Pakistan in New Zealand: Ross Taylor blames batsmen for ODI loss
The stand-in New Zealand captain Ross Taylor blamed the batsmen after the team lost the third One Day International of the six-match series against Pakistan at Christchurch.
The Kiwi captain elected to field first after he won the toss and Pakistan amassed a massive total of 293 courtesy some brilliant batting from Mohammad Hafeez, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 and Umar Akmal.
In reply to Pakistan’s total, the Kiwi team never settled down and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Several players got starts but none of them capitalised on them and the Kiwis were restricted to 250 in their allotted 50 overs.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 when the visitors were struggling at 56 for the loss of 3 wickets.
The stand-in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 captain also failed to score runs for his team as he only managed 6 runs off 18 balls before he was dismissed when Younis Khan took a brilliant catch in the slips.
The star Kiwi batsman was made the captain of the team for the third match of the series following the rotation policy of the management which saw the team’s captain Daniel Vettori sit out Saturday’s game.
Although Taylor blamed his batting for the failure in the match, he said that Pakistan played really well in the match to bounce back in the series.
He praised the bowling of Umar Gul and Wahab Riaz, who exploited the conditions of Christchurch and swung the ball.
Pakistan skipper, Afridi was also pleased with both his performance and of the team. Afridi was under pressure by the Pakistan Cricket Board after he had failed to deliver for the team as a player and the leader of the side recently.
However, Saturday’s performance may secure his position as the captain of the team for the World Cup. Although the flamboyant all-rounder played a blistering knock towards the end of the innings, he praised Hafeez and Misbah for playing with maturity.
Afridi stated that both Misbah and Hafeez provided the platform for him and Umar Akmal to play their natural game and that helped them to win the match for their team.
Tags: