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Pakistan v India Summary
By Tabrez Janjua for Stani Army in Pakistan Cricket
28 ViewsPakistan succumb to their second loss in a row after a brilliant performance by the Indian opening batsmen.
It was a very good start to the innings by Ahmed Shehzad (25 off 19), who is fast looking the part, and Kamran Akmal (19 off 9). Though the rookie Shahzaib Hasan went for a second ball duck, I’m sure he will get another chance during the tournament.
After the good start, wickets were given out like money on Eid and the run rate plummeted. Afridi didn’t help with a suicidal shot.
There was a good recovery with a vital partnership between Misbah (37 off 30) and Arafat (25 off 16) in the middle and latter part of the innings. Awesome back of the crease stuff from Misbah. At least they showed some fight unlike against South Africa where they just rolled over.
They finished with a total they could bowl at but there was just a worry about the starts but no one going on to make a big score.
Gul badly needs to find form. There was generally too much on the leg side from all the bowlers which made it difficult to set fields for bad bowling. When India were flying, Younis should have brought Shoaib Malik on earlier to slow the run rate.
Highlight of India’s innings was a classy composed knock from Rohit Sharma (80 off 53), who in partnership with Gautam Gambhir, took the match away from Pakistan. Sharma hardly looked flustered except for his dismissal off an excellent catch by Shehzad.
Pakistan ended the game with a wide and in doing so, summed up their performance. Everyone loses but no one loses quite as embarrassingly as Pakistan.
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June 3rd, 2009 at 8:55 pm
I agree with Wasim on the previous post. No pride no passion. I agree with his view on Younis also. I mentioned in the last post about his lack of influence. He said he wanted full control but it seems he has done nothing different.
As for Shoiab Malik, he is going about his role wonderfully well. as I mentioned above,; there are ways to lose. You go down fighting and try to get close as possible. Today was just embarrassment.
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:09 pm
2 embarrassing defeats, but I still think that not much to worry abt.. we were up against the 2 best teams in the competition.. we won’t face them again till maybe the semis.. so is all good
As for the performance.. Ahmed and Akmal almost opened today.. and shud do so going forward.. Alam shud fit into the middle order..
For the bowling.. Arafat is not a new ball bowler..
Aamer is.. he was the best out of the lot.. he shud attack, maybe with Tanvir for an over.. give Gul another over.. let Aamer continue and bring the spinners on early.. let Malik and Alam pitch in and then let Tanvir and Gul bowl at the death..
Why don’t Younis and the team management think of all this?
June 4th, 2009 at 12:39 am
Good point about not facing them again Q. It’s just that looking around, everyone looks so good! WI and Bang would have us on current form.
Arafat for the new ball was the captain’s mistake….and a big one. I think because Yasir does so for his county, Younis thought he chuck him it. International level is something different though.
Very impressed by Aamer. When he got it wrong, he was quicker than the experienced bowlers in spotting it and correcting his mistakes.
I’m really liking Shehzad and Aamer. Bring Alam in as well and we got something new and fresh to work with….even make Misbah captain!
June 4th, 2009 at 5:01 am
I thought the same abt Yasir.. he’s done well in the county circuit. But he’s always been better with the old ball. Maybe he didn’t want to give the young Aamer the new ball – though now, he should.
Ahmed, Aamer, Alam – just wat we need!
June 4th, 2009 at 7:23 am
9 wicket victory margins are deceptive since the great form of 1-2 players paints a slightly optimistic picture of the rest of the batting. Had a couple of early wickets fallen, might well have been very different.
On another note, Afridi’s shot is proof there is no correlation between age and wisdom, he’d have to be on the top-10 underachievers list for cricket.
June 4th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Yes Q, we need some triple AAA batteries to get us going!
Very good point donthaveaclue. 9 wicket wins can be deceptive. They may have a positive effect though in that the other batsmen may see their team mates do well so will want a slice of the pie next time…bit of the lime light. Success does breed success.
Another thing was, the Indian batsmen played how you should on a wicket like that. How Pakistan lost so many wickets on that track thus slowing their runrate, can only be because of poor shots and bad decisions.
At least we saved someone from Sewag though by giving Rohit and Gambhir a chance to cement their places.