What a comeback!

Very well done on Pakistan's part. I just turned on the telly and Shoaib runs in to dismiss Steve Harmison off of a beauty. It was one hell of a game I must say. Splendid work by Danish Kaneria, he will be the key for Pakistan on subcontinental pitches and he will have to figure into any visiting team's plans from now on. He has proved he can run with the best of them and has done an absolutely fantastic job with the ball. He has been on the mark the whole test and when the pitch did start turning on the fifth day he made hay. He stuck to the basics and bowled a few odd balls from his tricks basket and he had maximum returns. It is also important to look at Pakistan's seam attack. They seemed to be coming together much better in the 2nd innings than in the first. Shoaib Akhtar, Shabbir Ahmed and Mohamed Sami came good by chipping in with wickets and most importantly they kept the pressure on throughout the day.

Pakistan is a side that thrives on confidence. If they are confident they do really well and if they are down on it they go down very quickly. They are a very emotional team and it will be a heck of a job for Bob Woolmer to keep their emotions in check and make sure that games that are won and lost are kept in perspective.

England had a couple of highlights in the game such as of course the 193 of Marcus Trescothick in the first innings. A fantastic captain's knock on the 2nd and 3rd days. He did what he could but as he mentioned in the post-match interview "We could have been more clinical". That is saying a lot. England had it but they let it go. He also mentioned that they won the test 4 days out of 5 but lost the last day. This is the story of test cricket. Sides that may be good and consistent all year round, they come in and dominate the test match but lose on crucial occasions and that undoes all the hard work. It is extremely important that a test match is played session-by-session and won session-by-session. England needed one good session in the morning and they didn't get it and that led to their downfall. If Bell and Strauss had kept it together for atleast the first and part of the 2nd then there would have been no way for England to lose.

All in all a hell of a game at Multan. I will be interested in the English response at Faisalabad.

"Good luck and Good morning from America"