Pakistan won 2-0 with players who are from the same streets and fields as those who watch and follow them,which is the exact opposite of EnglandThere was something particularly striking, and indeed particularly splendid, and approximately the moment it became clear,beyond even the bounds of sallow, sleepless, or toast-crumbed,pyjama-clad, mid-morning existential delusion, and that England’s cricketers were going to lose the final Test against Pakistan in Sharjah.
Ten minutes into the fifth day’s play Yasir Shah trapped Joe Root lbw playing back to his fourth ball of the day and England’s faint hopes of chasing down an unlikely target duly evaporated. It wasn’t so much the ball itself that stood out,a weird, skiddy full-pitched leg-break that rapped Root on the ankle as he jabbed his bat down, or bent double in that familiar attitude of betrayal by the grubber,the look of a batsman who strode to the crease expecting a handshake and found himself kneed in the guts instead.
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Source: theguardian.com