Curse of the capital continues to haunt England as they struggle against Pakistan in final Test at the Oval
England lost to Australia last year at both Lord’s and the Kia Oval last year - a double they look certain to concede again, this time to Pakistan
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Your support makes all the difference.What is it about England and London Tests - they seem to make a right horlicks of them. Last year against Australia, they lost at both Lord’s and the Kia Oval, a double they look certain to concede again, this time to Pakistan, after ending the third day of the final Investec Test deep in trouble.
Could it be that, with only one man in the team from a London club, Steven Finn, they feel the capital is a hostile place? Certainly London’s pro-Remain stance in the recent referendum is at odds with that of Alastair Cook, the England captain who, perhaps surprisingly for a man married to a farmer, voted for Brexit.
For much of the 20th century, England’s record at Lord’s was abysmal, especially against the Aussies. The explanation proffered at the time was that teams were so inspired by playing at the home of cricket they raised their game above the home side’s. This was then discounted when England teams began to win there, after which there followed a period where draws seemed to dominate before the results reverted once more back to English woe.
The Oval, by contrast, nearly always concludes a Test series. Farewell’s, sackings and retirements are not uncommon here, which makes it a place of foreboding. It also piles the pressure on to teams if the series has not been resolved, and while Pakistan can only draw level should they win this final match, victory for them would deny England the series win that would take them back to No 1 in the Test rankings. So far, beneath the gas holder, it is a pressure that appears to have afflicted Alastair Cook’s team more than Misbah-ul-Haq’s.
Fatigue, at the fag end of the season, might also be a factor shaping results here. Exhaustion certainly affects players in different ways with England particularly prone to its deleterious effects. Indeed, they have failed to win the final Test in any of their last six series, though obviously not all of those have been at the Oval.
Then there is that old chestnut, complacency. If that has been a factor this time for England, after their brilliant win in the previous match at Edgbaston, it shouldn’t have been.
Pakistan depart from the script more than any other team in world cricket, alternating between cold and hot like a defrosting vindaloo. But that needs to be guarded against not taken for granted as looks to have been the case here. No matter how fragile Pakistan look one moment they aways have someone who can pull out a performance to floor you, as Younus Khan and Asad Shafiq have done here.
Not many batsmen get promoted up the order after making a pair as Shafiq did in Birmingham and ever fewer still make that journey and then score a hundred in their next innings.
Likewise Younus, whose top score in the series before his 218 here, was 33. As a veteran campaigner, Younus knew he owed his team a score and fine batsman that he is, he delivered at a vital moment. What’s more he made it a big one, the fifth time he has made a Test score in excess of 150.
As Pakistan piled up the runs and built up their lead, many began to question Cook’s decision to bat on the first day after he had won the toss. Certainly the pitch looked more benign when James Anderson and Stuart Broad toiled away on Friday and Saturday, but there was no evidence on Thursday that batting first was a mistake.
Lateral movement, the only reason you would bowl first, was almost non-existent and while there was some extra bounce for Wahab Riaz, who was again among the wickets in England’s second innings after dismissing Cook, batting did not look fraught with difficulty.
Where England, and indeed Pakistan, have both been found wanting, is in taking their catches. The Oval is a notorious ground for seeing the ball out of the crowd. Many a fine fielder has floored a dolly or two here or, worse still, let the catch go begging after not picking it up. But while that might explain the odd chance being missed, seven have gone down so far, four of them fluffed by England.
When the pitch is not offering enough to create regulate chances you cannot drop that many catches and hope to stay competitive, especially when one of them, Shafiq, goes on to get a hundred.
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