Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Fifty overs.

Abu Dhabi, 11, 13 November.
Sharjah, 17 November.
Dubai, 20 November.

Twenty Overs.

Dubai, 26, 27 November.
Sharjah, 30 November.

The ODIs start at 11.00 GMT. The T20s at 16.00 GMT.

We've been promised crowds for these games and let's hope so, the excellent Test series suffered greatly for taking place in a vacuum. A vacuum in a desert.

Has Afridi retired? Has Gohar found his passport? The Pakistan squad is much changed from their last 'home' game. Their recent form in the UAE has been sketchy, losing 3-2 to New Zealand. And 3-0 to Australia after whitewashing the Aussies in the Tests. On the road, they lost 3-0 in Bangladesh, won 3-2 against Sri Lanka and lost a game in Zimbabwe (winning 2-1). Possible side.

Pakistan: Hafeez/Jamshed/Shoaib/Azhar/Younis/Rizwan/Sarfraz/Bilal/Anwar/Yasir/Wahab.
Yamin/Azam/Rahat/Gohar/Irfan.

I can't say they are all known to me. My England side might be more reliable.

England: Roy/Hales/Root/Taylor/Morgan/Buttler/Moeen/Rashid/Woakes/Willey/Topley
Bairstow/Billings/Jordan/Plunkett.

Which would be a return to the team of all rounders that won the Sharjah Trophy all those years ago, bowling all rounders rather than batting, though. Stokes and Wood are absent from the last game. I suppose it would be crazy to make England favourites in Asia, but England arrive with more expectation than they did the recent Tests. To sustain them is the memory of winning 4-0 in the Emirates nearly four years ago, largely thanks to a remarkably successful opening combination of Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen, who scored over 600 runs between them. Steve Finn took 13 wickets, and the England spinners, Swann and Patel, were economical.

The cricinfo team for Pakistan is nearly the same as mine (Irfan for Rizwan) so maybe I'm not too far out.

According to cricinfo, England have won 7/9 ODIs in UAE.

i have a feeling we might win this series, i imagine it will be a fairly low scoring affair compared to other recent series and we tend to do alright in those

my only worry is that we will collapse in a heap when we are forced to attack against yasir shah and shoaib malik

Concern might be that Moeen is one of five main bowlers and not a sixth option. If Pakistan get after he and Rashid, there's nowhere to go.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Concern might be that Moeen is one of five main bowlers and not a sixth option. If Pakistan get after he and Rashid, there's nowhere to go.

true but moeen seems to bowl better in ODIs, his economy rate is very good at 4.8 compared to his very bad economy in tests of 3.9

rashid has been a little bit all or nothing and will go the distance on occasions but will hopefully win us one of the games with a 4/5 wicket haul

looking at the teams i would say they have the better bowling but our batting and fielding should be better

with all the spin in the middle overs hales and roy will be very important as we will need to be getting off to flyers so root, morgan and taylor can knock the spinners around and try to keep wickets in hand for the last 15 overs

i dont think scoring 350 will be needed in this series so we can afford to be a bit conservative in the middle overs to ensure the likes of buttler dont come in too soon

Maybe give Root a couple of overs early in the innings to allow some wriggle room later on. And bowl Rashid in the last fifteen (Narine/Tahir style) to pick up some mis-hits.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Maybe give Root a couple of overs early in the innings to allow some wriggle room later on. And bowl Rashid in the last fifteen (Narine/Tahir style) to pick up some mis-hits.

Didn't Rashid get hit for about 25-30 in the 49th over in one ODI against NZ this summer?

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Maybe give Root a couple of overs early in the innings to allow some wriggle room later on. And bowl Rashid in the last fifteen (Narine/Tahir style) to pick up some mis-hits.

our problem since swann retired has been not taking enough wickets in the middle overs so i would bowl him mainly then

hopefully he bowls a little quicker in the short forms 50-52 instead of 46-49, will give him more margin for error

he will be very happy that misbah isnt playing the ODIs as he was the batsmen who was clubbing him for six constantly in the tests

if one of moeen or rashid has a very good series it could well decide who plays the first test in south africa as the main spinner

dan08 wrote:

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Maybe give Root a couple of overs early in the innings to allow some wriggle room later on. And bowl Rashid in the last fifteen (Narine/Tahir style) to pick up some mis-hits.

Didn't Rashid get hit for about 25-30 in the 49th over in one ODI against NZ this summer?

it might have been the 48th when he got smashed then bowled a very good 50th over

bowling him then was a tad ridiculous

Rashid bowls a lot differently in limited over, with some front of the hand deliveries included. But he still can't afford to bowl two bad balls an over, which is his wont.

Everyone goes for runs at the end of LOIs. Didn't Broad go for 36 once? Obviously, if Rashid goes for a lot at the end, and often, he shouldn't bowl then. Sometimes though the unorthodox is deemed to fail, when the orthodox has done no better, or worse. Because the unorthodox is exposed to greater scrutiny and the routine is stoically borne. It's this kind of thinking that leads England to reverting to four medium fast right armers every World Cup.

Certainly, in UAE, rather in England, different bowling options at the end of the innings might be advantageous. Or it might not work. But it shouldn't be ruled out.

Samit should be there.

Bairstow in for the injured Buttler I've heard.

Buttler had previously been declared fit.

Forgot to mention up top that Pakistan beat Zimbabwe recently, in... Pakistan.

This is 8v6 in the rankings.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Concern might be that Moeen is one of five main bowlers and not a sixth option. If Pakistan get after he and Rashid, there's nowhere to go.

Need to have a very good attack to cope without having a decent sixth option...

No talk of Buttler being injured on cricinfo or bbc, just Morgan boosting Buttler's chances of making runs.

I'm a bit on Selvey's side in him saying that if your pace bowlers are stronger than your spin bowlers then play your pace bowlers. Are Moeen and Rashid really good enough to both play in a five man attack?