SHARJAH // Two weeks after making a double century on his reappearance after five years in the wilderness, and with the final match of the series delicately poised, Shoaib Malik chose to announce his Test retirement on Tuesday night.
The all-rounder said he wants to focus on the limited-overs game, in particular giving himself the best shot at playing in the 2019 World Cup in England.
He also suggested some selfless reasons, saying there are enough young cricketers in Pakistan worthy of their chance at this level.
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For all that, though, his timing seemed bizarre. He had just made a golden duck in Pakistan’s second innings, meaning he has managed 47 runs in the five innings since his 245 in Abu Dhabi in the first Test.
His fortunes with the ball had contrasted wildly to that, though. He harried England’s first innings to a close with figures of four for 33, the best of his 35-match Test career.
That meant he was Pakistan’s most successful bowler here, despite him being the least frequently used by captain Misbah-ul-Haq.
And his off-breaks will likely be an important weapon for the hosts, in the fourth innings of what is now his final Test. The Malik enigma is no closer to being solved, just as he makes his exit from this stage.
“I didn’t play Test cricket for five years, and those were the years I wanted to play Test cricket,” Malik said.
“Taking retirement from Test cricket after scoring a double hundred, I think this is the right time because we have some good youngsters knocking on the door.
“They can come in the team and get adjusted. Obviously there is disappointment because I didn’t get to play Test cricket for those five years, but this is part of life.”
Malik’s unexpected call capped another absorbing day, which had ended with Pakistan holding a lead of 72 with seven wickets left.
Mohammed Hafeez reached stumps undefeated on 97, but was reliant on the foibles of the Decision Review System for a life.
He was given out caught behind off James Anderson on two, but the decision was reversed by Paul Reiffel, the television official.
He made the most of his chance. In a Test where scoring has proved tricky, especially against England’s indefatigable pacemen Anderson and Stuart Broad, Hafeez was able to rise above.
His innings has included nine fours and three sixes so far. To give some context, Younis Khan’s fine-leg glance for four off Broad late in the day was the only other boundary a Pakistani batsman had managed in the innings.
Paul Radley’s session-by-session report
Earlier, Ben Stokes had come out to bat at No 11 for England despite barely being able to hold the bat because of the effects of a collarbone injury that will prevent him from either bowling or fielding again in the Test.
He was out for nought, but it is possible the 10 runs Broad eked out at the other end while he was there could count for something in the final count up.
“He showed a lot of guts and character, exactly what everyone else in the team would do,” James Taylor, who top scored for England with 76, said of Stokes.
“He is a tough boy. He showed guts to try to battle it out, and you never know how important those 10 runs that him and Broady put on might be. That was massive for the team and it shows what we are about.”
pradley@thenational.ae
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WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
The specs
Price, base / as tested Dh100,000 (estimate)
Engine 2.4L four-cylinder
Gearbox Nine-speed automatic
Power 184bhp at 6,400rpm
Torque 237Nm at 3,900rpm
Fuel economy, combined 9.4L/100km
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
2018 ICC World Twenty20 Asian Western Regional Qualifier
Saturday results
Qatar beat Kuwait by 26 runs
Bahrain beat Maldives by six wickets
UAE beat Saudi Arabia by seven wickets
Monday fixtures
Maldives v Qatar
Saudi Arabia v Kuwait
Bahrain v UAE
* The top three teams progress to the Asia Qualifier
Ways to control drones
Countries have been coming up with ways to restrict and monitor the use of non-commercial drones to keep them from trespassing on controlled areas such as airports.
"Drones vary in size and some can be as big as a small city car - so imagine the impact of one hitting an airplane. It's a huge risk, especially when commercial airliners are not designed to make or take sudden evasive manoeuvres like drones can" says Saj Ahmed, chief analyst at London-based StrategicAero Research.
New measures have now been taken to monitor drone activity, Geo-fencing technology is one.
It's a method designed to prevent drones from drifting into banned areas. The technology uses GPS location signals to stop its machines flying close to airports and other restricted zones.
The European commission has recently announced a blueprint to make drone use in low-level airspace safe, secure and environmentally friendly. This process is called “U-Space” – it covers altitudes of up to 150 metres. It is also noteworthy that that UK Civil Aviation Authority recommends drones to be flown at no higher than 400ft. “U-Space” technology will be governed by a system similar to air traffic control management, which will be automated using tools like geo-fencing.
The UAE has drawn serious measures to ensure users register their devices under strict new laws. Authorities have urged that users must obtain approval in advance before flying the drones, non registered drone use in Dubai will result in a fine of up to twenty thousand dirhams under a new resolution approved by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai.
Mr Ahmad suggest that "Hefty fines running into hundreds of thousands of dollars need to compensate for the cost of airport disruption and flight diversions to lengthy jail spells, confiscation of travel rights and use of drones for a lengthy period" must be enforced in order to reduce airport intrusion.
SOUTH%20KOREA%20SQUAD
%3Cp%3E%0D%3Cstrong%3EGoalkeepers%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EKim%20Seung-gyu%2C%20Jo%20Hyeon-woo%2C%20Song%20Bum-keun%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EDefenders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EKim%20Young-gwon%2C%20Kim%20Min-jae%2C%20Jung%20Seung-hyun%2C%20Kim%20Ju-sung%2C%20Kim%20Ji-soo%2C%20Seol%20Young-woo%2C%20Kim%20Tae-hwan%2C%20Lee%20Ki-je%2C%20Kim%20Jin-su%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EMidfielders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EPark%20Yong-woo%2C%20Hwang%20In-beom%2C%20Hong%20Hyun-seok%2C%20Lee%20Soon-min%2C%20Lee%20Jae-sung%2C%20Lee%20Kang-in%2C%20Son%20Heung-min%20(captain)%2C%20Jeong%20Woo-yeong%2C%20Moon%20Seon-min%2C%20Park%20Jin-seob%2C%20Yang%20Hyun-jun%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStrikers%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EHwang%20Hee-chan%2C%20Cho%20Gue-sung%2C%20Oh%20Hyeon-gyu%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
ULTRA PROCESSED FOODS
- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns
- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;
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- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
- many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
