The Pakistan team arrived in England on the verge of a successful stint in international Test Cricket; number 2 on the Test rankings and with the ability to make England suffer as they did back in Pakistan when a triumphant Ashes winning England team arrived in December. The start of the current tour was a stutter. A loss of 5 key players to the team, namely Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Muhammad Asif, Rana Naveed and, of course, Shoaib Akhtar. To be fair they did face a team without their captain Vaughan or their stand in captain Andrew Flintoff, but we can forget Simon Jones as he seems to just play in the Ashes! In the first test at Lords, Team Pakistan appeared totally bewildered on the first day as to how to approach the game with so many key personal missing, and it showed. As Imran Farhat and others dropped catch after catch and England made hay while the sun shined. Terrific centuries by Collingwood (186) and Cook (105) after the initial quick wickets falling, led England to a massive total of 528 on the second day when they put Pakistan in to bat. Disaster of course followed as Pakistan lost 3 of their top order for 45 runs, but then in walked Muhammad Yousuf, a true lover of English bowling who cut and glided his way to a staggering 202 runs, he was of course aided by the familiar stalwarts like Inzamam, who made 69 and Kamran Akmal with 58. Watching Pakistan bat, it was like a sunny day in Lahore for the England team once again. Pakistan finished at 445 runs, just 83 runs short of the mammoth mountain they had faced.

The rest of the day saw England being bamboozled by spin. The wily duo of Shahid Afridi and Danish Kaneria spun the England wickets around, after the Pakistani pace attack had suffered at the hands of Andrew Strauss and company. The captain led from the front with an excellent 128 runs, joined by Pieterson with his 41 and steered England to another good total at 296 for 8 where they declared with 80 overs to get Pakistan out.

The start was one made in dreams for Hoggard who struck on the first ball of his spell, taking Salman Butt’s wicket for an LBW and then shortly again in his first spell to reduce Pakistan to 18/2. Again in strode Muhammad Yousuf and with Faisal Iqbal started to repair the damage that Hoggard had done. He survived Harmison till after lunch when Monty Panesar came on and took his wicket for another fighting 48 runs to his name. Panesar then injected more life into the match by removing Faisal Iqbal who also was on 48, thus leaving it all on the shoulders of the big bear, the gentle giant Inzamam Ul Haq. One of Pakistan's former greats Imran Khan has always worshipped since day one this players resolve under pressure, it just seems to glide over him like so much thin air. He proved Imran right yet again today as he stuck through over after over of relentless England pressure, of course it was all punctuated by some staggering strokes and the same poker faced expression as he went past another 50, his 9th consecutive 50 against England to ease Pakistan home and numb all of England as the day ended in a draw, the score 214/4.

England as a team looked the better one in this test match, however their bowling too suffered as they could not strike in succession, the wickets they took were too far apart and the stand in captain Andrew Strauss’s approach too cautious on the last day to win them the game. The psychological scars will also be carried by England as they only drew despite scoring very good totals, but could not bowl out an understaffed and demoralised Pakistan team, but then few can win a match when they don’t have an answer for Inzamam and Muhammad Yousuf. Well 1 test down, and as news has it Younis Khan should join the Pakistan camp in the next match, which should provide an even more heart stopping affair, for if this is just the start then the rest will be a feast of cricket indeed!

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