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Cook, Collingwood score centuries
to put Pak on the backfoot |
July 13, 2006 (Link to
Scorecard)
England clinched the honours on Day 1 of the
first Test match against Pakistan at Lord’s with
centuries coming from Alastair Cook and Paul
Collingwood. The homeside were rescued from a
spot of bother by Cook (101*) and Collingwood
(109*), who are still unseparated after having
put on 221 for the 4th wicket. It would go down
as one of the miserable days in the history of
Pakistan Cricket with the fielders dropping
elementary sitters. England have closed the
day’s play at 309 for 3, the only aspect that
was impressive from Pakistan was its over rate
which ensured that the 90 overs were bowled well
in time.
The Tale of the Morning Session
Andrew Strauss had won the toss and he decided
to bat first with the track looking good for the
batsmen but there was always the cloud cover
that would encourage the ball to move around.
Matthew Hoggard managed to pass the fitness Test
and was included in the side in the place of
Sajid Mahmood. Pakistan lost Shoaib Malik
(elbow), Younis Khan (knee) and Mohammad Asif
(elbow) due to their injuries and that got back
Salman Butt, Faisal Iqbal and Shahid Afridi into
the line up. Mohammad Sami and Umar Gul started
off the proceedings for Pakistan and they were
taken for plenty of runs by Trescothick and
Strauss. The two fast bowlers struggled to cope
up with the extravagant movement and Inzamam was
forced to bring in Abdul Razzaq early into the
attack. Trescothick however spoilt England’s
good start of 60/0 by poking at an away going
seamer from Umar Gul. Trescothick fell for 16
and soon after six balls, Andrew Strauss
followed him in the pavilion after getting
struck on his pads in front of the stumps by
Abdul Razzaq. That looked like a straight
forward decision for Simon Taufel but TV Replays
later showed that Strauss had got a tiny little
edge onto his pads, no one was complaining about
that decision and Strauss’ promising innings had
come to an end for a personal score of 30. The
attacking Kevin Pietersen joined Cook and the
big man was firing the Pakistani bowlers with
four boundaries. Abdul Razzaq soon sent the
dangerous man back to the pavilion as Pietersen
made a mistake of not reading Razzaq’s inswinger
and he had offered his pads to that. Pietersen
fell for a run-a-ball 21 and England lost the
initiative with a score of 88 for 3. Collingwood
then paired up with Cook to ensure that England
went to lunch with just those 3 wickets down,
they had put on 118 on the board in the first
session. Alastair Cook was lucky to stay in the
middle on 22 as he was dropped by Imran Farhat,
the 2nd slip fielder who dived in front of 1st
slip Inzamam-ul-Haq to spoil what would have
been a regulation catch off Umar Gul.
The Tale of the Afternoon Session
After lunch, England made merry with the ball
starting to lose its shine and allowing the 4th
wicket partnership to blossom. Pakistan operated
with Danish Kaneria from one end and the seamers
at the other end. Collingwood was looking to
play some shots especially the pull which was
used to good effect. Pakistan had heartbreak
when Alastair Cook was not given caught behind
by Steve Bucknor when the left hander had nicked
the wrong one from Danish Kaneria. Cook was on
43 then and after adding up just two more runs,
he was dropped by the bowler Kaneria, who
couldn’t hold onto an easy return catch after
beating the batsman in the air. Both batsmen
carried on with their innings and were in no
mood to give away their wickets with rash shots
and that saw them bat through the post lunch
session. England went to Tea at a strong
position of 242 for 3 with Cook on 68 and
Collingwood on 77.
The Tale of the Final Session
The Post Tea Session saw Pakistan stifling the
run rate of England and Cook, Collingwood were
completely bogged down. Pakistan got some
reverse swing going finally and Umar Gul
produced an outside edge off Collingwood who was
on 79 but the wicket keeper Kamran Akmal spilled
an elementary catch. Just few overs after that,
Imran Farhat dropped his second catch in the
slips and once again Alastair Cook was the lucky
cat to escape and this time he was on 81 with
the bowler being the below par Mohammad Sami.
Meanwhile Paul Collingwood got to his 2nd Test
Match century with a push off Kaneria for a
single to square leg. Collingwood got to his
hundred in 157 balls with the help of 12 fours
and Alastair Cook at the other end was anxiously
waiting to get to his 2nd Test ton. Cook finally
got to his hundred in the last ball of the 89th
over bowled by Shahid Afridi. Cook had to work
hard to get his runs as he was mostly hitting
his shots straight to the fielders and he was
very lucky to get to a hundred as he was dropped
twice and had a let off from the Umpire. But
credit should go for the young Alastair Cook for
staying there and taking England out of a bad
position. Pakistan hasn’t gone in for the 2nd
new ball yet and they are in trouble of being on
the backfoot in the rest of this Test Match.
England finished at 309 for 3 with just 67 runs
coming in the 31 overs bowled in the final
session but the important thing is that they did
not lose any wicket for two full sessions!
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