CRICKET TEST MATCH:THERE WERE no heroics from Pakistan yesterday. No salvaging of pride, no "positives" to take forward to the second Test, which starts on Friday. And above all no answer to the pacy swing of James Anderson, who bestrode the match with 11 wickets for 71.
He and Stuart Broad had already knocked the stuffing out of Pakistan’s second innings on Saturday evening, leaving them 15 for three overnight, and after little more than an hour’s play yesterday the scoreboard read 50 for eight and they stood on the brink of their lowest total in Tests.
Danish Kaneria dispatched a rare half-volley from Anderson to the square-leg boundary to remove that possibility, but by the time Graeme Swann caught Mohammad Asif, from Anderson inevitably, to bring him a sixth wicket of the innings and end the match with lunch still 15 minutes away, they were still seven runs short of their previous lowest against England, made 56 years ago at Lord’s.
The entire innings lasted a minute over two hours. All out for 80, the margin of defeat was 354 runs, their second highest in terms of runs but, in a game in which the ball has dominated bat to a degree almost foreign to Test cricket, truly gargantuan.
If over the course of the 10 sessions there has been swing bowling of the highest quality from the Pakistan pair of Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif, then Anderson, with a truly virtuoso display, transcended them.
There may not be a poorer equipped Test batting side at present (certainly not Bangladesh) and the conditions have been relentlessly in favour of those who can manipulate the ball, but Anderson, backed by faultless catching, cannot have bowled better.
Five for 54 in the first innings was followed by six for 17 in the second, with five for 16 from 11 overs on the reel yesterday, all of which wickets came at a cost of 10 runs in the space of 45 balls. Of England pace bowlers, only Steve Harmison, who took 11 for 76 on an Old Trafford trampoline four years ago, has a 10-wicket match haul against these opponents.
In a bowler-dominated game, the man of the match award might have gone to a batsman – Eoin Morgan for his first-innings century or Matt Prior for his perfectly judged hundred on Saturday – but perfection of performance demands its own rewards and it went indisputably to Anderson.
If the focus tends to be on how well bowlers will perform in batting conditions, then it is often forgotten that there can be more pressure to succeed in helpful circumstances yet only the best bowlers can roll up their sleeves (metaphorically these days) and with reliability cash in.
Credit has to go to David Saker, too, England’s Australian bowling coach, who in his brief time he has been with the team has hammered away at Anderson that he had to rediscover his away swing as a default delivery from which the inswinger is the variation.
Such an overwhelming victory may serve to take the spotlight from those performances in the England side that fell below the standard.
Alastair Cook, for example, is struggling, no longer planting his front foot early but unable now to get it in place quickly enough. He is still a young man, though, with an enviable Test record, a strong work ethic and solid temperament. You do not jettison such players without real cause, especially when the only plausible current option as an opener would be Jonathan Trott, who did the job in Bangladesh in the spring.
Similarly, calls for Kevin Pietersen to move over are ridiculously premature. Those who doubt his commitment should have seen him practising under the lights and in the rain when play was called off early on Friday.
Morgan’s success adds a new dimension to the selectorial equation, and one which Andy Flower had been hoping for, although the struggle he had against the new ball when he resumed on the second morning and found Pakistan’s bowlers relaxed and in tune will not have gone unnoticed: Flower is setting the highest standards and, while acknowledging Morgan’s calmness in batting England out of a first-innings crisis and then taking the game away against the spinners, he will be mindful of work still to do.
Pakistan last night responded to their limp batting performance by recalling veteran batsman Mohammad Yousuf just four months after he announced his retirement.
Yousuf has endured a turbulent time of late, first captaining his country in their miserable, winless tour of Australia over the winter then being banned for life by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) — one of a number of harsh punishments doled out following an investigation into the trip down under.
The ban was later lifted, though the veteran responded to the news by confirming his retirement.
Such decisions are not always permanent in Pakistan cricket though and talk of a recall has been persistent throughout this tour.
Yousuf, 35, has a pedigree none of the current Pakistan team can come close to, with 24 Test centuries to his name and a career average of 53.07.
Leg-spinner Danish Kaneria, who returned match figures of one for 171, has been told he can return to play county cricket for Essex, with teenage left-armer Raza Hasan taking his place.
A PCB statement released from Lahore confirmed the squad changes. It read: “Danish Kaneria is released from the national team and is now available to play for his county Essex.
“His services will be available for the national squad if required. Mohammad Yousuf and Raza Hasan are added to the national squad with immediate effect”.
Guardian Service
Scoreboard
At Trent Bridge:
Overnight: England 354 (E Morgan 130, P Collingwood 82; M Asif 5-77) and 262-9 dec (M Prior 102no). Pakistan 182 (U Gul 65 no; J Anderson 5-54) and 15-3.
PAKISTAN SECOND INNINGS
I Farhat c Strauss b Anderson 15
M Aamer c Pietersen b Finn 4
U Akmal lbw b Anderson 4
S Malik c C’wood b Anderson 9
K Akmal lbw b Finn 0
U Gul c C’wood b Anderson 9
D Kaneria not out 16
M Asif c Swann b Anderson 0
Extras(b4 lb8 w1 nb1)14
Total(all out, 29 overs) 80
Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-10, 3-11, 4-31, 5-37, 6-41, 7-41, 8-50, 9-65.
Bowling: J Anderson 15-8-17-6; S Broad 8-2-23-2; S Finn 6-3-28-2.
England beat Pakistan by 354 runs.
Man of the match: J Anderson.
