Dropped catches cost us the game: Pakistan coach Waqar Younis
Pakistan coach Waqar Younis has admitted that the dropped catches in the game against New Zealand cost his team the match in the ICC World Cup, 2011.
Talking to journalists in a post-match press conference he said, “It was a bad day for us and the spills cost us the game. The dropped catches obviously changed the game and you can’t expect to win after that but we won’t panic. What’s happened has happened
and we now need to look ahead to the next game, including the crunch match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746.”
The coach did not hesitate to point out the defects in the wicket-keeping department and believed that had there been a good show from Kamran Akmal behind the wickets, Pakistan would have been in a better position in the match.
“The wicket-keeping was not good and they were easy catches that were dropped but we don’t want to take anything away from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915 as he played a wonderful knock,” he said.
Waqar however, ruled out the possibility of any hasty changes in the team because of the debacle against the Kiwis. He hoped that his side would learn from their mistakes in this match which would help them improve in the remaining fixtures of the tournament.
Earlier in the day, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 won the toss and chose to bat against a side which has usually struggled while batting second. The Pakistan bowlers started off in an impressive way but once the catches started popping out it was obvious that Pakistan had
hit a self-destruct button.
When Ross Taylor came out to bat, the Pakistan skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 brought in Shoaib Akhtar to bowl; the fast bowler who is having an impressive tournament so far made Taylor knick a regulation catch which was shockingly dropped by wicketkeeper Akmal.
Taylor was let-off by Akmal on two occasions; Pakistan paid heavily for it. Taylor went on to make 131 runs off only 124 deliveries, helping his side reach a total of 302 runs. Amazingly, 139 runs were made in the last 10 overs.
This innings came as a birthday present for Taylor who was celebrating his 27th birthday. He hit eight fours and seven sixes during his blazing innings. The Pakistan pace attack consisting of Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul and Abdul http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Razzaq-c84421 seemed completely
helpless against the Kiwi batting escapade.
When http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 came out to bat, the writing on the wall was clear that they would have to keep wickets and score quickly. However, the in-form opener Mohammad Hafeez went cheaply after scoring just five runs when he was adjudged leg-before wicket (LBW) on
a Tim Southee delivery. Kamran Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad made 8 and 10 runs before heading back to the dressing room while veteran Younus http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mills-c76321.
Pakistan’s Mr. Dependable http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972 was also clueless and was caught by Scott Styris off Tim Southee. Southee took three wickets for 25 runs in his eight overs. Umar Akmal made 38 runs and Razzaq once again proved that he is a genuine all-rounder by
scoring 62 runs. However Akmal’s and Razzaq’s efforts could not save the match for Pakistan. Pakistan now meet minnows http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045 in their next clash on the 14
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/March-c74391, 2011.
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