Showing posts with label Jonathan Trott. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jonathan Trott. Show all posts

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Feeble Pakistan crumble to impressive England

Pakistan 74 (Swann 4-12, Finn 3-38) and 41 for 4 (Azhar 0*) trail England 446 (Trott 184, Broad 169, Amir 6-84) by 331 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details


Salman Butt was bowled by Graeme Swann first ball after tea, England v Pakistan, 4th Test, Lord's, August 28, 2010
Salman Butt was bowled first ball after tea to begin another Pakistan collapse © AFP
Enlarge
Related Links
Analysis : England reap rewards of game-changing stand
Analysis : Pakistan wilt after spirit dries up
Analysis : Worst series for Pakistan's top order
Players/Officials: James Anderson | Stuart Broad | Steven Finn | Graeme Swann | Jonathan Trott
Matches: England v Pakistan at Lord's
Series/Tournaments: Pakistan tour of England
Teams: England | Pakistan

England had already shifted themselves into a winning position after a world-record eighth-wicket stand between Jonathan Trott and Stuart Broad, but even in a summer of batting collapses the way they blew Pakistan away for 74 on the third day at Lord's took the breath away. For the third time in four Tests the visitors couldn't emerge from double figures as they subsided either side of tea, with Graeme Swann and Steven Finn sharing the last seven wickets for 28 runs, before they slumped to 41 for 4 in the follow on.

Having been through the debilitating experience of watching England haul themselves from hopelessness to supremacy in record style there was always the danger that Pakistan would succumb to the pressure. But having shown much more backbone with the bat at The Oval it was hoped they could replicate the same yet were skittled in 33 overs and the second innings promises little better. It was a depressing performance from Pakistan because some of the shots were plain awful, the worst being Imran Farhat's weak pull at the start of the second innings. A clear sign the fight had gone.

Credit, though, must go to the hostility of England's quicks and the continued guile of Swann as the four-man attack never took the pressure off Pakistan. In the follow on, Yasir Hameed was plumb lbw to Anderson as he played across the line then just to compound Pakistan's woes their last chance of making the fourth day a contest vanished as the light closed in. Salman Butt, who was getting annoyed by the chirp from England's close fielders, was lbw to Swann - an excellent decision from Tony Hill as the review proved it was pad just before bat - then, to what became the last ball of the day, Mohammad Yousuf top-edged a pull to deep square-leg. Pakistan's two best batsmen had gone twice in a session.

Rarely can a Test have included periods of such dominance by the ball either side of an epic batting performance. Take out one stand and the batsmen have been walking wickets; but that partnership was the small matter of 332. As Trott and Broad extended their stay during most of the morning the ball barely did anything for the Pakistan bowlers, but when a new one was placed in the hands of Broad and Anderson it quickly became a major threat.

Broad, fresh from his mighty 169, dispatched Hameed in familiar manner as the opener hung his bat outside off and sent a comfortable edge to second slip. Anderson then exploited Farhat's weakness against the moving ball when he drove loosely at an outswinger having watched the previous three deliveries zip past his outside edge.

The best set-up, though, was still to come as England executed their plan to Yousuf to perfection when Broad slotted a full delivery past his bat. It was almost identical to how he fell in the second innings at The Oval and England have always felt it was a way to trap Yousuf early since Anderson did the same at Cape Town in the 2003 World Cup.

Briefly, Butt rallied as he tucked into a loose opening spell from Finn but Swann gave an immediate warning of the danger he would pose as he ripped two deliveries past Butt's edge in his opening over. With his first ball after tea Swann produced another unplayable offering which gripped and hit off stump. The batsman initially stood his ground thinking the wicketkeeper may have knocked off the bails, but his dismissal was swiftly confirmed.

That brought Umar Akmal to the crease and he was immediately greeted by some words from Trott at silly point following their conversations during England's innings and Umar proceeding to launch his third ball over midwicket. But Swann was finding huge turn, much more than Saeed Ajmal extracted, and soon had Azhar Ali taken at short leg as the batsman lunged forward.

Meanwhile, Umar started complaining about problems picking up Finn's line from the Nursery End as the bowler's hand came from above the sightscreen. It clearly affected Umar's mindset when he was told just to get on with it by the umpires and it wasn't long before Finn, who improved with the change of ends, speared a yorker through his defences.

Two balls later Mohammad Amir lost sight of the ball which thudded into his pads and although Tony Hill said not out Strauss correctly opted for a review and leg stump would have been hit flush. To Amir's credit he left without complaint, but his spirit was far removed from the joyous character of yesterday. Finn claimed his third when Kamran Akmal got a thin edge and Swann completed Pakistan's woeful effort with two more in six balls.

The morning session had been another full of records as Trott and Broad continued their monumental effort. The new world record eighth-wicket stand was brought up in Wahab Riaz's first over the day when Broad slotted a cover drive to the boundary to surpass the 313-run stand by Wasim Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq against Zimbabwe in 1996. Thoughts were turning towards an extraordinary double century from Broad, who had passed his father's Test best of 162, when Pakistan finally struck as Broad was given out lbw on a review.

Broad had been given a life on 132 when Kamran couldn't gather an edge off Ajmal and the scoring rate soon increased as both batsmen began to find the boundary with regularity. Broad lost nothing in comparison with Trott and the cover-driving was a highlight of the display as he, too, went past 150 but missed out by five runs on knocking Ian Smith from the top spot for a No. 9.

Trott's timing and placement remained of the highest quality, particularly a couple of off-side strokes against Ajmal, and he was within sight of being the first man to score two double hundreds at Lord's until becoming last-man out. It will go down as one of the finest centuries made on this famous ground; Pakistan's entire line-up couldn't even get halfway towards matching it.

Andrew McGlashan is an assistant editor at Cricinfo

Monday, July 12, 2010

Bangladesh collpase in face of huge chase

2 overs Bangladesh 111 for 6 (Mahmudullah 6*, Mashrafe 8*) need another 237 runs to beat England 347 for 6
Live scorecard


Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott put on 250 for the second  wicket, a new record for England in ODIs, England v Bangladesh, 3rd ODI,  Edgbaston, July 12, 2010
Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott put on 250 for the second wicket, a record for England in ODIs © Getty Images
Related Links
Players/Officials: Ravi Bopara | Andrew Strauss | Jonathan Trott
Matches: England v Bangladesh at Birmingham
Series/Tournaments: Bangladesh tour of England, Ireland and Scotland
Teams: Bangladesh | England

England's cricketers were closing in on a crushing victory in the third and final ODI, as Bangladesh's batsmen faltered in pursuit of a vast target of 348 and slipped to 111 for 6 after 22 overs of their run-chase at Edgbaston. Piqued by their defeat in the second match at Bristol on Saturday, England stepped up their intensity for the series decider, and with Ajmal Shahzad leading the way, put themselves within touching distance of a record-equalling fourth consecutive series win.

If Bangladesh were to have any hope of getting close to England's total, then they needed a turbo-charged start from their star batsman, Tamim Iqbal. He began at a decent lick, with three fours from his first 13 deliveries, but then took on Shahzad with a booming cover-drive, but ended up skying a slower ball to Luke Wright at long-on. At the other end, Imrul Kayes leant into a sumptuous square drive to suggest that his eye was still in after his heroic 76 at Bristol, but it was to be his only scoring shot. At the end of his third over, a pumped-up Shahzad banged in a fearsome lifter that flicked the glove through to Craig Kieswetter.

Junaid Siddique top-edged a Tim Bresnan short ball for six before denting Shahzad's figures with two fours in two balls. Shahzad left the field after four overs with a tweaked hamstring, but Bresnan responded with a slower ball that Wright did well to intercept as he reached high to his left at mid-on. Jahurul Islam rode the short ball well to crack four of his five fours through the leg-side, before Stuart Broad cramped him for room with a well-directed lifter, and Andrew Strauss was on hand to pocket a looping top-edge.

At 77 for 4 in the 16th over, damage limitation was the only realistic option left to Bangladesh, but before any sort of consolidation could get underway, Mohammad Ashraful sold his partner Shakib Al Hasan an outrageous dummy as he turned for a second run and changed his mind in mid-pitch. Paul Collingwood had time to slip as he gathered the ball but still recovered to whip off the bails (86 for 5).

Ashraful was the next to go, as Ravi Bopara struck third ball to continue an impressive comeback game by pinning him lbw for 13 with a skiddy full-length delivery, leaving Mahmudullah and Mashrafe Mortaza to pick up the pieces.

50 overs England 347 for 7 (Strauss 154, Trott 110) v Bangladesh

Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott produced the highest partnership in England's one-day history, surpassing the 226 that Strauss and Andrew Flintoff produced against West Indies at Lord's in 2004, to atone for their team's failings during their historic defeat at Bristol on Saturday, and set Bangladesh a daunting target of 348 in the third and final ODI at Edgbaston.

Stung into action by their five-run reversal in the second match two days ago, England's second-wicket pairing left nothing to chance as they batted in tandem for exactly 40 overs of the innings. Strauss was the star performer with 154 from 140 balls, his fourth and highest ODI hundred but his first since the tour of the Caribbean in March 2009, while Trott put to one side the bitter memory of his last-over dismissal to Shafiul Islam at Bristol to improve on his career-best for the second match in succession.

Following on from Saturday's 94, Trott made 110 from 121 balls before flatbatting a pull to Shakib Al Hasan at midwicket, whereupon Luke Wright - pushed up the order to exploit a flagging attack - wafted a massive mow through to the wicketkeeper, Jahurul Islam, to depart for a first-ball duck. Paul Collingwood averted the hat-trick (just), as Mashrafe Mortaza completed his spell with the excellent figures of 10-2-31-3, but he was the only Bangladeshi to keep a lid on England's aggression.

For that, the credit belonged to Strauss, who once again belied his self-appointed reputation as a "stodgy" opener to blister along at a tempo rarely witnessed in England's one-day history. In all he struck 16 fours and five sixes, each of them deposited up and over the leg-side boundary, as he took personal responsibility for Saturday's setback to put England's one-day revival back on track. The innings wobbled through a late clatter of wickets, as six wickets toppled between overs 41 and 47, but Ravi Bopara slammed 45 from just 16 balls in the dying moments to reapply the swagger.

It was a commanding performance against a Bangladesh team that was unable to raise its game for a second match in succession, and what is more, England had to earn their right to the ascendancy. They lost the toss after a 45-minute rain delay, and were sent into bat in overcast conditions, and when Craig Kieswetter was bowled through the gate in Mortaza's first over for a second-ball duck, the prospect of further embarrassment could not be ruled out.

Strauss and Trott, however, responded to the setback with an initial volley of boundaries - including a brace of fours as Shafiul Islam strayed onto Trott's pads, and an agenda-setting six from Strauss as Mashrafe dropped short - before settling back into a holding pattern to ease the score along to 45 for 1 at the end of the 10-over Powerplay.

Shafiul, whose crucial final wicket had sealed the Bristol victory, this time conceded 97 runs in nine overs, with Strauss dismantling his line and length, before Bopara crushed him in a final over that cost 28.

Mashrafe did his best to keep England on a tight leash in an unchanged eight-over spell that yielded just 17 runs, before the introduction of the spinners, Abdur Razzak and Shakib Al Hasan, provided the batsmen with another challenge to surmount. Strauss in particular showed a deftness of touch with two well-timed reverse sweeps for four off Shakib, before Trott drove Shafiul to long-on to bring up his second fifty in consecutive innings from 70 balls.

At the halfway mark of the innings, England were sitting pretty on 117 for 1, and having established their platform, the pair dived in with relish. Strauss nudged Shakib for a single to reach his hundred from 106 deliveries, and then cut loose with a bold array of improvisatory strokes, including a variation on Eoin Morgan's ambidextrous "paddywhack", and a bona fide right-hander's nurdle to third man (or rather, fine leg). He needed just 29 more deliveries to rush to his second score of 150 in ODIs - the other also came against Bangladesh, at Trent Bridge in 2005.

Trott maintained a more measured approach, as is his wont, picking off his runs with clips, drives and pulls as he capitalised on the absence of Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell, and built on his double-hundred in the Lord's Test back in May with another unflappable performance. A performance was demanded of England after the events of the weekend, and with the bat at least, they have not disappointed.