It has taken something special to wrest my rotting corpse from its pleasant slumber and dust the cobwebs from my cosseted corner of cyberspace.

Truth be told, jotting down thoughts on cricket had become for me rather uninspiring and somewhat tedious so I stopped writing, despite the uncomfortable regular probing of the nagging finger of guilt. (You’ve felt it I’m sure, it prods the bone just behind your arse)

I had firmly (and I thought permanently) cocked my leg and marked out my territory on the backseat of the Post Ashes Bandwagon, along with all the other hoodlums. With the euphoric memory of an Ashes win leaving ever thinner vapour trails, so too my blogging impetus turned impotent.

And yet today I woke with the urge to write. And as I feed that urge, the tips of my fingers tingle as I tap the keys of my laptop and organise my thoughts on the second test at Old Trafford.

So, with thoughts duly organised and the password to my blog salvaged from the back of a pack of Marlboros carefully lodged behind my sofa, I stride boldly into the second Test against Pakistan.

Old Trafford, July 2006.
England Vs Pakistan, Second Test.

What struck me most about this match were the paradoxes it projected as the game unfolded. Much will be written (mainly positive and some negative I imagine) about the fact that only 2 bowlers took wickets in both Pakistan innings, and yet for me at least this game was an absolute triumph of teamwork. The bowling statistics don’t reflect what I saw as the resurgence of team order and unity.

I say team ‘order’ because of the belatedly palpable decision to give poor Andrew Strauss some surety of tenure as captain. The extra confidence Strauss felt walking out to the coin toss, may only have been a smidgeon more than he felt at Lords, and yet as with so many things in life, it often only takes a few grains of salt to tip the scales in the opposite direction.

For this match, Strauss was chief, and it showed both in his resolute 42 and his largely positive and aggressive decision making.

No matter how good the members of the team may be, every unit needs an empowered leader to set the tone (as well as the field placings), and one can’t help feel that the England management were late to latch on to this most basic of man-management concepts. There’s not a soul I know that relishes in wearing third generation hand-me-downs.

The match boasted a breakthrough performance from Monty Panesar, whose bowling is thankfully in serious danger of usurping his caricature like popularity. Panesar has been a crowd favourite for his misgivings rather than his talent and I sense a watershed with this game.

Panesar looked a genuine strike threat and got just reward for his efforts. If he demonstrates that he can reproduce the turn and bounce he created at Old Trafford on a variety of different surfaces, then Ashley Giles’ will be nervously contemplating his chances of an automatic place in any England line-up. One could argue (and I do) that Giles’s more rounded talents should give way to Panesar’s more incisive bowling when the conditions dictate a solitary spinner for the side.

In this game though, Panesar was though aided by more than the pitch, with Steve Harmison’s rekindled hostility unsettling the Pakistani batsmen who consequently spent much of the match seeking reward from the respite they misguidedly hoped would come from Monty’s end. More fool them, and more credit to Panesar for capitalising on the opportunity.

England’s performances since injury started to rampantly ravage the squad, have stuttered as the “replacements” and “stand-ins” have performed to the level of expectation created by their labels up until this game.

With the England camp having a constant beady eye on a successful Ashes defence, then this game will have done a lot to prove the assertion that the depth in English cricket can be managed well enough to field a world class side that does not have to be a mirror image of last years bus riding heroes.

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