Alastair Cook praises Pakistan’s fight back at Abu Dhabi

England opening batsman, Alastair Cook has admired Pakistan’s fight back in the ongoing second Test at Abu Dhabi.

The Englishmen were in a commanding position with 166/1 on the board. Cook and Jonathan Trott were respectively batting on 94 and 74, when the Green Shirt made a strong comeback into the game.

The Pakistani bowlers grabbed four wickets in the last session of the second day, as England closed the day on 207 for the loss of five wickets.

A superb performance by the Men in Green hampered England to go for a massive first innings lead.

Although, Cook was impressed with Pakistan’s excellent bowling show in the third session, he believes the tourists have not thrown away the advantage.

"I wouldn’t say it’s (advantage) thrown away. We’re only 50 behind and we’ve got (Ian) Bell and (Matt) Prior, who both are excellent players, at the crease now and our lower order did well in Dubai," said Cook.

The 27-year-old failed to score his 20^th Test hundred, and was dismissed by Saeed Ajmal on 94. Cook was slightly disappointed over missing out on his century; however, he expressed delight over regaining his form.

"In the ideal world, we’d be sitting here two or three (wickets) down but that’s what cricket is. It does go up and down and credit to Pakistan, who bowled well in that last half hour. It’s been a really good day for Test cricket. Obviously the last half
hour turned it from a very good day to a good day for us," described the left-handed opener who captains England in the 50-over format of the game.

He further added, "When you know there are only 20 minutes left, you can really attack the opposition, knowing they can’t attack you. Obviously they jumped in very well then. It’s always frustrating when you’ve worked so hard to get to a milestone and to fall
short of it but it beats last week, when I got three and five.”

On Abu Dhabi wicket, the classy left-hander said that pitch is quite different from the one at Dubai.

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Jan 27 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry