Grey skies, 12 wickets and a new low score for Pakistan against England for the second time in five days. It was a fairly dramatic day on the first day of the second test at Edgbaston as yet another nail was hammered into the coffin holding the lifeless body of Pakistan cricket.
The highlights of the day for us were:
People who live in glass houses...
A couple of weeks after saying of Ricky Ponting that "he would bat on a river as well I think, he bats everywhere!" following the Australian captain's decision to bat at Headingley, Salman Butt made a similar poor call at the toss and Pakistan actually managed 16 runs less than the Aussies 88 all out. We'll forgive Ponting for having a wry grin at Butt's expense.
Can't bat...
Pakistan were pretty clueless with the bat and were punished for their extremely negative mindset and poor techniques in swinging conditions, which saw only nine runs in the first hour and 37 by lunch. By then six wickets had gone down and the game was up. The reputation of Mohammad Yousuf, who was not considered ready following his arrival on Thursday from Pakistan, has gone up another couple of notches. On this show, they need to send for Younis Khan, Inzamam and Javed Miandad as well.
Can't field...
Pakistan then compounded their problems with a shoddy performance in the field. Imran Farhat dropped a sitter at first slip to reprieve Trott on 8, and Pietersen was dropped twice on 9 and 20 to eminently catchable chances. At least if a particularly virulent form of swine flu suddenly descends on Edgbaston, the Pakistan team would survive such is their inability to catch anything.
Can bowl
Overhead conditions may have been helpful as was the uneven bounce, but England's pace bowling unit is starting to look ominously good, especially as each member offers something different. Anderson is the king of swing, Broad offers pace and hustle and bustle whilst Finn is the most accurate and gets natural bounce from his tall frame. Of course, they will have tougher battles against teams with a more positive approach and better techniques, but Broad and and Finn especially look to have the attributes to trouble the Australian batsmen this winter.
The curse of Pakistani wicketkeepers
It looks like Zulqarnain Haider has run into the same black cat as the man he replaced, Kamran Akmal. Haider bagged a first ball duck, which means that in three innings in this series a Pakistan wicketkeeper is yet to record a run. Then in pretty much identical circumstances to Trent Bridge, Pietersen got an inside edge to a ball from Gul. Unlike Akmal who (just about) snaffled the chance, Haider put his opportunity down. KP may make Pakistan pay on the second day.
When your luck isn't in...
Talking about black cats crossing your path, Alastair Cook had looked horrible throughout his innings but wasn't going to miss the opportunity to play his favourite pull shot to a Mohammad Asif bouncer. Unfortunately for Cook, he only managed to hit the ball with the back of his glove and the ball looped up to second slip - even Pakistan weren't going to drop that one. Another failure for Cook on the day that Michael Carberry hit his second century of the match for Hampshire against Durham.
Player of the day
All the England seamers were hugely impressive, but Stuart Broad shaded it for us on the ground he took an eight for only a couple of weeks ago. Could Broad emulate his father by starring in an Ashes win for England Down Under? He certainly has the armoury to succeed in Australian conditions.
...and finally
It's been a long time coming, but I swear we heard Shane Warne give a compliment to Paul Collingwood when the Durham battler took a typically sharp diving catch at third slip to get rid of Umar Amin. A quick rewind on the Sky Plus box proved that our ears weren't deceiving us as Warne described Colly as "one of the best fielders in the world in any position", adding that he always makes difficult chances "look easy." And he said all that without mentioning the MBE. Well done, Warney.
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