With Andrew Flintoff's retirement joining the ongoing corruption enquiries and the county championship finale at the top of the agenda, England's ninth match of the summer against an under-strength Pakistan side is in danger of feeling like a sideshow.
But Surrey say they have sold virtually every one of their 23,000 tickets, so the atmosphere in Kennington should be lively enough – if a little chilly given the 1pm start."It is a bit frustrating what's happened to the back end of this summer," Graeme Swann said on Thursday, in a tactful allusion to the spot-fixing scandal. "But if we can get a nice boozy crowd in here, doing the Mexican wave as normal, then hopefully we can focus on the cricket again.
It has been a successful, if arduous, summer for the England side, who have already disposed of Bangladesh in Tests and one-dayers, Australia in one-dayers and Pakistan in Tests and Twenty20s. They hold a 2-0 lead in this 50-over series with three matches left to play. "Pakistan have shown a hell of a lot of fight in the last two games," Swann said. "Especially in the last one, where we aided them somewhat with our schoolboy fielding display. To chase down 295 at Headingley was a good test."
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