LONDON: Once again the old cricket maxim that bad teams provide the most exciting games came to life at Lord's on Thursday where the two sides with a total of nine missing stars set up the prospect not just of a fine match but a tight finish too; although by tea England, a notch behind Pakistan in the world rankings, was on top.

England was without Michael Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff, Simon Jones and Ashley Giles; Vaughan aiming for any sort of fitness, the other three claiming they may still make the Ashes tour. Pakistan's absentees were Shoaib Akhtar, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Mohammad Asif, Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik. Those nine might be the basis for a team to take on the rest of the world with a hope of victory and although the standard of cricket was low the drama was ever present.

Andrew Strauss, third in line for the captaincy behind Vaughan and Flintoff, won the toss and — the arguments are already raging — decided against asking Pakistan to bat under cloud cover that would make any swing bowler rub his hands. Well, it was his first Test as captain, on his county ground; the ground where another Middlesex pair Mike Brearley and Mike Gatting set the gold standard.

For a dozen overs it looked as if he had come to the right conclusion as he and Marcus Trescothick flayed 60 runs while Mohammad Sami and Umar Gul pitched the ball up and saw it swing on to the end of punishing bats. In between Imran Farhat leapt in vain for one catch and snatched another from Inzamam-ul-Haq's imploring hands. But in the 12th over Trescothick edged the ball into the hands of Kamran Akmal and six balls later Abdul Razzaq, that most disciplined of seamers, had Strauss lbw.

Brief stay

Enter the gladiator Kevin Pietersen, swaggering. In the next 25 minutes he hit four 4s, scored 21 at a run a ball, and had the crowd anticipating another innings of power and aggression and a peacock display before he died an ignoble death, wrongly given out lbw to Razzaq. The ball pitched outside off stump and was six inches over the top and going wide. Blame umpire Simon Taufel; Pietersen simply glanced at his place in the crease and walked off at 88 for three and the game still taking shape.

Alastair Cook and Paul Collingwood nudged the score to 118 at lunch. Neither is built for the Pietersen way of cricket but they are forging a Test level reputation for burnt earth resistance albeit played at the 21st century pace for four an over. The era of Barrington, Boycott, Tavare and Atherton is gone. Thank heavens. Twenty years ago Collingwood would not have gone to fifty in 65 balls and passed the half-century with a gorgeous square cut. Their century-stand was completed in 25 overs but by this stage the Pakistan attack was fully stretched and runs coming all too easily.

Classy knock

Cook dealt effectively with everyone from Sami to Afridi, his innings the perfect counterpoint to Collingwood's dash. He is just 21 but ECB has already given him an allocated seat on the plane to Australia and today he showed why. He gave a caught and bowled chance to Danish Kaneria at 45 but brought up fifty in two-and-a-half hours with a leisurely pull off Razzaq, showing class and contempt for a long hop in equal measure. A more impressive pull followed.

So if the selectors' dream of a complete recovery by Vaughan is not realised here is the lad to fill the No. 3 spot. By tea England was 242 for three and Cook had 68 of a fourth wicket stand of 154; Collingwood, the good pro, had 77 off some of the worst bowling ever seen from a side challenging Australia for top place in the world.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail