Pakistan v England 2012

Yesterday, Younis and Azhar batted absolutely brilliantly, refuted any DRS issues....use your bat!

Younis gone pretty early today, 256/3 right now, with Azhar on 94.

Lead of 300 or so will be tough to chase, but there is plenty of time left in the game.

This is what test cricket is all about, I love it

England have been bowled out for 252 today and Pakistan have won the 3rd test by 71 runs. This is only the second time in the last 100 years that a team has won a test match after being bowled out for less than 100 as Pakistan were here.

It wasn't easy to bat,but by no means impossible to stay at the crease & score runs,2 or 2 1/2 runs/over is quite acceptable.Still batsmen played bad shots & it wasn't always a case of being got out by a good ball.With a little more application England could have won the 2nd & 3rd Tests.

After the disappointment of the Tests, we now have the ODIs and T20s.

Buttler and Briggs in both squads with a returning Bresnan. Hales comes in for Trott and Cook for the T20s. Pietersen will also open in the ODIs with Kieswetter moving down the order to No.5 where he has been batting recently for the England Lions in Sri Lanka.

The Ego must deliver,selectors have again bent over backward by giving him a crack at opening.Cook not in my best ODI XI.How will they score at 5-6 runs/over when they struggled to score at better than 2 in the Tests.If I was Pakistan I'd have Afridi as one of 4 spinners & bowl 35+ overs of slow bowling.

I think they will have Ajmal, Afridi and Hafeez for sure along with Gul and Wahab Riaz. I expect Umar Akmal will be back in the limited over sides to give an extra run scoring boost in the middle order.

If god forbid, KP is out really early (first 5 overs) then they should be flexible and promote someone aggressive to go in instead of Trott, who of course has a very good average (over 50) but his strike rate combined with Cook is hardly scary for the bowling side to come up against.

Today's scores in Abu Dhabi: England 260/7 (Cook 137, Bopara 50, Saeed Ajmal 5/43), Pakistan 130 all out (Finn 4/34, Patel 3/26, Swann 2/19). England won by 130 runs.

Good game from England, nice to see drink carriers of Finn and Bopara do something today. Hats off to Cook for his ton also. Bring on the next game, where we should play the same team I would think, any idea if Bresnan would be fit for it though?

Nothing much has changed,England continue to bowl & field well.Take away Cook's ton Bopara played well but should have been given out LBW early.Ajmal & now Afridi will continue to trouble England.The Ego & Morgan both look totally out of nick.Pakistan's fielding & batting aren't strong,so it could be a more even contest.Good toss won by Cook (won 16/19).

Cook won toss...

England batting and are 20 for none