Pakistan peak at perfect time
IT’S a big week for English domestic cricket with the first round of day-night Specsavers County Championship games starting at 2pm on Monday.
I imagine there will be plenty of attention on all nine matches but, with England hosting West Indies at Edgbaston in this country’s first day-night Test match in August, I’m sure plenty of the spotlight will be on our home game with Lancashire.
It’s difficult to know what effect the pink balls will have in England and what impact the floodlights will have.
We will certainly be doing plenty of preparation under the lights once our current game in Essex has finished later today.
I’m looking forward to the game. It’s something different and an exciting challenge, which will hopefully prove popular with the supporters of all counties.
The Champions Trophy came to a spectacular finish on Sunday and it was a pleasure to be at The Oval for the final.
I have to be honest, if somebody had told me Pakistan would win the tournament three weeks ago I wouldn’t have taken much notice of them.
They arrived as the eighth-ranked team in the world and their performance against India in their first game didn’t bode well.
But the key to tournament sport is peaking at the right time and Pakistan certainly did that with their performances against England in the semi-final and India in the final.
It was an interesting decision from India to bowl first on a very good wicket after winning the toss. They obviously fancied their chances of chasing down any total, but once Pakistan had put 338 on the board, the pressure was on India’s all-star batting line-up and it proved too much on the day.
It was an incredible triumph and full credit to Pakistan for coming through some testing times – they almost got knocked out of the group stages – and producing their best when it mattered.
The century from opening batsman Fakhar Zaman in the final was an outstanding performance and Hasan Ali was brilliant with the ball throughout the tournament.
It was hugely disappointing for all England followers that we came up short against Pakistan in Cardiff as I think most people thought this was our time to win a major 50-over tournament. It just goes to show that one bad day can ruin a lot of good work, but there is plenty to encourage England moving forward. The team has two years now to prepare for what will be a massive home World Cup and the signs are good that we can again be among the major contenders.
I know a lot has been said about the pitch that was prepared for the England-Pakistan semi-final.
This is an ICC tournament and I don’t believe the pitch should be specifically prepared to give the home team an advantage.
What I would say is that I don’t think a semi-final should be played on a used pitch.
For me, there is too much at stake for that to happen and the pitches prepared at Edgbaston for the India-Bangladesh semi-final and the final at The Oval were more in keeping with what I would like to see for such high-profile matches.