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Harmison, Panesar
blow away Pakistan to an innings defeat – Day 3,
2nd Test at Old Trafford Report |
July 29, 2006 (Link to
Scorecard)
Pakistan was blown away for an
innings and 120 runs defeat at Old Trafford by
the destructive pair of Steve Harmison and Monty
Panesar. It has been a two men show for England
with only these two bowlers getting all the
second innings wickets with both picking five
each. It was also a ten wicket haul for Steve
Harmison, the Man of the Match and Pakistan one
must say have been totally disappointing getting
bowled out for 222 under 68 overs. Except for
Younis Khan, who made a calm 62, not one batsman
cared to stay for some time at the crease; of
course Inzamam did get out in an unlucky manner.
But most of the Pakistani batsmen lacked the
application and the determination to occupy the
crease against the rising deliveries of Harmison.
Monty Panesar has been equally fabulous for
picking up 8 wickets in this game. He was mixing
the big turning deliveries with the flatter
deliveries that were going straight on.
There was a strong feeling that the Test Match
would have ended on the third day considering
the number of players in the Pakistani camp who
play lots of rash shots. The list starts off
with Imran Farhat and Shahid Afridi, who doesn't
like to put up a price on his wicket. England
were fortunate that Steve Harmison was fit to
bowl after yesterday's injury scare of pulling
his rib cage muscle. Harmison wasted absolutely
no time in delivering the chin music and his
first lamb was Kamran Akmal, who had absolutely
no choice but to fend Harmison's short one to
Geraint Jones. A good partnership followed
between Imran Farhat and the solid Younis Khan
but there was always been an uncertainty in
Imran Farhat's approach in staying long at the
crease. He did show some sort of discipline
today, but was unfortunate to get a great
delivery from Monty Panesar that turned and
jumped onto him in his forward stretch and Imran
Farhat was forced to nick it to the short leg
fielder. Imran Farhat, who was batting with a
fractured finger made 34, which was always a
moderate score for a specialist batsman. Younis
Khan then found an able partner in last match
double centurion, Mohammad Yousuf and the two
'Y's took Pak safely to lunch at 101 for 2.
Younis Khan was batting well on 34 and Yousuf
was finding his bearings right on 15.
The first delivery after the lunch break might
be a turning point as Mohammad Yousuf lunged
forward to block Monty Panesar, but the ball
turned and bounced just enough to beat the bat
and also drag Yousuf out of his crease. The
alert Geraint Jones whipped the bails in a
fraction of a second and the third umpire
confirmed that Yousuf's back leg was on the
line. Pakistan Skipper, Inzamam-ul-Haq was
uncomfortable at the crease against the quick
short ones from Harmison, but he wasn't out to
the fast bowler but to Monty Panesar. Inzamam's
defensive shot had hit his boot and then popped
up to the silly point fielder and that was a
rather unfortunate way of getting dismissed.
Faisal Iqbal was another batsman who was having
a wrist injury having being smashed there by a
Strauss' sweep shot while fielding at short leg.
Faisal Iqbal was applying himself well and was
trying to put up a partnership with Younis. But
Monty Panesar soon hit the nail in the coffin by
removing Younis Khan after the Pakistan
Vice-Captain made an error in padding up to
Monty's flatter one in front of the offstump.
Younis Khan was out after making a personal
score of 62 which had 8 fours and with his
dismissal, Pakistan were at 161 for 5. A spell
of rain then gave Pakistan a short reprieve and
an early tea break was taken with Pakistan at
167 for 5 in 52.1 overs.
Monty Panesar has been troubling the right
handers all day by getting quick turn and bounce
off the surface and Faisal Iqbal got one such
delivery to get back to the pavilion. That
delivery from Monty had pitched on middle and
then turned away sharply forcing the outside
edge to bring an end to Faisal Iqbal's promising
innings of 29 and most importantly, it was a
fifer for the English Turbanator. England after
that got two easy wickets, both going to Steve
Harmison. The first one was Afridi who was too
afraid to face Steve Harmison's hostile bowling
and deciding to go for a fluke backfoot shot to
give catching practice in the slips. It is not
unusual to see atleast one six in Afridi's
innings and he did manage one big blow in his
stay of 17 balls which came through a lusty blow
off Kevin Pietersen's lollipop off breaks. One
can understand why Afridi decided to retire from
Test Cricket few months back, he is not a
batsman who would take the pains of facing
atleast 100 balls for his side. Steve Harmison
was too good for the tail enders and also Abdul
Razzaq and Pakistan collapsed without
frustrating the English fielders.
Steve Harmison's figures were 5 for 57 in a
little over 18 overs and Monty Panesar worked
his way to take as many wickets after bowling 27
overs. Matthew Hoggard and Sajid Mahmood were
the other two main bowlers who bowled reasonably
okay, but not good enough to pick up a single
wicket. Pakistan are expected to make few
changes for the next Test Match that begins on
the 4th of next month at Headingley and England
might retain this same winning combination.
Andrew Strauss would be proud of his first test
match victory in just his 2nd Test as the
Captain, but he needs to keep his boys going
with the same kind of spirit that they have
shown in this match as Pakistan is an
unpredictable side that can rise up right from
the bottom.
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