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England Come Up Trumps
By Tabrez Janjua for Stani Army in International Cricket, Pakistan Cricket
36 ViewsAnother depressing display from the Pakistan team leaves them needing a win from their last game against the Netherlands to progress to the last eight.
It’s obvious that Pakistan are neither sure of their best team nor how to use many of their players in the line up. They need to quickly address the opening bowlers with Yasir Arafat once again opening and going for runs. The fielding was bad as usual with Salman Butt having a particularly bad time not only in the field but also with his style of batting. Butt, though a good player, is not someone who should be in the Twebty20 side. It was obvious today that he caused problems up top by hogging the strike and putting pressure on the other batsmen. One thing which he never fails to do is to consistently find thefielder with his shots; it’s uncanny.
Another thing they need to address is the position in the line up of their best Twenty20 batsmen, Misbah Ul-Haq. Today he came in in the 16th over when the contest was over. The batting also showed a lack of game plan and intent shown in the beginning and middle of the innings and left the charge far too late.
Pakistan really should be expected to beat the Dutch but as England found out, it’s easier said then done. I suppose one good thing is that the Dutch did rely on a lot of luck against England so for it to go their way twice in a row would not be very likely.
Pakistan will now be praying that the game is not rained off.
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June 8th, 2009 at 1:33 am
Pakistan should give up hoping that Afridi will come good with the bat.
He ate up 12 balls and brought pressure on Misbah who followed.
June 8th, 2009 at 5:07 am
Just a win will not do for Pakistan to enter the next round.
They will need to beat Netherlands by more than 48 runs (or an equivalent if they bat second), else they will lose out on run rate
June 8th, 2009 at 5:49 am
England look so much better when pietersen comes good. @PSK, are you sure about the margin? Given that the Dutch only won on the last ball, I think a win would suffice for Pakistan to qualify for the Super-Eights.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:52 am
Not really.
As the Dutch won off the last ball, their NRR is approx zero.
Pak has a huge negative NRR as they lost by 48 runs.
Hence Pak has to beat Netherlands by more than this margin, else netherlands will qualify on run rate. England have already qualified
June 8th, 2009 at 8:25 am
@PSK: thanks for the save. I’ve made the correction on my blog at http://outsideedge.wordpress.com. Cheers!
June 8th, 2009 at 10:12 am
@PSK – thats not right.
Pakistan have to win by 25 runs or chase the score with 3 overs to spare to qualify.
Your not taking into account the decrease in Holland’s NRR when Pakistan beats them.. hence they don’t have to beat them by 49 runs but by half that amount.
If Pak wins by 25 runs then Pak’s NRR becomes (-48+25)/20 = -23/20
And Netherlands’ becomes: (+1-25)/20 = -24/20.
So 25 run margin will do it.
If we chase we need to get the runs with 3 overs to spare. Those calculations are a bit more complicated to explain here.
Cheers
June 8th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Yes Q, I stand corrected.
If Pak chases you say they have to win with 3 overs to spare. Too lazy to do the math, but I presume it will depend on how many the Dutch actually score. Or will the “3 overs” not change significantly in any case.
June 8th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Yep PSK, it will depend on what the dutch will score.. it actually varies between 3-4 overs.. roughly 18-21 deliveries..
June 8th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Ott; completely agree with you on Afridi. We keep getting our hopes up only to come crashing down. We shouldn’t see him as a all rounder now….just a bowler. Question is, with the emergence of Ajmal and with Kaneria being the test spinner, will Afridi warrant a place only on his bowling?
PSK; Yes it will also depend on run rate….and yes, it will have to be a big win. As Q has suggested, we cannot be certain on the margin yet because we’re playing the Dutch who are a factor in the equation themselves.
All set up to be an interesting game then, fluctuating between going through and not going through.
You guys have given me a maths headache now. I haven’t had that since school! Thanks
June 8th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Pakistan can win only if Younis Khan can get his head straight it seems he is confused and lacks confidence in himself and the team.
Even though Younis is persisting with the same players time and again but he has been unable to make players like Butt and Shehzad to play out of their skin and selflessly, I think most of the blame goes to these players who donot have the skills to play in this format and part of the blame goes to the selectors who selected these players. Younis should not hope for a miracle he should change the batting order and should include Fawad Alam.
I think bowling is ok, bowlers do get thrashed in this format so we should not get confused over there, however I would like to see Umar Gul and Afridi lifting their game up.
The fielding is very poor which is making the bowlers look even worse.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Wasim; I ‘ve always had my doubts about Younis Khan. I don’t think he’s got it. From what I’ve seen thus far, Malik had much more going for him.
I agree with your point about the bowlers. i just wish someone would tell Arafat that since he’s opening, he cannot bowl good length…especially for someone of his lack of height.
If you watch Aamer’s first game, the guy is only 17 and he immediately realised what he was doing wrong and tried to correct it. I’m not blaming Arafat here completely, the captain and the coach are there for a reason.
Also, we never seem to hit as many boundaries as we give.
June 8th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Younis Khan is the ulitmate ‘unprofessional’.
What kind of captain laughs when his fielder lets the ball through his legs? Would any other skipper in the world do it? No.
The man is not capatin material, forever smiling and cracking jokes, patting players bottoms. He is a joke himself, maybe he is laughing at himself.
We need to breed the ruthlessness of Imran and Wasim…the times when looks could kill.