Pakistan v England - 2nd ODI

[Vrock]

Just to report. Pakistan have beat England by 7 wickets with 36 balls to spare. Kamran Akmal and Salman Butt's openning partnership put England to rest before the first wicket fell. Congratulations to Pakistan winning. Shoaib bowled brilliantly with his variations and sheer pace. Great knock by Plunkett to get his first ODI fifty, he could be useful lower down the order in the future.

[Occasional Fan]

Yes, congratulations to Pakistan who capitalised on a pretty awful England batting performance to bring the series to 1-1 with three to go. No surprise with the result, but perhaps a little bit of a surprise that they took so long about it! Then again, part of the game is minimising risk, and knowing that the target is relatively low is not always a good reason for aiming for a quick finish. At the end of the day, it's the result they were after, not the extra hour or so to relax this evening. A live series then, with game three on Thursday.

[Shaka]

England might have let slip a golden chance to turn the screw here. Pakistan have not been able to pick their most balanced side because Kaneria's no substitute for Afridi in limited over matches. Plus we have got away with making a truly hopeless choice of super sub and I wouldn't want to wish ill fortune on anyone but if Arshad Khan gets a touch of flu in time for the next match it might be best for everyone concerned.

Great to see Shoaib is carrying his form into the ODI series as well. Pakistan fans who had taken to referring to him as 'Showboat Actor' are finally being won round. With Afridi to come back in, I would say England are on the back foot now. I hope Pieterson is ok because their best chance of winning will be if he and Freddie Flintoff can make big scores.

Looking forward to Thursday's game in any case. There's always a great atmosphere at Karachi

[Captain]

I believe that Pakistan sould presist with the Akmal/Butt opening partenerhship in the ODI format and try tofind a specialist for the Tests. Good day out for the Pakistan team but there is still no need toget complacent. I would reckon the line up for the next match should look like this:

1. Salman Butt
2. Kamran Akmal +
3. Younis Khan
4. Mohammed Yousuf
5. Inzamam ul-Haq *
6. Shoaib Malik
7. Abdul Razzaq
8. Shoaib Akhtar
9. Rana Naveed
10. Mohammed Asif -- derserves a chance inthe one day outfit.
11. Arshad Khan
super sub: Shahid Afridi

[Vrock]

Captain, I'd have Shahid Afridi in the side as he bats and bowls, there's no point in bringing him in half way through the game when he's such a great player. Take out Arshad Kahn.

[Maranello]

Exactly right Vrock - Afridi is Pakistan's Flintoff, in Tests and even more so in ODIs - he is needed with the bat, the ball and in the field and to have him as a supersub completely negates the point of him!

[Captain]

I agree with you but we do need a better sub than Arshad. but how is this potential line-up:


1. Salman Butt
2. Kamran Akmal +
3. Younis Khan
4. Mohammed Yousuf
5. Inzamam ul-Haq *
6. Shahid Afridi
7. Shoaib Malik
8. Abdul Razzaq
9. Shoaib Akhtar
10. Rana Naveed
11. Mohammed Asif -- derserves a chance inthe one day outfit.

super sub: play with none.

[Victor Frankenstein]

Originally Posted by Vrock7

VF, England's best result came against Bangladesh, which was 394, So it wasn't our best result. Also, If KP hadn't have been so stupid to go dancing down the pitch he could have easily made a hundred and England could have got to 350+.

You misread my post, i didn't say it was the best result ever, i said it was the best possible result, as in all our top order scored good runs and we got an above par total.

Being stupid is what KP is all about though, it will get you regular quickfire scores, but it will also get you out looking a bit of a tit. I hear people are now claiming he has an injury, if that's the case then he should be rested and fixed for india where we'll need him to start contributing more regular test scores, who cares about some mickey mouse odi tournament, he'll be in the world cup side so it doesn't matter if he misses these last 3 games, let Bell play and we'll see how he does in odi's, perhaps a replacement for strauss or an alternative to prior (although i'd rather see prior play and jones dropped at the moment, but that will never happen, just goes to prove more and more that Read was dropped for his personality not for his ability).

I'll be surprised if we perform any better on thursday, we need to score a minimum of 300 to hold pakistan at bay on these type of wickets and with our leaky bowling attack. I'd rather have anderson than harmison for odi's, harmy never really looks like taking many wickets (cue a 7 for on thursday ) and needs long spells in tests to get his rhythm, we don't have that luxury in odi's.