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Asian Voice | 9th June 2018
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ENGLAND HUMILIATE PAKISTAN; LEVEL SERIES
England routed Pakistan by an innings and 55 runs in the second test at Headingley on Sunday and levelled the twomatch series 1-1. The victory halfway through the third day was as comprehensive as Pakistan's triumph had been at Lord's, with England looking a completely different team from the one who had subsided to a nine-wicket defeat. Joe Root’s side responded to the heavy criticism they received with an all-round performance. Facing a first innings deficit of 189, Pakistan were routed for 134 to lose by an innings and 55 runs. It was a meek surrender for the tourists. The discipline and resilience on show at first test were sorely missing here and a number of their batsmen, including the experienced pair of Azhar Ali and Sarfraz Ahmed. Overall, it was a strong performance from England but they were fortunate to benefit from helpful bowling conditions on the opening day. Bowling out Pakistan for 174 set up the win but this was also a more purposeful display than the lacklustre one they mustered at Lord's. After a run of six defeats from their last eight Tests, this team simply needed a victory. It was, in many ways, a typi-
Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman
England Team celebrate victory
cal England performance in home conditions. Their bowlers, led by James Anderson and Stuart Broad who picked up two and three wickets respectively, made good use of helpful conditions and their batting, while not dominating and missing a big score for the top order, scrabbled together enough runs for their bowlers to do their jobs. There were positives in the form of Dom Bess, who finally took his maiden Test wicket, and Jos Buttler while Sam Curran, on debut, did a decent job. Pakistan will be deeply frustrated by their effort after such a fine performance at Lord's and a three-day defeat is a disappointing way to end what has been an other-
wise encouraging tour. It should be remembered that this is an inexperienced team but the lack of application with the bat in conditions admittedly more difficult than in the first Test hurt them here. Buttler played a gem of a hand in the first session, helping advance England's overnight lead of 128 by a further 61. His last 11 balls yielded 35 runs and he hit two sixes. Had England's tail been able to stay with him longer, a maiden Test hundred could have been on the cards but James Anderson's dismissal left England's number seven on 80 not out. England took three wickets in the 11 overs before lunch as Pakistan failed to obtain the steady start they were hoping for.
Azhar Ali, the most accomplished of the tourists' top order, played all-round a straight one from Anderson to be bowled and 10 runs later, Haris Sohail was brilliantly caught by Bess, one handed, diving to his left, at mid-off. When Asad Shafiq was strangled down the leg-side off Broad, Pakistan were in deep trouble. It was a position from which they never truly recovered. Brief scores: Pakistan 174 (Shadab Khan 56; Stuart Broad 3-38, James Anderson 3-43) & 134 (Imam-ul-Haq 34; Stuart Broad 3-28, Dominic Bess 3-33) lost to England 363 (Jos Buttler 80*, Dominic Bess 49; Faheem Ashraf 360) by an innings and 55 runs.vvvv
100-ball cricket match waste of time and money, says Blofeld Henry Blofeld who recently retired as the voice of Test Match Special, said that English Cricket Board's plans to introduce 100-ball game to attract 'non-traditional cricket fans' is a waste of time and money. England director of cricket Andrew Strauss recently unveiled plans for a 100-ball game to make cricket attractive to all. Blofeld said that he was worried about the future of test cricket. "This 100-ball thing - I don't understand. We've got Twenty20. Why are we trying to make the game appeal to people who
Rashid, Mujeeb sparkle in Afghan victory
Henry Blofeld
don't basically like it? What goes on in the minds of administrators worries me. Because cricket was the last game to be taken over by money. It was always the poor relation, never
crossed the Atlantic, so perhaps it stands to reason. It has been taken over by money and when that happens greed becomes almost a prevailing influence. It affects players to some
extent, it affects committee rooms to a greater extent," he said. The 78-year-old said he left Test Match Special because the programme has changed. "It has become more conversational and it's perhaps become too conversational, I don't know. It restricted me. I got less chance to describe things in the way that I wanted to. And also, when you've been doing a job for nearly 50 years, you suddenly realise you stick out a bit like a sore thumb and it's not quite the home you thought it was," said Blofeld.
Two of Afghanistan’s most potent weapons Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman - sliced through Bangladesh top order to mark a memorable start to their first ever ‘home’ series in Dehradun on Sunday night as the city celebrated its maiden international cricket game at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium. The first T20I, played amidst some chaos and much fanfare, ended in a lopsided 45-run win for Afghanistan whose stalwarts stepped up their game and never let Bangladesh dominate proceedings after posting 167/8. Mujeeb and Rashid wasted no time in making an impact with the ball once the Bangladesh chase started. Both dismissed a top Bangladesh batsmen off their first delivery - Mujeeb got Tamim Iqbal leg before while Rashid castled Mushfiqur Rahim. Rashid trapped Sabbir Rahman off the next ball and was on a hat-trick. The off-spin of veteran Mohammad Nabi made sure that batsmen didn’t put the other young spinners under any sort of pressure with figures of 2/21 in four overs even as Rashid stole the limelight with 3/13 in three overs. As much as the bowlers made an impact, the Afghan batsmen can also claim credit for the victory. Mohammad Shahzad bided time on the sluggish pitch and set a platform for his mates down the order with a 37-ball 40. Brief scores: Afghanistan: 167/8 in 20 overs (Mohammad Shahzad 40, Usman Ghani 26, Asghar Stanikzai 25, Samiullah Shenwari 36; Abul Hasan 240) bt Bangladesh:122 all out in 19 overs (Liton Das 30, Mahmudullah 29, Shapoor Zadran 3-40, Mohammad Nabi 2-21, Rashid Khan 3-13).
Paes named in the Indian squad for Asiad
Leander Paes will be competing in the Asian Games after a gap of 12 years after being named in the Indian tennis squad for the upcoming edition of the continental event to be held in Indonesia later this year. Paes, 44, was included in the 12-member squad which features six men and as many women with Davis Cup coach Zeeshan Ali and Ankita Bhambri appointed as men’s and women’s captains respectively. The All India Tennis Association selection committee went by the rankings while picking the top three players in singles and doubles for the men’s team. The lone exception was Yuki Bhambri, who has been left out as he preferred to focus on the US Open Grand Slam. Ramkumar Ramanathan (world No. 121), Prajnesh Gunneswaran (183), Sumit Nagal (220), Rohan Bopanna (doubles ranking of 24) and Divij Sharan (41) are the others in the men’s team. Paes had opted out of the 2010 and 2014 Asian Games. Ankita in squad, Zeel misses out While picking the women’s team the selectors have chosen the top-5 based on singles ranking while Prarthana Thombare made the cut as the highest ranked doubles player after Sania Mirza. Thus, Ankita Raina (singles ranking 208), Karman Kaur Thandi (264), Rutuja Bhosale (400), Pranjala Yadlapalli (426), Riya Bhatia (623) and Thombare (185) form the women’s team while Zeel Desai, the country’s sixth best singles player, misses out.