btb

Important pair for Pakistan as there's not much batting to come. If Pakistan are to take their lead to 100 or beyond then these guys are gonna have to do most of the work. Ahmed taking the piss out of Ali in the final over before lunch. Big spells for Anderson & Woakes (presumably) when the Test resumes............ ************ Meanwhile far, far away Sri Lanka look to have the edge on Australia on their homeland.

With Pakistan having seen off the new ball it could be a long slog in the field for England.

England 75/3 - an opperchancity for Vince & Balance?

England are where you wanna be in a Test Match - 397/4 off 108 overs, seen off second new ball and with Pakistan's bowlers flagging (they've just brought on Azhar Ali) England's plan must be to score quickly and get Pakistan in shortly after Tea (to state the bleedin' obvious!). 427/5 at lunch - ideal situation for England if they can post 500+ and use Anderson, Broad & Woakes in short, hostile spells.

Couldn't have gone much better for England today, Cook gets a century to mute the faint whisperings that it's been a while since Abu Dhabi, they're currently at 264/3 off 71.4 overs, a pretty brisk run rate and Pakistan don't look to have much bowling strength outside their core 4 at this level.

England win toss, bat first, and go for Ali as their spinner. They're currently 60/1. If they can prolong the Innings then they will force Pakistan to go outwith their core 4 bowlers who did all the bowling in the First Test where neither of England's two Innings lasted 80 overs.

It's always been the case that a keepers batting ability has been a factor in selection, go back to current England keeper Jonny Bairstow's father David who was selected ahead of Bob Taylor on occasion due to his superior batting. Jimmy Binks in the 60's only made a couple of Test appearances due to being a poor batsman. It'll be interesting to see how batsmen being shoe-horned into the wicketkeeping role will fare long term - there are a few special ones (Knott, Marsh Gilchrist) but even a good batsman-keeper like Alec Stewart's average dropped significantly when he went behind the stumps and there is a table somewhere on cricinfo that shows that during his period as a wicketkeeper many of his best scores came when England batted first. Still it's no good taking the Truman Line (weren't like this in my day) cricket like all sports evolves and who knows what it'll be like 20 years from now - maybe in a world of unlimited leisure we'll have gone back to timeless Tests.

Finished work with Windies on 107/6. Decided not to listen to the climax on the drive home - prob'ly just as well as I'd no doubt have ended up in a ditch somewhere along the M77. I don't like cricket - I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

England poised to make big total with their strong batting line-up...... ETA - Which Buttler has confirmed with his 46 ball century breaking his own record for quickest ODI century for England. ******************** In other news "he who must not be named" has called dropping Bell for the SA tour pathetic - talk about the kiss of death,

Few sights better than a genuine quick in his pomp!

106/2 - two quick wickets, that's the beauty of Test cricket. Pipped to the post...... ******************* No matter what has happened in the shorter forms of the game the ebb and flow of Test cricket remains close to what it always has been, or at least since I've been watching it which going back to the late 70's. We should be going into Day 4 with all four possible results easily imaginable.

Only Anderson & Broad (Rashid hasn't bowled enough to say either way) of the England bowlers showing much in the way of control. Pakistan's tactics will be to pick off the spinners, wear down the seamers and hope for a deteriorating pitch on the last day.

The depth of England's batting could be a key feature as their tail is confined to just Wood & Anderson whereas Pakistan have collapsed in all three Innings so far this series - I was prepared to overlook Pakistan's first Innings at Abu Dhabi as them going for quick runs but the subsequent two collapses came with little in the way of mitigating factors.

Draw - bad light stopped play.

FFS - I go to the shops with Pakistan at 150-odd/5 and I come back and they're 173 all out leaving England 99 to make in what should be 19 overs (confirmed) albeit with light an issue - bet all those folk taking easy money on the draw are regretting it now! Alastair Cook - after a tumultuous period between losing the Ashes (and KP) down under and the captaincy of the one day side he's rediscovered his technique and made a complete comeback. Currently twelfth on the all time Test run scorers list he's not yet 31 and as long as he's only got Test cricket to focus on I don't see anything except a serious injury stopping him going all the way to the top.

I see Ricky Ponting & Graeme Smith are both backing KP's version of events - mischief or the truth?

Cycling's Big Four (Contador, Froome, Nibali & Quintana) have been challenged to compete in all three Grand Tours next year - interesting but I don't really see it happening! http://www.bbc.co.uk...ycling/29543397

IIRC counties now have to bid for Test Matches (unsure about Lords) so the onus would be on getting 5 days play and gate receipts.

Under the Southern Cross I Stand A sprig of wattle in my hand, A native of my native land, Australia you little beauty.

Looks like County have done well to keep most of the players they wanted which is a pity as I was hoping their best players would be cherry-picked. I allus thought out SFL1 winning team in 2005/06 was much stronger than our 2007/08 team with Adam, Lappin, Broadfoot and Sutton gone. Hopefully the Sproule factor has been used up (started with 5 in 5 but only scored 1 in the remaining 9) 'cos the 2013/14 relegation battle starts here.

Tramp the dirt down.

You're not ginger, by any chance?

Erm I thought rather differently, India got the 500+ they wanted and time to give England an uncomfortable hour before the end of play. Still with Anderson out as nightwatchman it means England bat right down to No. 11 and they might need to - could Swann go 5 better than Tino Best at Edgbaston in the summer.

Given his options he did reasonably well, I was just saying not taking the new ball straight away shows a lack of trust in the seamers who went at 4.3 runs per over earlier in the day - arguably he made the correct decision but you can't deny it was safety first. It's all very well saying Panaser should be the second spinner but unless England can get close to 400 when it's their turn to bat I can't see him getting into the Test team. As it turned India scored 20 runs off the final four overs almost as many as they'd scored in the 10 prior to this - unless England's seamers run through India's lower & middle orders pretty quickly I see Swann having another long bowl tomorrow.