There may be troubles ahead: England selection issues.

[SaintPowelly]

Dropping Compton for Carberry

Compton wasn't dropped for Carberry

[Arthur Crabtree]

Dropping Compton for Root and then moving Root for Carberry. It wasn't all that joined up.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Good point made on cricinfo that Paul Downton is new in his job and might not want to start by sacking as significant a personality as Andy Flower.

[SaintPowelly]

Good point made on cricinfo that Paul Downton is new in his job and might not want to start by sacking as significant a personality as Andy Flower.

Flower should fall on his sword and resign.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Doesn't sound likely. You prefer Ashley Giles?

[Arthur Crabtree]

Maybe we can get Darren Lehmann.

[m@tt]

Dropping Compton for Root and then moving Root for Carberry. It wasn't all that joined up.

Dropping Compton so that Pietersen could rejoin the team whilst retaining Bairstow, then dropping Bairstow anyway and moving Root and bringing Carberry in. Slips right off the tongue.

[sussexpob]

Hmm, Broad/Trott got those tons against one of the best pace attacks to visit uk post West Indies, with the special swinging balls that England used until they ran out, so helpful they were, in a summer of low grey clouds. Cook struggled all summer. I can't imagine why those runs should be so casually disregarded

I think Pakistan put down about 20 chances in the partnership

[D/L]

It’s amusing to read comments about captaincy that suggest it matters these days. What we are seeing now are some central contract pigeons coming home to roost.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I think Pakistan put down about 20 chances in the partnership

I thought I'd replied to this, suggesting this was at best a fantastic exaggeration!

Anyway, call me a mug but I checked on cricinfo ball by ball. There was one drop, by Kamran Akmal, when Broad was on 132. That's it. One. After Broad had hit 132. Pakistan even referred an lbw to the third umpire. They put slips in when the ball went wide of the catcher. The ball went past the bat when Broad came in, and again with a new ball, so, when you'd expect. The commentator refers during the start of the stand how well Pakistan are bowling to Broad and Trott...

Butt didn't refer a couple of lbws that were missing anyway. That's the best I can do.

[SaintPowelly]

I think Pakistan put down about 20 chances in the partnership

I thought I'd replied to this, suggesting this was at best a fantastic exaggeration!

Anyway, call me a mug but I checked on cricinfo ball by ball. There was one drop, by Kamran Akmal, when Broad was on 132. That's it. One. After Broad had hit 132. Pakistan even referred an lbw to the third umpire. They put slips in when the ball went wide of the catcher. The ball went past the bat when Broad came in, and again with a new ball, so, when you'd expect. The commentator refers during the start of the stand how well Pakistan are bowling to Broad and Trott...

Butt didn't refer a couple of lbws that were missing anyway. That's the best I can do.

Just because you don't want too see something, doesn't mean it isn't infront of you.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Give me some evidence. Isn't this a case of wanting to see something that isn't there? Surely the self deception is suggested by remembering twenty drops where there was only one, which was near the end of the partnership? There's no grassy knoll.

[sussexpob]

Give me some evidence.

Well there is the small fact that the innings in question ended with 4 people being jailed for illegally trying to underperform.... would of thought that was pretty massive.

And the judge did say in sentencing them that he refused clemency for the guilty party because Amir's phone contained enough evidence to suggest that the no balls in question were not the extent of everything.

[Arthur Crabtree]

But what did they do? I expect there to be some suspicion around this, but I watched it, and it didn't look anything other than hard fought cricket. I watched the Sydney Test and that was dodgy. Obviously. Maybe there was a no ball or a wide that wasn't kosher. No one knows. But there was nothing in the play to suggest anything other than a normal contest. To me, it seems wrong to assume that career highs for the two England players were anything other than that. Certainly, no alarms were raised at the time, and people were looking out for that sort of thing after Sydney. I was.

[sussexpob]

But what did they do? I expect there to be some suspicion around this, but I watched it, and it didn't look anything other than hard fought cricket. I watched the Sydney Test and that was dodgy. Obviously. Maybe there was a no ball or a wide that wasn't kosher. No one knows. But there was nothing in the play to suggest anything other than a normal contest. To me, it seems wrong to assume that career highs for the two England players were anything other than that. Certainly, no alarms were raised at the time, and people were looking out for that sort of thing after Sydney. I was.

See this was the problem with Akmal. He had been praised before that Sydney test for his improvement behind the stumps, and he dropped 4 clangers.... if that was the point that triggered suspicion then surely you couldn't have escaped the amount of drops in the England series on a whole? In the first test Akmal dropped two very easy chances to Collingwood and Strauss, while taking an absolute incredible one inbetween.... it was like you were watching someone visibly trying to alter the game.... he took some superb catches, catches that most keepers wouldn't get near, then dropped the most simple of regulation chances.

As I said, I would love to look back and see how many chances Pakistan dropped in the whole series, I would hesitate that they must have averaged about 2 per innings at least, maybe even 3.....