Morgan punishes Shoaib’s errors in Cardiff

By Gemma Wright

Anyone can have a funny five minutes. Even Lenny Henry.
But Shoaib Aktar’s ‘funny spell’ in the first T20 international in
Cardiff had a more dramatic impact than most. By dropping a simple
chance offered by Eoin Morgan, of all people, when the batsman had
just 13, he allowed England to run away with a game that had
previously been in the balance. Shoaib also fumbled a routine ball in
the field to gift England a boundary. In a low-scoring contest, such
margins are vital.
Those few minutes swung the game back in England’s favour. A
mid-innings wobble had left them tottering on 62 for 5 after 10
overs. Had Akhtar held on to the chance offered by Morgan, England
would have been 72 for six and Pakistan would have been into the
lower-order of a team that – without Kevin Pietersen – looked one
batsman short.
It wasn’t Pakistan’s only lapse in the field. Kamran Akmal reprieved
Yardy when the batsman had 13, while a number of run-out chances were
also squandered. When Shahid Afridi admitted afterwards that Pakistan
needed to spend more time practising their fielding, it was hard to
wonder why they haven’t done so previously. It’s hardly breaking news
that it’s poor, is it?
As it was, however, the two World T20 winners, Morgan (38 from 36
balls, with six fours) and Yardy (35 from 27 with four balls), added
67 from 43 balls to secure victory for England. Winning by five
wickets and 2.5 overs is, in this format of the game, is a comfortable
margin.
Pakistan had started pretty. Despite being inserted on a slow wicket,
Shahzaib Hasan and Mohammad Yousuf prospered against the seam bowlers.
As so often in the World T20, it was England’s spinners, Yardy and
Swann, who stemmed the flow of runs. They conceded just 35 runs from
their eight overs, at one stage delivering five overs without
conceding a boundary. By contrast, Saeed Ajmal, Pakistan’s specialist
spinner, conceded 30 from just three overs. Only a couple of dropped
chances from Tim Bresnan and Luke Wright blotted an otherwise
excellent performance in the field from England.
In many ways, it was as if nothing has changed since the Caribbean
World T20. As captain Paul Collingwood put it later, England have “a
strategy that seems to be working.” The bowling attack was the same
as that employed in the final, while Davies, who kept nicely and ran
between the wickets impressively, showed enough to suggest he has a
decent future at this level.
In contrast, Pakistan were once again below par in the field, though
Mohammed Yousuf, running backwards from mid-on to dismiss Bopara, took
an excellent catch.
Still, at least the match took place. At the end of one of the most
controversial weeks in cricket’s recent history, the taking part was
more important than the result.

You couldn’t completely escape the match fixing controversy however. Shahid Afridi, while attempting to take the heat out of the situation dismissed Yasir Hameed comments by saying ‘he may be 30/31, but mentally he is 15 or 16. He is unreliable.’