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Pakistan bat first after winning the toss (surprise surprise)

Hoggy looking dangerous, as its swinging (again, surprise surprise), 14-0 as i write

100-1....Pitch playing slow and low. England didn't capitalise on early swing !  :cry:

NMH

Well Pakistan finished the first day on 244-6 , Harmison came out afer Tea and got 2 quick wickets with an excellent delivery to Raza.

Veyr happy with that, especially as i went to bed at 6ish, with the score at 70 odd for no wicket. If we get them out for less than 400 on this pitch, i'll be happy

I didnt go to bed till 3:30am, i set my alarm for 8am,woke up and thought bollocks im going back to sleep.

I got up at 10:30 in the end and i put the tv on only for it to be the last over before Tea.  :|

Watched the morning session, where we looked very good, had them all out for 274, which was a very good effort, considering they were 160ish for 1.

I was delighted to see that Tres got his century (130 odd not out), Bell got some runs too and we ended the day about 20 runs behing for only 3 wickets! And we've still got Freddie, Pie eater son and the Chipmunk still to bat :beers:

trescothick....what a legend huh!? you can tell he plays for the mighty sabres.

good bowling from england in the end, and well done to udal, even though trescos head has to get some credit!

371-6 at lunch on day three i think,my mind has gone to mush slightly,i need a coffee!Tres is still in,i reckon a lead of at least 150 is what we should be aiming for.

Tres gone :( ,still he made 193,not bad for the captain :) .388-7.

All out for 418 then, not a bad lead, 144. Should have pushed on towards the 500 really.

Hopefully, our bowlers can do the business again

Hopefully the wicket is getting harder to bat on ... COME ON ENGLAND!

Pakistan 125-2 at the end of the third day,they are 19 runs behind. Bowling tomorrow morning when there is a bit of dew [and smog] around will hopefully aid the boys.

Still in a strong position IMO, without seeing any action due to work and no Sky, the bits on the news and sky sports news suggested the track was flat so should be OK for batting throughout.

I don't think the wicket is going to deteriorate too much.They were saying yesterday that the wicket has been prepared to negate our fast bowlers[its less green or something?],which means that sure ,it will be harder for us to bowl out Inzy and crew but it also makes it harder for them to bowl us out as well.Draw on the cards i feel.

hopefully we can start well tomorrow ... bad end to the day  :|

If we can bowl them out tomorrow which could happen as even England weren't in for that long I'd back England chasing less than 300 with nearly a day to play.  From the current position I think we should have done enough not to loose the game which is a bonus, a draw would be a good start to a tricky looking series.

Butt looks like he's the real deal, something the Pakistanis haven't had for a while.

Mind you Hayden and Langer were too...

Yes Butt does look good,but then they have got some class players,and for some reason they aren't playing Afridi :?  :shock:.
Anyway it looked good on the Virgil front,he was in the nets and had a good run round so he may be okay for the next test  :) but i think K.P has injured himself now  :(

i can see us not winning. the batting has been dodgy with the exception of Tresco, Freddy and Bell. i cant see us chasing 250 down and i think we will crumble chasing a small target like we almost did in the 4th ashes test at Trent Bridge. so a 200 target will win it for us i think.

226-3 at lunch ,which means they are 88-3.Sounds like the wicket has flattened out again :(  we need the new ball.

we are struggling .. could lose this one! :-))(

I think all results are possible,but if our bowlers can't do the business on that wicket then i can't see the Pakistan bowlers doing it,though i guess Kaneria[sp?]could come into it.I still think the draw is more likely though the wicket hasn't got a result in it,of course i've been wrong before :-))(  :)

i think we are in a string postion thinking about it. if we knock 1 or 2 more over fairly quickly then we could be looking at a target of 220 which is withing reach on that pitch

Hoggard finally got Inzy!

And another gone, starting to look a lot better now!

Skittled them out, 198 to win!!! Pietersen even took a catch

we got em all  :shock: . Pakistan out for 341 .. 198 to win for England .. fingers crossed !

That fit Gorgie bird on sky put money on England winning the football, rugby and cricket at 16/1. Wish I had a slice at that!

do you mean georgie or actually gorgie (which unless I'm mistaken is something/somewhere scottish)  I heard of some better odds that that flyign around, 28-1 before the weekend definately should have had some of it!

End of the day .. 24 for 1 - Tresco got out ... Gonna be a tense finale!

And Pietersen caught the last man  :shock:

That's one catch in 17 attempts - Hurray  :beers:

We finished on 24-1,Tres has gone :( .We still need 174 to win,there should be a result now though.
I think we will just about do it :) ,although it could be another nail biter.

Hope the captain is back for 2nd test!

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/Edinburgh_STFC/georgie_thompson_gallery_10.jpg

Her! Georgie Thompson from Sky.

Ah, I thought that's who you meant.  :nod:

The signs are looking good,Vaughan was in the nets again today facing some fast bowling :) .To be fair to Tres he hasn't done a bad job :)

would be nice if Strauss and Pietersen actually scored some runs otherwise we will struggle. i think a win for England though. the pitch is batsmen friendly still so it should be a doddle even though it wont be

Still got Strauss, Bell, Freddie, KP and more to come!
With such a small target I would be ashamed to see us lose!

Cricket's a funny game and another 174 could seem like miles away if they get a couple of early wickets, but I'd back England to do it. Golden boy Bell to do it for us.

Oh shit, its 94-5 :shake:

101-6 Pieterson gone :crying:

We need a fucking miracle now, come on boys! :x

Come on King of Spain!  :wink:

Cunts just been bowled!

117-7  :evil:

At lunch, we need 60 runs to win and only 3 wickets in hand! Can the tail save the "batsmens" blushes? I bloody well hope so!

I cant see it happening although if Jones stays there then its possible.

Ain't gonna happen then :-))(
It was looking so good and then they just collapsed :( I guess chasing a lowish total makes it harder in a strange mental way.
Fair play the Pakistan bowlers though,especially Kaneria.

Jones gone for 33, 166-8, 31 runs behind. It's surely over now, Akhtar is on fire :x

GROAN!
I was just starting to think we could do it,Jones out for 33,then shaggy out,168-9. :(

All over :crying:  :x  :shake:

Almost ... but not quite .. Hopefully we can win the next 2 .. but winning the toss appears to be vital

We're relying a bit on Tresco at the moment - he's the only one on any sort of form....
Should've known when he went for 5...

Yeah,aside from Tres and Bell its been a bad batting performance :( I think though, that aside from Tres and K.O.S,the rest have no experience of conditions in Pakistan,hopefully some of them now realise that runs sometimes have to be ground out .
Its set the series up though now,and if all the other tests are as close as this one has been,it could be a belter of a series. :)