The second match of Pakistan versus the Australian team in the world T twenty was a perfect example of how you can be defeated by stick even if you hold a sword. Regardless of the problems faced by the Pakistani team right now, they have one of the best if not the best T twenty teams in the world. The bans had little effect on the team as Shoaib Malik was in one of the worst forms of his career.
Rana, although an excellent player of this format would have hardly made it to the playing 11, considering the bowling line up of the pre selected team. Younis had retired, and Yousaf has never proven himself to be an effective player of this format. The only set back Pakistan faced, was the injury of Umar gul, who is the most successful fast bowler in the world when it comes to playing twenty over cricket. Even then Pakistan was lucky to have replacements with the pace of Muhammad Sami and the surgically precise line of Muhammad Asif.
Having winning players is one thing, making them win is another. Some of the decisions made in the match were anything but questionable. For example opening the bowling attack with Muhammad Hafeez was a move that none can understand. Opening with spinners have now become more of a fashion in this format but the reasoning is yet to be found. Why would a team which has 3 seamers not make use of the new hard ball? And that too after Muhammad aamir seamed the ball in the first over.
Having Hafeez to ball the first over is one thing, making him ball the whole spell is another. After conceding a six with his last ball, he was still given another go. More onslaught saw the introduction of Muhammad Sami in the bowling attack, who straight away took a wicket. But what came next was the biggest surprise of the tournament, after just one over, and that too successful, Sami was taken of the attack and was replaced by spin.
Shahid Afridi, has made the decisions his own personal ego, a fact which is not only affecting the team but also his own performance. He continues balling full deliveries even after he was bludgeoned all over the ground by the minnows ‘Bangladesh’. It was like he continued right where he left from the previous match, the only difference being that this time the opposition was much more seasoned. Dropped catches now seem to be something Pakistan has to live with now, so there is no need to write or think about that, the more important things are the ones which could easily have been different, but would have greatly affected the outcome. For example not balling length deliveries in the 15th over of a twenty twenty match is something which a school cricketer knows as well, why the world champions couldn’t figure it out is still a mystery.
That mystery was directly responsible for the 4 sixes Dave Hussey smacked in Sami’s over. Saeed Ajmal performed as expected, as he would do in any situation as he is a specialist spinner. If Afridi was so keen to open the balling with spin, then Saeed should have been the man. If you go back to the brief history of T twenty cricket , you will see that only the specialist spinners have been successful (and that too occasionally) bowling the first or the second over of a match.
Pace, bowled on accurate lengths has, throughout the history of cricket, been the art of taking wickets. May it be the short deliveries of the golden Caribbean’s or the swing and seam of Wasim akram. It was shown by the youngest champion of all in the last over when he claimed 3 wickets for himself and 2 run outs for the team but the fat lady had sung by then with 191 on the board for Pakistan to chase. That over also showed that not using a single over by Abdul Razaq, the man who claimed 3 Srilankan wickets in the last final, was also a decision known only to the Pakistani captain.
The batting was a similar story. There was no plan as to how Pakistan would chase the huge target. The openers showed aggressive intent but the Australian pace duo (emphasize on ‘pace’) were more aggressive and with planned bowling quickly removed the openers and Muhammad Hafiz. Short bowling again turned out to be a demise of the Pakistani batting line up. It is strange that having Waqar Younis as their coach, who was also one of the fastest bowlers of his time, the Pakistani batsmen are not practiced enough against the short ball. All they manage to do is to send the ball flying high in the air with a top edge, while trying to hit a six of a pull shot. Lack of technique against the short ball was also seen when Misba ul Haq hit a weird badminton like shot from above his head towards the third man for a single. The decision to send Misba with the young Umar Akmal was a very poor decision because of the following reasons. While the younger player wanted quick singles, and sneaking twos on conventional shots, the more aged partner refused to bulge. Not only could quick singles and doubles help a chase but they also put the fielding side under pressure. The duo of Fawad and Umer has been seen doing exactly this in previous matches.
Pakistani players would not have studied the laws of Newton but there was one law which they should have learnt before the match. That is the law of no pre meditation by Ian Chappell. History has shown that although new shots get you a lot of fame they also get you failure after a few matches. Conventional shots are the way to go as we see more and more T twenty cricket. Even conventional slogs are affective but unconventional shots like the reverse sweep or a flick over fine leg are deciphered and broken down by the bowlers all over the world. Pakistanis just saw what David hussy and Watson did to them by hitting shots down the wicket.
Regardless of that fact Pakistani batsmen tries to sneak runs from over the short fine leg position, or by hitting a reverse sweep off a quicker delivery.
Overall the pace and the right lengths worked for Australia as they would have worked for any other country, all they have to do is think and play, rather than play and lose. May the Pakistan team start thinking hard as well along with the hard training they do in the nets.
Tags: