Pakistan V England - 3rd Test - 3-7 Feb 2012 - Dubai

hello everyone

so the final test between Pakistan and England will begin in about 6 hours time in Dubai.

England will be desperate to avoid the white wash while Pakistan will be looking for their first white wash on foreign soil

21 test series between these two countries since 1954 and no white wash by any team yet, this will be the first ocassion by any team to white wash if Pakistan is successful in winning the series 3-0/

England will lose its top ranking in case of loss while there will be only 3 points diff between Pak and Aus/Ind incase of Pakistan win.

Team news

Rumours are that Wahab Riaz might replace Junaid while Cheema will replace Gul ( some news says that Gul isnt fit)
From England side, they might give bopara a chance in place of Morgan.

Poor Gul!

Hope he's better by the limited overs leg of the series starts!

I am guessing that is not such a good news for Pakistan..Gul is the premiere attack bowler..agreed that spinners have stolen the show but we need Gul to be around..

My hopes are that he is not injured, and if he is, he better be fit for the ODIs and T20s IA

21 minutes and 25 seconds!

11 minutes...

Toss: Empty blue seats witness Pakistan winning the toss and electing to bat. One change - Aizaz Cheema back in for Junaid Khan. "Everybody is performing, which is a good sign." You don't say Misbah. He admits one area of concern is that his batsmen aren't kicking on from starts and making 100s.

Strauss says his side will have to work hard since they would have liked to bat on what seems to be a hardy pitch that's unlikely to change much. Same team for England - Morgan retains his spot, and Bopara misses out.

Pakistan team



Mohammad Hafeez, Taufeeq Umar, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq*, Asad Shafiq, Adnan Akmal†, Abdur Rehman, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Aizaz Cheema

England team



AJ Strauss*, AN Cook, IJL Trott, KP Pietersen, IR Bell, EJG Morgan, MJ Prior†, SCJ Broad, GP Swann, JM Anderson, MS Panesar

Pak bat first

Right, Taufel and Davis march out in their sun hats, and the English side walks in now. Barring Trott, I think every single one of them is wearing shades. Taufeeq and Hafeez stride out now to whistles and cheers from an adoring crowd of about 24

Anderson opening the bowling.

Pakistan 1/0 (0.2 ov)

ut!

taufeeq

1/1 (1.0 ov)

taufeeq exits without scoring.

Terrible cricket from Pakistan so far

Anderson to Taufeeq Umar, OUT, 134.8 kph, out straight away cracker from Anderson, swinging in and catching the batsman on the knee roll on the crease. Finger goes up quickly from umpire Davis and after a chat with his partner, Taufeeq walks off. It looked pretty adjacent to middle stump and I don't think any referral was going to save him. Fine inswinger from Anderson on a great length gets the early breakthrough





Taufeeq Umar lbw b Anderson 0 (5b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00

What an eventful start! Khudaya Kher lol...

Broad to Mohammad Hafeez, FOUR, edged and down at first slip by Strauss. Big outside edge that flashes so quickly to the cordon, Strauss can only parry it to the boundary, it was probably Prior's catch

Pakistan 7/1 (1.3 ov)

Pakistan 8/1 (3.5 ov)

8/2 (5.3 ov)

oh for crying out loud!

Very sloppy so far. Falling prey to a little bit of seam movement

oops Younis fails again

18/3 (7.5 ov)

Broad to Younis Khan, OUT, 140.4 kph, got him! Thick edge and this time Prior bags the catch at head height





Younis Khan c †Prior b Broad 4 (8b 1x4 0x6) SR: 50.00

that was a shocker

I think Pak was feeling a bit too overconfident.

I think the spinner's performances overshadowed Pakistan's batting weakness..

Younis Khan's inconsistency is a big problem for Pakistan - lots was expected from the senior batsman in the side..

Now its up to our bowlers to save this match............ again.

Pakistan 21/3 (9.1 ov)

I think that by the end of the day, Pakistan will be bowled out for 250, we still have Misbah, Hafeez, Shafiq and Adnan, and they all do pretty good in pressure situations.

England bat 4th so we need to give them an adequate target..

Hoping Hafeez and Misbah can play out till lunch..

Let the tuk-tuk begin..

250 would be a dream come true ...

Right now, the only thoughts I have are to survive this session..save wickets!

what a collapse

5 down!!!