Stani Army

Sri Lanka levelled the 3 ODI series against Pakistan with a convincing victory leaving Pakistan with a number of things to think about. In reply to Sri Lanka’s score of 290, Pakistan lost early wickets but Salman Butt and Shoaib Malik steadied the ship and Pakistan recovered to 125-3 when Malik lost his wicket. This then triggered a dramatic batting collapse with the home side ending up on 161 all out. After not such a good game yesterday, most of the damage was done by the two M’s, Murali and Mendis with 3 wickets each. Nuwan Kulasekara also bowled well with his two early dismissals.

Chief among Pakistan’s concerns and the major talking point was the performance of the Rawalpindi Express who seems to be grinding to a halt. Having bowled 7 expensive and wicketless overs he only managed 6 today taking one wicket and giving away 7.5 runs per over. Apart from not bowling his full quota of overs in both games, he also seemed lackadaisical and unenthusiastic in the field.

Two young fast bowlers in the current squad who will be hoping to get a game in the 3rd and final ODI on Saturday are Sohail Khan and Yasir Arafat. In the press conference afterwards, captain Shoaib Malik was pretty clear when questioned about Akhtar’s performance and the justification for his inclusion, “We have to move forward. There are a number of good fast bowlers around on the domestic scene and they deserve a chance. I will take this up with the selectors and team management and these things will be kept in mind.” He went on, “Everyone can see what is out there. The ability to bowl ten overs is there but the commitment in fielding that I want wasn’t there.”

Another worry for Akhtar was that early this month, John Buchanan, the Kolkata Knight Riders coach announced that he would be putting him up for trade saying “We don’t have room for both Umar Gul and Shoaib in the pace department. Shoaib is up for trade”. This will not have gone down well with the big ego of Akhtar and reading between the lines, it was obvious Buchanan was just letting him down slowly, in effect saying that Shoaib is not good enough anymore. With his two recent poor performances and the fact that he has been put up for trade by his IPL franchise, one would have to question the wisdom of the PCB in deciding to put Shoaib in the top of the three central contract categories.

Be Sociable, Share!

•