Pakistan cricket desperate to fight back
While Mohammad Aamer and Salman Butt anxiously await the result of their appeal against the provisional suspension from ICC at Dubai, the Pakistani squad limbering up some 100 kms away at Abu Dhabi would be hoping that the two join them and lift their sagging
spirits and fortunes ahead of their crucial 2nd ODI at the Zayed stadium.
The men in green have been extremely disappointing both with the bat and the ball in the first three matches of the tour and have failed to be competitive even once handing the South Africans lopsided victories.
The T20 series was won with ease with the Proteas scoring an identical 6 wickets win in both matches and it became even easier for them in the first match of the ODI series as they coasted to an 8 wicket win yesterday.
The one month long tour has already started looking painstakingly long and one sided for the Pakistanis as their team looks to have forgotten the basic principles of the game and have been tame in the three matches thus far.
After collapsing in perfect batting conditions in the T20 matches the Pakistanis continued their love affairs with meek surrenders as from a position of indomitable strength of 140/1 they collapsed horrendously to fold for 203 runs and hand the Proteas another
facile win.
There were absolutely no demons in the pitch and Shahid Afridi had won the toss once again and made the right decision to bat first, yet he was as much to be blamed as the rest of his star studded line up.
Afridi scooped the second ball that he faced of Tsotsobe and offered the easiest of catches to the man positioned at mid-off and leave his team reeling after an imposing start.
The sting had gone out of the Pakistan team after their poor batting performance and the bowlers despite toiling hard in the almost unbearable heat and humidity of the desert threw in the towel rather early.
Shoaib Akhtar and Saeed Ajmal bowled manfully and as did Afridi yet there were hardly any runs to play with for them.
The Pakistanis are desperate for a batting coach as their coaching department includes Waqar Younis as head coach and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Aaqib-Javed-c41431 his assistant is also a former Test fast bowler.
But even in the absence of a batting coach the team includes some very seasoned batsmen in Afridi, Younis Khan and Misbah ul-Haq. The three have been playing cricket at the highest level for more than a decade and should be capable enough to draw a game
plan that can be adopted by the youngsters in the team.
They have to come up with a new approach to batting, which should be attacking yet have common sense in the strategy against a highly professional and capable South African team that has been relentless in its approach thus far.
In a bleak scenario there is one positive for the men in green, they have never lost the second match of a bilateral series against South Africa since the first ever such contest in 2001.
The two teams have played four-bilateral series two each in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 and on all four occasions the second match of the series has gone Pakistan’s way. In these matches they have twice amassed totals in the excess of 300 and have cruised
to easy wins on both occasions.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 was himself the hero on one such occasion when Pakistan scored a total in excess of 330 at Durban in 2002-03, the belligerent hitter smashed an unbeaten 70 odd with Mohammad Yousuf scoring a brilliant 100 on that occasion.
Tomorrow they need a similar performance for them let us see if they can make it five in a row.
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