LEEDS: Mickey Arthur, Pakistan’s head coach, said his side were paying the price for posting a “substandard” first-innings score, after England took a 128-run lead after the second day of the Headingley Test, reported ICC.
After their emphatic nine-wicket win over England in the first Test at Lord’s, Pakistan came to Leeds for the second and final Test, where they were bowled out for 174 in 48.1 overs.
England nosed ahead on a rain-affected second day, ending on 302/7 on Saturday, 2 June.
Arthur urged his side to apply themselves the way they did in the previous Test. “If you win the toss and bat, you’ve got to put the opposition under pressure. You’ve got to score 300 plus,” he said.
“We need to go back and do what we did at Lord’s. We showed a lot of patience and a lot of discipline.
“We committed to attack, we committed to defence. On wickets like this, we speak three words: discipline, intent and technique. We want them to attack and defend with intent. But, we need to make those decisions a bit clearer.”
Arthur asked his bowlers to wrap up the England innings quickly and bounce back with the bat in their second innings.
“We wanted England’s lead to be around 120. But, that is now where we sit at the moment. We thought if we get 120 [as deficit], we can put 300. Which means 180 [as a target for England]. We needed to hang on to that chance. We need to hang on to every chance,” he said.
“We are certainly not going to think tonight that we have been played out of the game. We need to wrap them up quickly and we need to bat really well in the third innings.”
