England complete series win in front of dismal audience at Cardiff
By Gemma Wright
It comes to something when crowd noise has to be piped into the ground during an international T20. But that is what happened at the Swalec Stadium during the second and final match in this series. An embarrassingly poor crowd witnessed England skittle out Pakistan for 89, their lowest ever T20 total by 34 runs.
But it would be a shame if this game were only remembered for a flat atmosphere and dismal Pakistan performance.
England were very impressive. Their performance with the ball was disciplined, organised and, best of all, predictably good. Broad bowled with pace and hostility, Yardy – whose four-over spell cost just 10 – was typically mean, while Bresnan earned the man of the match award for his three for 10 in 22 balls.
By contrast, however, Pakistan were awful. Their captain, Shahid Afridi conceded that his side had played “very bad, immature cricket.” He also admitted that the three suspended players were part of the first 11 that he had in his mind before coming over to captain the limited-overs side.
England did not have things all their own way in reply. Kieswetter ran himself out after a bright start, while Bopara failed to take his chance and Collingwood’s run-drought continues. His 21 here was his highest score in 11 T20 innings and it was again left to Yardy and Morgan to see England home. They have now equalled the record for the most successive wins – 7 – in international T20 cricket.
Tougher challenges await, however. Pakistan are in chaos at present.
On the positive side, England’s bowling attack is looking strong, and with a player of Jimmy Anderson’s class on the bench, it says a lot about those on the pitch. Collingwood is pleased at how well his bowlers work together, and the way they have adapted to the change in the pitch here.
Once again, it seems the action on the pitch is of far less importance or significance than what is happening around it. It is a desperate situation when the World T20 champions play last years’ champions in England’s second T20 since their win in the Caribbean to a meagre audience of 5,821. It cannot even be argued that Pakistan fans have lost faith in their team, as it was not a predominantly English audience. With ticket prices starting at £30 for the ‘cheap’ seats, that works out at £10 per hour of cricket.
After the game, Collingwood commented that there is an overkill of international cricket. “I’ve been saying that for ten years. But you get on with it. We’re are not going to complain at the minute because we are going through some good times, but that will not always be the case.”
