Pakistan tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa

[ioppolo]

Pakistan are so frustrating to try and follow. They roll out such different teams all the time. What happened to Shafique, he’s gone to shit. And suddenly Abbas back in the team?

Seeing him back in the team was a real WTF moment for me yesterday.

Has a good record in tests, what ever happened to him to be dumped?

 

[ioppolo]

Averaging 40 at FC level and being a number 9 doesn't seem to compute.

18 not outs in 50 innings would help.

 

[corbies]

Has a good record in tests, what ever happened to him to be dumped?

He had a good start to his career but averaged 38 in his last 15 Tests and looked toothless a hell of a lot. Pakistan were running Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Hasan Ali by that stage.

 

[corbies]

18 not outs in 50 innings would help.

I'm not sure this logic adds up in first class cricket. If you're 20 not out, you're much more like to get to 40 in your current innings than getting to 20 again in a new innings.

Corbin Bosch has been hurt by being 81* for example. He's more likely to be making more runs at 81* and flying than having to start again next innings.

 

[Jane Doe]

Corbin Bosch. What a game so far.
4/60 and 81no

His dad was a very handy fast bowler who died in mysterious circumstances.

 

[PhatBoy]

I'm not sure this logic adds up in first class cricket. If you're 20 not out, you're much more like to get to 40 in your current innings than getting to 20 again in a new innings.

Corbin Bosch has been hurt by being 81* for example. He's more likely to be making more runs at 81* and flying than having to start again next innings.

It depends on the context in which the not-outs came.

If you bat 10 times at the arse end of an innings as a tail ender or when the innings falls away and stuff up with managing the tail and get 5 scores of 20* and 5 other scores of 20, you’re going to average 40 without having ever made 40 and realistically you’re going to probably never have made an especially meaningful contribution to a team’s result.

Someone else could bat 10 times and be not out 5 times: they’ve made 5 scores of 1* when in their other innings they’ve made 120, 70, 5, 0, 0 and they both have the same average. The second guy has played 2 really important digs and probably had 5 knocks where (in this extremely unlikely situation) his innings’ were curtailed by a declaration or a very small run chase so he’s missing out on enhancing his figures. It can work both ways

 

[Plugger35]

Pakistan back into the lead with Babar still there, game on.

 

[Plugger35]

Great test match battle here between Rabada and Babar, two of the all time greats locking horns.

 

[PhatBoy]

Rabada’s summer so far has been one of the all time great fruitless performances so far.

No one from SL or Pakistan has been good enough to give him figures yet.

You could argue he hasn’t bowled straight enough but I’ve never watched a guy beat the bat so much and get so little reward. That day one spell to Ghulam - which he ended by taking the catch - was just superb to watch. It was Flintoff-Kallis stuff.

 

[MJG14]

These two have played some gorgeous shots. Love watching Babar bat.

 

[PhatBoy]

These two have played some gorgeous shots. Love watching Babar bat.

Hard to begrudge him getting a 50 finally after a long run of outs.

It’s not like he’s been ‘out of form’ as such. He’s made a lot of starts.

He doesn’t have a great record in tough conditions but it’s pretty obvious to anyone that’s watched him that his technique when he’s ‘on’ is good enough to cut it. He has the tools to be a genuine star everywhere. Maybe this could be the knock that turns things around for him.

 

[Plugger35]

A fine fifty from Babar, Pakistan are back in this game.

 

[Sea fog]

Hi

A fine fifty from Babar, Pakistan are back in this game.

With SA batting last, Pakistan could be favoured here with SA's weak batting. Their attack has been disappointing this morning.

 

[Plugger35]

Babar throws his wicket away to a loose wide one from Jansen.

 

[Plugger35]

Shakeel with a fifty but the joy is shortlived for Pakistan with Rizwan strangled down the legside.

 

[Plugger35]

Another 5'fer for Jansen, he is on track to be an all time great bowler.

I've been on his train from day dot, I knew he had something special,

 

[Sea fog]

Wonder if Jansen's height makes it difficult for batsmen to pick his length on these pitches.

 

[PhatBoy]

Wonder if Jansen's height makes it difficult for batsmen to pick his length on these pitches.

It would have to be, and he has a sort of jerky action too and bowls a bit shorter than someone like Starc - good as Starc can be, his rhythmical action means the ball is probably where you ‘expect’ it to be a lot of the time

 

[Plugger35]

Pakistan are Pakistaning this.

Wonder if Jansen's height makes it difficult for batsmen to pick his length on these pitches.

He is a modern day Bruce Reid but not as fragile, a tall left armer with skill will always be awkward to face.