professor’s golden arm…
In all their weeks and hours of preparation for this tour, England’s openers Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook will have been trying to get themselves ready for Dubai’s slow, turning wickets. “Win the toss, bat, work hard and pile them on, that’s how to win out here,” England thought, backing up their plan by picking the sixth batsman rather than an extra bowler in Monty Panesar. When Strauss called correctly at the start of the day and opted for first dig with the bat, it was probably a feeling of so far, so good.
But though the pair were prepared for a spin assault as Pakistan named three twirlers in their line-up, they might not have expected that assault to start in the sixth over of the series. Cook certainly looked uncomfortable and fell almost immediately when Misbah-ul-Haq handed the still-shiny nut to opening bat and half decent offie Mohammad Hafeez.
The impressive Pakistan skipper, whom we named in our top 50 cricketers in the world not long ago, deserves credit for an innovative move which proved a key moment in starting England’s rot. But he has form: Hafeez opens in almost all Pakistan’s ODIs these days, and last year against Bangladesh became the first spinner in 42 years, and the first ever from Pakistan, to bowl the opening over of a Test. As Cook edged behind, Misbah and Hafeez (nicknamed ‘The Professor’ because, so he claims: “I don’t really speak nonsense”) had won a significant early battle.
As Misbah thoughtfully mixed up his bowlers in the first session, with several changes before lunch, it was Saeed Ajmal who stole the day with his skilful, accurate offspin, showing why England might come to rue the exclusion of an extra spin option. The pick of his seven first-day wickets was probably that of Ian Bell, who fell for a first ball blob to a perfect doosra which straightened enough to finely brush the edge. At lunch Marcus Trescothick, in the Sky Sports studio, said you probably need about 20 minutes to start picking Ajmal. Few of England’s batsmen were out there that long.
Whatever the talk about the precise angle of his elbow for the doosra or for the much talked-up ‘teesra’ (which is just a round-armed quicker one, from the first day’s evidence), Ajmal’s a cracking bowler, and great to watch. He gets bounce, he turns it, and England’s batsmen – with the exception of Matt Prior, whose excellent 70 not out added a degree of respectability to the score – don’t seem to know which way it’s going.
If Pakistan manage to overcome the world’s No.1 side in the vast, modern but empty stadiums of their adopted home this winter, Ajmal will surely have had a big part to play.
Game Changer: Hafeez Handed The New Cherry
Here’s the first of our daily ‘Game Changer’ features, picking out the key plays and crucial moments from the day’s cricket. After a start to the series dominated by Pakistan, Ed Kemp says the door was opened by some clever captaincy and The Professor’s golden arm…
In all their weeks and hours of preparation for this tour, England’s openers Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook will have been trying to get themselves ready for Dubai’s slow, turning wickets. “Win the toss, bat, work hard and pile them on, that’s how to win out here,” England thought, backing up their plan by picking the sixth batsman rather than an extra bowler in Monty Panesar. When Strauss called correctly at the start of the day and opted for first dig with the bat, it was probably a feeling of so far, so good.
But though the pair were prepared for a spin assault as Pakistan named three twirlers in their line-up, they might not have expected that assault to start in the sixth over of the series. Cook certainly looked uncomfortable and fell almost immediately when Misbah-ul-Haq handed the still-shiny nut to opening bat and half decent offie Mohammad Hafeez.
The impressive Pakistan skipper, whom we named in our top 50 cricketers in the world not long ago, deserves credit for an innovative move which proved a key moment in starting England’s rot. But he has form: Hafeez opens in almost all Pakistan’s ODIs these days, and last year against Bangladesh became the first spinner in 42 years, and the first ever from Pakistan, to bowl the opening over of a Test. As Cook edged behind, Misbah and Hafeez (nicknamed ‘The Professor’ because, so he claims: “I don’t really speak nonsense”) had won a significant early battle.
As Misbah thoughtfully mixed up his bowlers in the first session, with several changes before lunch, it was Saeed Ajmal who stole the day with his skilful, accurate offspin, showing why England might come to rue the exclusion of an extra spin option. The pick of his seven first-day wickets was probably that of Ian Bell, who fell for a first ball blob to a perfect doosra which straightened enough to finely brush the edge. At lunch Marcus Trescothick, in the Sky Sports studio, said you probably need about 20 minutes to start picking Ajmal. Few of England’s batsmen were out there that long.
Whatever the talk about the precise angle of his elbow for the doosra or for the much talked-up ‘teesra’ (which is just a round-armed quicker one, from the first day’s evidence), Ajmal’s a cracking bowler, and great to watch. He gets bounce, he turns it, and England’s batsmen – with the exception of Matt Prior, whose excellent 70 not out added a degree of respectability to the score – don’t seem to know which way it’s going.
If Pakistan manage to overcome the world’s No.1 side in the vast, modern but empty stadiums of their adopted home this winter, Ajmal will surely have had a big part to play.