Test Match Special - Day 5: England still lead the series as 2nd Test ends in a draw

Episode Date: August 17, 2020

Simon Mann presents from the Ageas Bowl where the 2nd Test between England and Pakistan finished in a draw. There was more rain but we finally got some play in the afternoon. England reached 110-4 in reply to Pakistan's 236 before the teams agreed to end proceedings. The result means Joe Root's side still lead 1-0 in the series. Michael Vaughan, Azhar Mahmood and Aatif Nawaz dissect what little cricket we saw across the five days and debate how the two sides will approach the final Test which starts later this week. Jonathan Agnew gets reaction from Root and Pakistan skipper Azhar Ali about the match and how the sport can get round the bad light issues that affected this Test, while Andy Zaltzman provides some statistical analysis including how England's declaration score compares with other low totals seen in previous matches.

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from BBC Radio 5 Live. I'm Simon Mann and welcome to the Test Match Special podcast looking back on the final day of the second test at the Aegeas Bowl, a rain-affected draw. We'll hear from Michael Vaughan, Atif Nawaz, Azamamamud, and we'll get some reaction from Azar Ali and Joe Root. You're listening to the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 live. So, this second test match has come to a predictable,

close in a draw it's not been a great game it's not been a game that's been that well received from spectators watching on and listeners as well from from outside

there's been some criticism flying around about how much cricket we've had or how little cricket we've had we did have some cricket today and play starting at 3.20 and England moving on to 110 for four declared in reply to Pakistan's 236 Route 9 not out at the end but they get to score.

It was a nice half century from Zach Crawley making 53. He would have taken something out of this final day. And also Mohammed Abbas, who bow beautifully picked up a couple of wickets and one wicket for Yassir Shah as well. How do you reflect on this test match, Asa? It's been very frustrating. You know, we can't control the weather. But overall, we saw some good cricket.

I think from Pakistan point of view, it's a really positive thing to see Rizwan. played so well. He showed some discipline. Abid Ali as well. He learned from the last test match. He played the ball really late. And it was good 60 from him. And Rezwan, a young guy playing first time in England in this condition. It was a tough condition. We saw ball is doing a bit today as well. But he showed some temperament, class and good discipline in his betting, which is really good sign for Pakistan. And if you see the ballers, I think they've done okay. They've done all right.

In this condition, you know, we saw a ball was hooping around and doing all sort of things. But I think they show some good discipline, good line and length, which is good sign. The conditions in which Pakistan batted, are they as difficult as you can get in test cricket, say, away from a fifth day spinning pitch in Asia? Oh, yeah, definitely.

Because normally when you come to England and you'd see the seeming condition, but we saw the ball was 80 hours old and he was hooping around and it wasn't easy for the batsman to play that some of the delivery was unplayable and they managed to play really well in the end put some good total on the board

because of Barber, Rezwan and Abbot I thought they must be happy and proud what they have achieved in this match How about how Pakistan bowl today with just a few sort of dents into that and batting line up? I think they definitely give them a bit more boost and credit. You know, like we saw some good partnership from Sibley and Crowley.

And after that, you know, Pakistan managed to get three wickets today, which is really a good sign. And all of the bowlers, they've done their work. You know, they've had the match practice bowling in the middle, so which always good. Michael Vaughn is here as well. Michael, how will you reflect on the second test match at the Aegeas Bowl in the summer of, I say summer.

We are still in summer. It hasn't felt like it over the last few days. In the summer of 2020, I've enjoyed parts of it. I enjoyed the last two hours. I think the cricket that we've seen has been exciting. I think the pitch has played a part in that because there's a little bit of movement scene. I think Pakistan, for that two hours out in the middle there,

will take a great deal of positivity because the pitch played it probably its best because of the sun was shining. When the clouds are around, we know it's going to be zipping around and they have a tap that can clearly put England under a huge amount of pressure but today with the sun shining

the pitch played nice and then all of a sudden and Abbas came back on and he's a wonderful bowler just getting the ball to see him either way that dismissal of Olipoke to Yassir Shah I think Pakistan over the course of the five days has probably taken a few more positives

but you start afresh on Friday I think batting first will be quite important I think that little spell there showed that you know, this pitch here, an understandable the amount of wickets that they've been asked to prepare here, looks a wicket, that might take some spin and some uneven bounce.

Time for some reaction now. Jonathan has got Pakistan's captain with him. I have, as a rally is here. Well, I suppose actually you'll be happy with the way that it ended in the end. Take some wickets. Obviously, it was frustrating. You know, weather is in no one's control.

Obviously, it's been raining every day and the light hasn't been very good as well. So, yeah, it was first rating for the players, but, you know, I thought it would have been a very close game again. It would have been a very fantastic test match set up. But unfortunately, the weather was the winner at the end. Do you feel you struck a few blows there, taking those wickets this afternoon? Well, obviously, we knew it was always going to be a draw,

but we wanted to come out and bowl according to the condition. We wanted to make sure that we get enough wickets and we bowl in right areas. So we wanted to do all the things we would do. in any conditions or any condition of the match but obviously we knew back of the mind that it's not going to be a result oriented but we wanted

to make a statement. Were you pleased to the way you batted in those very difficult conditions first? I'm proud of the boys because the condition we always feel that in England first couple of hours or first things never it's always something for the bowler but

as a batting unit we always take up the challenges which is good sign and boys always fought hard in the middle. Obviously, we have a huge respect for the bowling attack England have got. It's about more than thousand, more than thousand, between Anderson and Broad, and a lot of experience there, and also likes of vokes and other bowlers, whoever they play as Sam Cairn, whoever, they're quality bowling attacks. So playing against them in the conditions, especially the first couple of days with the clouds around,

ball was swimming around, and I think boys stuck to it. Obviously, you need luck in these conditions, but the most heartening thing is everyone was fighting. There's been a lot of talk about the bad light. Do you have any thoughts about what can be done? Better floodlights or pink ball, people are saying. Have you got any thoughts as an international captain, how things could be better?

Well, obviously, it's tough, you know, as a cricket expectator, you know, you feel at home and you say, like, cricket should be gone. People who are outside, they would obviously want to, you know, see the game being played. But I think umpires and the other authorities would want to play safety first because they are the one under pressure. They are the one who have to do it in the middle. So I think the empires and the referee would have, you know, think about the players first. And I think they're doing the great job.

Well, Asa, thank you. I'm sorry about the weather. I can only apologize on behalf of the whole country for how it's been done here. We'll see on Friday. Yes, yes, thank you. Thank you. Azar Ali is here. I think I might get a quick chat with Joe Root. He's going to come over as well.

There's setting up beside me here. So it's all happening like clockwork at the moment. So a friendly slap on the back to his opposite number there. And here comes Joe. He's got a big smile in his face. I don't know. It was never going to be a sort of happy ending after all that, was it? No, and it would have been nice to have like a result possible at the end of today.

but on a surface like that, it was impossible really. Credit to Pakistan, I think in the first innings they've probably got more than we would have liked them to and got themselves in a position where they were pretty safer once we had all that weather. So we knew we had to just turn up today, try and be as professional as possible, put those partnerships on. And it's an experience in the bank for moving forward for a young batting group at the top of the order. Something different for them to deal with on a challenging surface. a huge amount of confidence that partnership in particular.

It's never easy batting in that situation, is it? No, and especially when it's seeming around like that against probably one of the best bowls at exposing those conditions and exploiting a wicket like that. So credit to Zach and Stivers, Zach in particular, I thought, played

great fluency on a wicket, which was very hard to feel in on. I think he was very good at latching on to any sort of loose deliveries and I thought it played extremely well. You must have had some chats, I'd have thought, between the cards or whatever about bad light and what can be done.

My word of me, we've been talking about this for 50 years and longer, and it's never really been solved to everyone's satisfaction. What are your thoughts on bad light and what you can play in and what you can't play in and where you draw the line? Pink balls, bigger floodlights. There's been all sorts of suggestions around. There's so many different ways you could look at it.

I think with the balls if the test championship use the same ball everywhere that would make that easier in terms of changing it around I think I think the jukeball for example is a lot darker than the Cuckaboo ball naturally maybe like a very light red

ball and I think the standard of floodlights have got to be right of a minimum standard if you like but I think as much as we can we've got to protect the game as it is I don't want to change it too much you don't want to drastically change the conditions because of an hour's, potentially only an hour's bad light in a five-day game.

This has been a very extreme this week where you're not going to see many games like this where the other thing as well, maybe starting earlier, starting at half-ten if we lose some play. With everyone here too. Yeah, exactly. That's a possibility to look at in the future. It's something that happens elsewhere in the world and it doesn't happen here. So you'd start the game with a different ball or you'd think of changing a ball? Well, potentially start the game with a light ball full stop.

And keep it. Probably one with no seam on it as well for as bad as that. It would be nice. They're not having everything. No, but, you know, so have a look at something like, I'm sure they can trial it and see where you can take it from there.

But I do think we found ourselves in a week where we had very strange circumstances. I don't think there'd be many games where Bad Light plays such a part as this five days has. Well, it's still 1-0 up. Yep. And so thoughts, I know you've probably even started thinking about Friday yet, but can you in any way

imagine what sort of side you might put out there? Obviously, attack-wise. I mean, can you see change? or rotations or... We'll have to see where we're out in the next couple of days. And thankfully, as we have done all summer, we've got fantastic options available to us. We can have a look at the surface

and see if it looks any different to this one and see if there's a balance of attack that we really fancy on any given pitch. Of course, we'll go into every game, as always, is looking to win it and make sure we do everything we can to try and get 2-0 in the series. But, yeah, it's nice to be in this position going into the final game

1-0 up day off tomorrow day off tomorrow yeah I think so good well good luck enjoy it Cheers thank you too Thank you Joe very much indeed for talking to us There we go Mahawad was won as the man of the match

So that's a very exciting way that he batted And so we've heard from the two captains Again it's Simon There's no obvious solution That light ball is quite an interesting one He was talking about the The Cuccarborough ball Being naturally a lighter colour

To the Duke Whether they play with that all over the place but then as we know our English bowl is very much cherish that Duke ball they bowl very well with it so I'm not sure over the course of these five days with all the light and the weather that there's been

lots of suggestions but no obvious solutions no the other thing as well I think it's a really legitimate point that Joe Root made is you do not get many matches like this weather-wise in England I mean it has been a freak the last few days with the overcast

conditions and the bad light just, you know, the grey sitting over the ground. I mean, normally, if you do get cloud, it's high enough for the floodlights to take effect, but it's been really unusual conditions. And so, you know, do you make a radical change or what might seem to be a radical change just because of what you might call an outlier test match?

I mean, that's something to... Perhaps it'll focus minds. Yeah. I mean, I think bad light, though, as a general, has to be a thing of the past. And my mind always goes back to that match in Abu Dhabi where we played five tough days of cricket, and at 20 to 6,

the players walked off for Bad Light with England needing 20 to win and there had four wickets left and you think, can that be right for the game of cricket? I mean, you sort of accept it because you know the history of the game but it just felt, it just didn't feel right

that something like Bad Light in a situation like that had the winning hand if you like. Thanks very much, Jonathan. Plenty more from Jonathan in the next test match, of course. Michael's still here, Artif is here and Andy Zaltzman has got some stats as well

about that declaration from England which was 110 for 4 declared. Yes, it's the lowest score at which a team has ever declared in a test in England, which previously was 111 by Australia in that oval test of 2013, 111 for 6 they declare when trying to set England in a chase that they are, again another game in which they all went off for bad light with the game tantalizingly poised at the end. So this is the lowest score at which a team has ever declared in a test in England. It ended up, I think, it's the ninth shortest test in terms of balls, bold, ever in this country. It's only the third drawn test in the last 43 in this country.

No sixes were hit in this test. That's only the second test anywhere since the start of 17, in which there had been no sixes hit. And the last one was the test here earlier in the summer against West Indies, which is a bit of a curious. And it's broken. Sam Curran's run of winning every single home test in which he's played. It has. You must have been getting so excited, though, when the score got to 110. We were drawing towards the end of the test match with that record looming. It's been an exciting day for everyone, Simon. Well, we've had some cricket.

Michael, what did you make of Joe Roots comments there about light and balls and starting times and things like that? Yeah, I like the starting times. I think that would be sensible. Clearly the game needs to find a club ball that works in all conditions. I know this week has been very different with the conditions, But let's be honest, for a long time now in test match cricket, the light's been taken far too soon. We've talked pretty much about it every single test match this summer from the start against the West Indus here to the games at Old Trafford.

But it's not just been this summer. It's been for a long period of time that we've all been frustrated. And when you've got lights, you need better lights. But I personally think that the game has to find a ball that's a right colour to be able to play on in all conditions. Rain you can't do anything about. I think covering at test venues I think we do have to look at that today

the covers weren't quite big enough Someone sent me a photograph of Sri Lanka earlier where they cover the whole ground when it rains Yeah it just seems very bizarre That there's so much money that is at stake in the game of cricket So much money from broadcasters, administration There's so much that's kind of angling towards what we're seeing and surely we just need to be a little bit more proactive

in terms of the covering. I have to say that the cricket that we have seen, I've really enjoyed, I think, the pitch here and the 22 yards. And, you know, the ground staff, I've had some stick this week, but let's give the ground a massive amount of credit because that is the kind of test match wicket I want to see because it gives something for everybody. If you get in as a batsman, you know, you've had to work hard,

but, you know, you can play your strokes on it. There's a spin ball, as we saw from Yassir Shah. There was a little bit there for him. the seam movement there for high qualified, skillful seam bowlers and has carried through to the keeper. Pretty much everything that you're requiring a test match wicket. So Friday, when we start again, we'll all arrive here knowing that when we see cricket,

it's going to be of a high standard because we've got two high-class seam bowling attacks and one leg spinner that looks like he enjoyed it this afternoon. He had a little smile on his face, almost as if just say, oh, I might enjoy Friday. Yeah. And you feel, actually, if the weather does behave itself, there will be a result between these two.

teams on, especially if the surface is going to be similar to the one which we've played on. How will you, your test match debut, Atif, how would you reflect on? I'm sorry about the, you know, the fact you had so little cricket to describe, but there we go, that's what happens. It's the game of test cricket. Well, there's a pleasure right away. It was lovely to be here and be a part of this team. And yeah, I mean, in terms of the cricket, as Michael said, the little that we saw of it was of such a high quality. It really wets your appetite for that last game because when they start playing it, hopefully, you can only really hope that the ground staff, the umpires,

everybody will respond to the criticism by being a little bit more positive in that third game and we get to see more cricket and you know we don't have the any reason to be overly critical of anybody and you know we didn't really get to hear directly from the ground staff or the umpires and you know it would have been nice because you know it's possible that we're not party to some reason that we didn't get some cricket in so we felt that frustration it was never really you know curbed which it could have been had they given us some some insights but yeah i mean you'd hope that a less truncated test match you know more consistent action it will be even more disappointing for Pakistan than England.

Because England still retained that 1-0 lead. Pakistan's so close to that win in the first game. It will be even more frustrating now, knowing that they can't win the series. And the opposite would have been true right now. They wouldn't have been able to lose the series had this played out, and they just finished off that game. So they've got to try and put that nagging feeling

of underachievement behind them and come in and level the series. I must admit, though, I thought after the disappointment from Manchester, I expected England to blow them away here. And when I saw the ball moving as it did on day one and I saw a few early wickets, I was through, if Pakistan get beyond 150, I'll be surprised. But they showed a huge amount of skill.

Abid Adela at the top of the order, play beautifully. Babara Zam, you know, he's a class act in all conditions, really worked in method, leave, leave, leave and play on the on side. And Rizwan, for me, he's a firecracker. You know, he's the kind of cricketer that I'd love to have in my team because you know that he wants to be out there competing. He doesn't mind chirping, and he knows he's going to have to take it. And what he played this week was in England that I didn't think he could play

because he played with great skill and control for a long period and all of a sudden he had to play a few shots and he did so. And that two, 30, 40, whatever they got, was very, very competitive on that kind of wicket. And if they come with the same discipline and mindset on Friday, with that ball in attack, I don't think there'll be any changes from Pakistan. The one change that I would make, I'd go back to Shadip Khan. I just think he offers more to the team with his legsmen,

particularly now they've seen Yassi's shot. So poor old forward alarm. Yeah, he goes, I'm sorry. He'd have to manoeuvre to one side. Purely because Shadab Khan's record in England with the bat is very good. And also, having seen Yassir Shah Bowl on the wicket, he did get a little bit of a spin, surely he'd want a second spin option. Fielding, you know, what Shadab Khan brings to the field.

It's going to be exciting because I think England, no, and in the heart of hearts, they knew at Old Trafford, and it was that one outstanding partnership that this Pakistan team have got 20 wickets on any wicket, and we've seen here there's movement and this seam. So, of course, they'll fancy getting 20 wickets, even on a flat wicket, the flattest wickets in the world. Pakistan know they can get 20 wickets.

So that's why Friday, we arrive, hope the sun shines. I think we're being for an absolute classic. What do England do? Do they bring back Joffar Archer for Sam Cairn? They could, yeah, and that'd be an option. You know, I was surprised that they didn't go with Joffa again this week. I presume Jimmy Anderson wouldn't play in the second test and come back for the third test.

I can't imagine that they'll be getting the ball out of Jimmy's hand for Friday's start. Yeah, I think that would be a fair option To bring in someone that's a bit quicker Again, you look at what Pakistan got in the first Inns realistically if you've been ultra-critical Of the England side, they dropped some catches And they should have really bowed Pakistan out for 170, 180 So, and there was that period where Rizwan started to hit the ball about

And the field spread So as much as it's been a draw I think we've taken a few things from this week To take into the last test match What would Pakistan not want England to do in terms of the constitution of their pace attack, Atif, do you think would you think they wouldn't like England

to bring back Archer, therefore they should? I don't know, Arch is obviously, you know, for a lot of people the most exciting bowler in world cricket right now so, you know, him playing would be really really exciting just from a fan perspective, but I think the Pakistani batsmen are in a unique position where they've got all these 90-mile-nour-plus bowlers in their squad, and there's eight fast bowlers

in this 28-man touring party, each quicker than the last, you know, and when he consider Mohamed Abbas is the slowest of the bunch, and a bunch of them go into the 90s, and Imran Khan's been cranking up the pace as well in the T20 warm-up games that they've been having. I don't think it's the pace that's going to worry them. It's the reputation and weight that Archer carries. There was one ball.

There was one ball. Mahbara ball to Joe Root, and it was on a length, and it flew past his right shoulder. Can you imagine 90-odd miles an hour of Joffar Archer coming from, what, seven foot? And we saw the spell against the Westonies on that last afternoon. I'd be playing Joffa on this kind of wicket on Friday. to the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. You can watch highlights on today at the test

on the BBC IPlayer or website. There's Bob Willis Trophy commentary on Five Live Sports Extra on Tuesday and then we're back on air 10.25 a.m. on Friday for the third and final test of the series. BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.