After a mundane and pretty boring four days in Abu Dhabi lit up by a near amazing finish Pakistan and England ultimately head to Dubai all square in their ongoing Test series.
That means the pressure is on when the two sides meet in the second game of the series in Dubai on Thursday. Both teams begin the match knowing if they lose they will only be able to draw the series. A win will ensure they can’t lose the series so there is plenty to play for here.
Pakistan gave themselves a real scare with a horrendous batting performance in their second innings in Abu Dhabi. Whether they went out to bat thinking the job was done I’m not sure but they nearly paid the price for sure. They’ll need to guard against that complacency here.
Apart from spilling a couple of crucial catches and a costly no ball England’s performance in the opening game was near enough perfect and that will give them some real confidence going forward for the final two matches.
Pakistan looked a little toothless with the ball in the opening match but with Yasir Shah now back in their ranks and ready to go you would expect them to be a lot more dangerous. There is also talk that Bilal Asif could play even though his action is under testing. Azhar Ali has been ruled out.
England have a doubt over Ben Stokes who was ill on the lead up to the match and may not be risked with five days in the heat likely to be a hard ask. Chris Jordan could come in for him but England might play three spinners with Samit Patel being a like for like replacement in terms of batting ability as well as bowling.
The Dubai International Cricket Stadium plays host to the two sides for the next five days. This is the ninth time there will have been a Test on this ground. Pakistan have won four, drawn two and lost two of the previous eight while England have played here twice and lost both times.
On the overall scheme of things this is a lower scoring ground than Abu Dhabi. Alastair Cook says that a shadow which hangs over the ground early on keeps some moisture in the wicket which will keep the bowlers interested initially but come the end of the match I fully expect this to be a spinners paradise.
I’m not getting involved in the match itself purely because I’m not convinced that either batting line up can be trusted but there are three bets I like in the other markets.
The first two come in the player performance markets where one line is far too low and another looks quite high.
The high line centres around Mark Wood. His line is 82.5 which seems very high given he only managed 24pts in the first Test and only bowled 29 of the 208 overs England sent down in the match.
I don’t expect him to bowl many more overs here. I think this will be a match for the spinners especially if Samit Patel plays so I don’t expect Wood to take five wickets in the match neither do I see him going all that well with the bat so that line looks well out of his reach barring a pretty ridiculous spell of action.
One line that does look within reach is Yasir Shah’s one of 118.5. He has played two matches on this ground with six wickets and seven wickets in those games so he has covered this target purely with the ball in his previous matches here.
He may very well cover it with the ball again here too but if he doesn’t he will bat above two or three in the batting line up so he might be able to sneak the loose 18.5 off the total which means he’ll only need five wickets. However he covers it though I’m confident he will cover it.
Finally I’m going to go with a top batsman and that is Sarfraz Ahmed. Sarfraz is probably still stamping his authority on this position but he has three centuries in Test cricket and two of them have come on this ground.
They have been in the last two matches here so there is something that he seems to enjoy about this place and I’m very much a horses for courses man when it comes to top batsmen so at a double figure price I’ll chance the Pakistan keeper here.
Back M.Wood’s Performance – Under 82.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Paddy Power
Back Y.Shah’s Performance – Over 118.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Paddy Power
Back S.Ahmed Top Pakistan 1st Inns Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 13.00 with Ladbrokes
Blog cricket YTD: +17.96pts
