GAME IS IN DARK AGES
Vaughan blasts farcical light rules
ENGLAND and their armchair viewers were left frustrated on and off the field as Pakistan held them at bay before the umpires took them off the ground.
Watching Stuart Broad and James Anderson look quizzically at each other as they trudged off the field with Pakistan 223-9 summed up the scene.
Broad had just taken his third wicket in an innings for the seventh consecutive time, the first Englishman to do so since Graeme Swann in 2009.
And the mood of England’s players will most certainly have been more gloomy than the overhead conditions that were deemed dangerous and dark enough to prevent any further cricket from being played after 4.45pm.
Even though Mohammad Rizwan had just caressed a boundary from an 85mph Broad delivery to take himself to 60 not out, the umpire’s lightmeter came out and because the level had been set earlier in the day just before tea, there was no room for manoeuvre.
There might not have been 20,000 baying spectators in the ground to let the officials know how they felt about being denied so much cricket, but the farcical nature of it all remained.
There had been no sign of any danger and the game was played at a high level.
And yet while the Pakistan white-ball players happily played a practice game on the nursery ground next door without floodlights, the main arena with lights was put on a localised lockdown.
“We’ve just seen the most glorious cover drive, the shot of the day, and the next ball we’re off,” said former England skipper Michael Vaughan. “It doesn’t make sense. Those that pay the big cheques for broadcasts, they’ve got to step up and say to the ICC, ‘This isn’t good enough, you’ve got to come up with a solution that allows the game to be played in conditions like this’.
“Until the directive comes from the ICC, the umpires are just doing the job that is in place now.
“They deem it is not quite right and they walk off.
“If the pink ball has to be used then use it. This is a terrible look for the game that the umpires are continuously taking the players off when we’ve not seen an issue.”
It does seem bizarre that even with floodlights the game had to be halted with just 40.2 overs possible, with England finding it hard work polishing off the Pakistan lower order.
The old ball might have been swinging round corners at times, but the wickets proved hard to come by as Babar Azam again showed his class in getting to 47 before Rizwan took over.
It took a beauty from Broad to take Babar’s edge through to the keeper, while Yasir Shah had a wild drive at Anderson to fall the same way for five.
The wicket of the day though surely belonged to the swift movement of Dom Sibley from third slip who pounced on the ball and threw a direct hit to run out Shaheen Shah Afridi.
A partnership of 39 between Rizwan and Mohammad Abbas was enough to see frustrations mount for skipper Joe Root who went away from the simple game plan required in bowler-friendly conditions before regrouping at tea.