Preview

Background:

          The contest called Pakistan vs England has always brought its share of history and controversy. From the first time when Pakistan played England in 1954 till the infamous Lord’s test in 2010, the rivalry between the teams has stood out for cricket-lovers, all of which add to the masala of the upcoming series. Yes we know how India vs Pakistan or Australia vs England are considered the biggest rivalries, but whenever Pakistan has played England, there has been something or the other which has stood out and that generally is very unique. Here is some quick insight to some of the greatest controversies, cricket has witnessed when these two teams have faced each other:

• The Mike Gatting – Shakoor Rana incident in 1987 when Gatting tried to change the field during the bowler’s runup and Rana stopped the game. This resulted in Rana standing out of the game until Gatting formally apologized and the drama was heading to a situation where the tour was about to be called off.
•   In 1992, when Pakistan toured England, the lethal combo of Wasim-Waqar and the use of reverse swing prompted the British media to label the duo as “cheats”.
• In 2006, at Oval, when Darrell Hair accused Pakistan of tampering the ball and charged Pakistan with 5 runs in penalty, Inzamam and team decided not to play after the tea session which resulted in Hair calling off the game and handing the game to England – the first forfeiture in the history of cricket.
• The ever famous ball tampering incident in 2010, unearthed by a British tabloid: News of the World. Asif and Aamir, along with the captain Butt were accused to be involved in spot-fixing, the first time such a scandal had hit cricket. It put the Pakistani tour under turmoil and the saga led Pakistan’s chairman Ijaz Butt to accuse the English players as well – for which he later apologized.

          Since the spot-fixing fiasco, both teams have had quite interesting yet successful routes to where they stand currently. Pakistan, after losing their valuable opening bowling combo of Aamir-Asif, has been on a reconstruction path to get out of the mess the team was in, and has since then played 12 test matches and won 6 of them. Misbah has been a success story as a captain and his approach is one reason why Pakistan has fared well in the past few months. England, on the other hand are now the no 1 test team in the world – also playing 12 test matches and winning 8 of them – which includes the win in Ashes against Australia by 3-1 and the thrashing of India (the former no 1 test team) by 4-0. The last frontier for England is victory in the subcontinent, just to establish themselves as the true no 1 team, and with the conditions in the Middle East similar to the subcontinent, England will not be taking this lightly at all.

         Who knows now what history would be in the making when these two teams clash on 17^th January, 2012.

About us:

We at cricketingminds are passionate Pakistan cricket fans, and our purpose here is to share our analysis and views of the Pakistani team and its upcoming matches. We eat, sleep, live cricket and being ardent Pakistani cricketing fans, our hope is that our team outperforms every other cricketing power that is out there.

With the English series approaching, we did some research on the English team and focused primarily on studying the most major threat to the Pakistani team and a primary reason to England being the number 1 test team: the English batting. Our analysis centers on how to get each English batsman out by examining various statistics related to each and every batsman and deriving some sort of a pattern.

Up next you will see some statistics and analysis on the English top 7 and how Pakistan can plan to get their wickets.

Posted in: Pakistan vs England