The ICC’s anti-corruption unit described the Pakistan cricket team as dysfunctional after their tour of Australia, but they might just as well have added mercurial as well after Umar Gul’s six wickets enabled them to win the third NatWest Series match in thrilling fashion at the Brit Oval on Friday night.
Gul’s 6-42 were career-best figures and they allowed his team to stay in the series, which lies 2-1 to England with two matches remaining.
England, though, will still be wondering what happened.
Chasing 242, after Pakistan had been dismissed earlier, they looked to be coasting to victory at 201-5, with Eoin Morgan and Luke Wright in charge with a 98-run partnership.
With one last spin of the wheel, Shahid Afridi turned to Gul and Morgan, who’d been batting splendidly, popped the first ball of the spell straight down deep square-leg’s throat.
Get the right man and team’s can fall apart has always been a theory in most sports, though this England team are at pains to explain they are not like that anymore.
Alternatively, inspire the right man, and he can do the job for you as Gul proved when he sliced through England’s lower order like a kukri through custard.
Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, the trio were blown away, two of them for ducks as the pressure of the situation bit hard. Batting under lights is never easy, especially at this time of year, but Gul, who’d dismissed Andrew Strauss and Michael Yardy in an earlier spell, was irresistible now with his pace and late movement.
There was still a glimmer for England after he’d bowled out, though Wright, who’d got his chance here when Paul Collingwood withdrew suffering a virus, needed Anderson to stay with him and occasionally give him the strike. But with 24 runs still needed, Anderson was bowled by Abdul Razzak and for the first time this summer, a series at last breathed into life.
Pakistan’s dominance hadn’t seemed likely during their innings. Batting first on a decent pitch, they were bowled out for 242, a score they might have hoped to better having won the toss.
It was the manner of their innings that sums up the essence of Pakistan cricket especially the bizarre run-out of Afridi, the one-day captain.
Afridi can be a destructive batsman and was just finding his range when he was called for an easy two by Abdul Razzaq, after he’d turned a slower ball from Stuart Broad to fine leg.
The ball, thrown by Swann, struck Afridi’s bat as he sauntered back but ricocheted onto the stumps.
Broad appealed, though the politeness of the inquiry suggested he had no great expectation of success as at real speed Afridi had looked in.
But when the slo-mo cameras were invoked by umpire Billy Doctrove, something he didn’t later do when Pakistan appealed for a stumping off Wright (one replays subsequently showed was probably out), they showed Afridi’s bat to be over the line but still raised - which as any 1970s schoolboy could have told you, is out.
It was an extremely sloppy bit of cricket that came with great dollops of schadenfreude for the skipper (and no, that is not an enigma variation of Shahid Afridi) after his public dressing down of the hapless Mohammad Irfan at Headingley.
Of Pakistan’s batsmen, only Fawad Alam really did himself justice. Unusually for a youngster weaned during the Twenty20 era, he opted for placement over power, striking just three fours in his 64.
You can try to get too clever doing that though and having just cheekily chipped Yardy over mid-wicket’s head for two, he tried to do same over extra cover next ball, and was caught.
England were much better in the field than at Headingley while James Anderson was outstanding with the ball.
It has taken a while (it is eight years since he made his one-day debut), but Anderson is a man who looks in control of his bowling and his emotions, the latter vital when bowling at the death or in Powerplays.
Unhappily for him and his team he was bested on the day by Gul, a man who had the ball on a string.
Chasing 242, after Pakistan had been dismissed earlier, they looked to be coasting to victory at 201-5, with Eoin Morgan and Luke Wright in charge with a 98-run partnership.
With one last spin of the wheel, Shahid Afridi turned to Gul and Morgan, who’d been batting splendidly, popped the first ball of the spell straight down deep square-leg’s throat.
Get the right man and team’s can fall apart has always been a theory in most sports, though this England team are at pains to explain they are not like that anymore.
Alternatively, inspire the right man, and he can do the job for you as Gul proved when he sliced through England’s lower order like a kukri through custard.
Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, the trio were blown away, two of them for ducks as the pressure of the situation bit hard. Batting under lights is never easy, especially at this time of year, but Gul, who’d dismissed Andrew Strauss and Michael Yardy in an earlier spell, was irresistible now with his pace and late movement.
There was still a glimmer for England after he’d bowled out, though Wright, who’d got his chance here when Paul Collingwood withdrew suffering a virus, needed Anderson to stay with him and occasionally give him the strike. But with 24 runs still needed, Anderson was bowled by Abdul Razzak and for the first time this summer, a series at last breathed into life.
Pakistan’s dominance hadn’t seemed likely during their innings. Batting first on a decent pitch, they were bowled out for 242, a score they might have hoped to better having won the toss.
It was the manner of their innings that sums up the essence of Pakistan cricket especially the bizarre run-out of Afridi, the one-day captain.
Afridi can be a destructive batsman and was just finding his range when he was called for an easy two by Abdul Razzaq, after he’d turned a slower ball from Stuart Broad to fine leg.
The ball, thrown by Swann, struck Afridi’s bat as he sauntered back but ricocheted onto the stumps.
Broad appealed, though the politeness of the inquiry suggested he had no great expectation of success as at real speed Afridi had looked in.
But when the slo-mo cameras were invoked by umpire Billy Doctrove, something he didn’t later do when Pakistan appealed for a stumping off Wright (one replays subsequently showed was probably out), they showed Afridi’s bat to be over the line but still raised - which as any 1970s schoolboy could have told you, is out.
It was an extremely sloppy bit of cricket that came with great dollops of schadenfreude for the skipper (and no, that is not an enigma variation of Shahid Afridi) after his public dressing down of the hapless Mohammad Irfan at Headingley.
Of Pakistan’s batsmen, only Fawad Alam really did himself justice. Unusually for a youngster weaned during the Twenty20 era, he opted for placement over power, striking just three fours in his 64.
You can try to get too clever doing that though and having just cheekily chipped Yardy over mid-wicket’s head for two, he tried to do same over extra cover next ball, and was caught.
England were much better in the field than at Headingley while James Anderson was outstanding with the ball.
It has taken a while (it is eight years since he made his one-day debut), but Anderson is a man who looks in control of his bowling and his emotions, the latter vital when bowling at the death or in Powerplays.
Unhappily for him and his team he was bested on the day by Gul, a man who had the ball on a string.
