ENGLAND’S batsmen have less than a week, or one more innings, to rid themselves of the alarming habit of losing six wickets to the new ball. Again in Lahore yesterday, their bowlers rescued them, in conditions that did not fully explain the batting failure of both teams, but there must be a limit to the number of times that England can recover from the baleful starts they have managed so far in Pakistan.
A year from now, when a burning light will shine on every move they make at the outset of another series in Australia, this sort of carelessness could be costly. The Australia team, now playing as if everything that happened in England last season was no more than a silly dream, will not have forgotten how their early failures last season in England were magnified and portrayed as evidence of a general malaise. Getting it right on the night is what matters, of course, but this is the second winter in succession that the batsmen have started a tour poorly and whatever the outcome of the Test series that starts on Saturday, careful analysis of the reasons will be needed when the copious dust of Pakistan has settled.
There were several explanations for what happened at the Bagh-e-Jinnah, Lahore’s first Test ground (and one of the few whose surrounds are, in fact, not in the least bit dusty), but a lack of patience was probably the most important in England’s case. A combination of the morning dew, a swinging ball inside the ring of stately trees, a well-prepared pitch with some pace in it but also some green on top, two fine young fast bowlers and close fielders as sharp as frost completed the formula for the third successive England collapse.
In Rawalpindi they were 60 for six after 24 overs in the first innings and 38 for six after 13 in the second. Yesterday, having won the toss and decided that batting should be a comfortable exercise after a tricky first hour, they were 40 for six after 16 overs and 53 for seven by lunch. Ashley Giles and Shaun Udal became the top scorers in the early afternoon, when batting is always at its easiest here, but that is not what either of them is here to do primarily.
It remains probable that what Michael Vaughan and his team will find in Multan at the end of this week is not a lively, green pitch such as this, ideal for seam and swing bowlers who pitch the ball up, but a bare, solid one designed to suit Pakistan’s two world-class leg spinners, Danish Kaneria and Mushtaq Ahmed, more than England’s finger spinners or the fast bowlers on either team. Sufficient unto the day: England first have to take the last chance of a substantial innings today.
The manner in which Mohammad Asif in particular took his chance to reassert his claims to a Test place yesterday was impressive confirmation of the depths of sheer, bubbling cricket talent that well up from all parts of Pakistan. Tall, slimmish and lissom, with a rocking action from the old, sideways-on school, Asif looks such a natural that one feels that if he were to lose his run-up halfway to the pitch, he would still hit the crease at the right moment and bowl the ball at a healthy lick. At 22, with one Test appearance so far, it was easy to see why Bob Woolmer rates him highly and he will play more Test cricket soon, provided that he builds the strength necessary to withstand hard work.
He kept going well for his seven wickets yesterday after Shahid Nazir, shorter but no less slippery, had started the ball rolling with the help of the first of three catches at third slip by Shahid Yousuf. Both the opening bowlers kept mainly to a good or full length and so good was their line that Hasan Raza, the captain, was able to give them seven men on the off side most of the time. More often than not, there were three slips and a gully.
If the young bowlers and their captain were confident, England were simply overconfident. There was a failure by the specialist batsmen to knuckle down and graft, at least until lunch. Each of the top seven was looking for runs on the off side in one way or another, even if the intent was only to push for singles. Vaughan, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff were attempting to drive for four.
The dead-bat block played with nose sniffing ball seems almost to have gone from English cricket, along with pitches such as this on most county grounds that might once have been described as being typically English. In any case, of course, England players now play little county cricket and when they did at the start of last season, few made runs.
At least Matthew Hoggard, having shared a last-wicket stand of 25 that may be valuable in the context of the match, responded by using the conditions as well as Mohammad Asif. His outswing earned him the first four wickets to add to the eight cheap ones he collected on a damp surface on this ground five years ago. Paul Collingwood, assured of his Test place, took a wicket in his first over when Mansoor Amjad, whose promising leg spin may be seen today, drove over a ball of full length. Flintoff looked menacing, Stephen Harmison relatively innocuous, Giles, as ever, the consummate professional.
SCOREBOARD FROM LAHORE
ENGLAND XI: First Innings
M E Trescothick b Asif 8
A J Strauss c Shahid Yousuf b Shahid Nazir 5
*M P Vaughan c Shahid Yousuf b Asif 17
K P Pietersen c Amin b Shahid Nazir 4
P D Collingwood c Shahid Yousuf b Asif 0
A Flintoff c Arshad Khan b Asif 9
†G O Jones b Mohammad Asif 0
A F Giles b Mohammad Khalil 21
S D Udal c Taufeeq Umar b Asif 23
M J Hoggard not out 11
S J Harmison c Amin b Asif 18
Extras (lb 4, w 5, nb 1) 10
Total (35.1 overs) 126
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-13, 2-13, 3-34, 4-34, 5-40, 6-44, 7-53, 8-87, 9-101.
BOWLING: Shahid Nazir 10-5-18-2; Mohammad Asif 16.1-2-62-7; Arshad Khan 1-0-2-0; Mohammad Khalil 8-1-40-1.
PAKISTAN A: First Innings
Imran Farhat lbw b Hoggard 23
Taufeeq Umar c and b Hoggard 6
Faisal Athar c Jones b Hoggard 0
Shahid Yousuf b Hoggard 10
*Hasan Raza lbw b Giles 34
Mansoor Amjad b Collingwood 7
†Amin-ur-Rehman c Flintoff b Giles 32
Arshad Khan lbw b Giles 0
Shahid Nazir not out 6
Mohammad Asif not out 1
Extras (b 4, nb 4) 8
Total (8 wkts, 30 overs) 127
Mohammad Khalil to bat.
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-9, 2-9, 3-29, 4-46, 5-58, 6-118, 7-118, 8-124.
BOWLING: Hoggard 8-0-39-4; Harmison 9-0-44-0; Collingwood 4-1-14-1; Flintoff 5-1-12-0; Giles 4-1-14-3.
Umpires: Mian Mohammad Aslam and Saleem Badar.
