A comprehensive thrashing at the Pallekele Stadium totally exploits the significant areas of concern which have been raised even when we were winning games on the trot as well. Hopefully, it provides the necessary re-think in order to gain at least something out of today’s humiliating outcome. The Kiwis on the other hand were top notch and rose to the challenge in emphatic fashion.
Observations
-Opening with Rehman was a creative and innovative move from the skipper. The SLA bowled economically and the experiment proved to be a revelation with only 14 being conceded from his 5 overs in his opening spell during the PP overs! Credit must be given here for the surprise tactics and successful execution.
-Gul bowled really well and economically in his first spell and only conceded 8 from his first 5 overs with one scalp when he came on as first change. An excellent job from the top class pacer.
-New Zealand added a mammoth 92 in the last 4 overs of the innings courtesy of some magnificent late onslaught and sheer carnage from Ross Taylor and Jacob Oram who completely battered the bowling to all parts of the ground and somehow enabled the Black Caps to reach 300 out of the blue which took everyone by surprise. Unless, you were a supporter of the men in green the formidable destruction made some great entertainment and was absolutely unbelievable when witnessing. There were some ruthless blows and the destruction was of astonishing capacity. Inevitably the figures of the bowlers were all spoiled and messed up significantly as a result and New Zealand almost certainly had the upper hand at the half way stage when they concluded on 302/7. Taylor was undoubtedly the star of the show with a breath taking exhibition.
-Hafeez once more failed to deliver and dropping him now at the expense of an extra seamer (Wahab/Junaid) preferably would be a reasonable and worthwhile ploy. Ajmal should also automatically be in the starting line up ahead of a left arm darter. He is the more attacking, skilful, classy and threatening option and has the ability to bring more value to the side and make a bigger impact. He should be the premier spinning option. Playing Rehman might not be the worst idea in the world, but when you have to select one between the two, Ajmal should always get the nod ahead of Rehman. The general quality he possesses is of a unique nature and strength which needs to be utilised, especially when it’s available on sub continental surfaces. The reluctance to select him is mind blowing considering the skills, experience and craftiness he has up his sleeves. Why would you simply not want to utilise it in order to make the bowling force and resources look more feared, technically advanced and balanced? It beats me for one!
-Kamran Akmal is undoubtedly the best MATCH LOSER in international cricket. Unfortunately for the cricket mad nation he had to be born in Pakistan's team. We can only persuade the guy to do the honourable thing and retire from international cricket with immediate effect or at the very least give up the gloves for good. If he had the slightest element of pride, dignity and shame he would take this step forward.
-Kamran Akmal on the other hand is also failing to deliver at number 3 and today he played across the line and was comfortably gobbled up at first slip when he needed to deliver only to give away his wicket once more in a soft manner. Frankly speaking his vulnerabilities are easily exploitable if you study his dismissal pattern and footage in any good depth, a bowling unit can easily fancy their chances again him. His disheartened facial expressions as he departs off the field is all too a familiar sight for PCT observers. The cringeworthy, monstrous, heavily tainted short ring leading figure is justifiably disliked amongst his fan base in many proportions more than one. Over the weekend he made some strong self defence statements in regards to the cloud of suspiciousness which was hanging over him and also his own personal performances, but this can also be argued as excuse making at the same time to overweigh the hardships. Once more the WK does not seem to be doing him or his country any favours and instead throwing what little credibility in him which remains down the drain.
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He is the biggest SOB. Deserves to be shot as he had too many chances now! After Karachi century against India, I thought we finally got a fighting wicket keeper who can bat but he is a fixer and deserved to be treated worse than the spot-fixing trio!
ReplyDelete“Yeah, the luck came early on. Perhaps, I owe a treat to Kamran (Akmal) and I think I should take him out for a dinner and give whatever he likes. This has been the slice of luck I have been searching for the last few months and today it came my way,” Taylor said on Tuesday.
ReplyDelete@Maaz
ReplyDeleteYou never told me you joined a new blog.Anyways congratulations on you new blog looks nice.
As regards todays match man we gave the match away as a birthday gift to Taylor. Iam not sure if he played superbly or our bowlers bowled garbage in the end. The ball was moving around in both innings and Shoaib and Razzaq took the wicket out of equation and just made sure that they bowl full tosses.
You said" Opening with Rehman was a creative and innovative move from the skipper. The SLA bowled economically and the experiment proved to be a revelation with only 14 being conceded from his 5 overs in his opening spell during the PP overs! Credit must be given here for the surprise tactics and successful execution."
I disagree with you yaar on this one, it was a very poor move and I think it was the biggest reason due to which we lost the match.
On a seaming track what was the logic behind opening the bowling with Rahman?
Yes Rahman was economical but if you take into account all the other problems which stemmed from this decision only then you will realize that how damaging this decision was.
Every single bowler was given a role which was unfamiliar to him and didn't suited his abilities.
Rahman bowled upfront and at death which he has never done before, Razzaq who could have been more effective upfront with the new ball was given the ball in the 11th over and then later at death usually when we do good Afridi very quickly gets rid of the overs of Razzaq and Hafeez.
Despite the dropped catches we lost the match after the 45th over and that happened only because the bowlers who bowled the last 5 overs were not used to bowl at death and Rahman and Razzaq were totally not equipped to bowl at death.
If Afridi had followed the usual bowling order he would have used Rahman in the middle overs and would have used Gul at death.
Just because every bowler was given an unfamiliar role and we lost the opportunity to cause early damage by not attacking from both ends NZ in the end were able to launch an attack ofcourse our bowlers helped them in making the score they eventually did but overall it was a poor decision of Afridi.
What I dont understand is why they continue to pick Akmal? His mistakes are obvious. Any player in any other team would not have a international career by now.
ReplyDeleteAs regards the end of the game...Afridi should have taken the bowlers to one side when Taylor started as they clearly stopped thinking and got caught up in the Taylor blitz so ended up giving him easy balls to hit. A captain needs to recognise situations like that quickly and get in there rather than stand in disbelief. Some of them balls were a joke. Usually he's talking to the bowler every ball but then he disappeared.
The Rehman move was good, but after Akhtar's two overs, Afridi should have seen the ball seaming and pulled Rehman out and told Gul to warm up leaving Rehman with just the one over. I think that was where the mistake was. On a different track, there is nothing wrong with opening with Rehman as other teams have done so with their spinners and got success. Maybe Razzaq's trash bowling has forced the captain to look elsewhere and open with Rehman. It was certainly why Afridi went with Shoaib and Rehman rather than Razzaq at the end. I just think Razzaq is causing a lot of issues at the moment.
Also, I still think we're a bowler light. Had Wahab been in the side, the opening with Rehman would thus not have had a consequence come the latter overs because we would have had another option. The selection is too concentrated on our batting and our bowling options are suffering as a result.
Thanks for your visit Wasim. Yes, I decided to join forces and change location as my articles and posts were successfully being posted by a platform called PCT and they are looking for articles written by bloggers to be published on their site. A couple of the bloggers over there including me jointly agreed that we should make a blog together as well as contributing on the main official forum and platform which plans to be a big hit having attracted a 150K fan base on fb and received many hits and reads. We are willing to put up any threads or posts which have been written of good quality on the main website and we can link them to your blog too. For example Q from Well Pitched is writing at the site as well, but this blog is here to stay as well and is really closely connected to the main website. So basically I decided to move on to on to bigger and better things. I must have forgotten to notify you in the process, but it’s nice to see you sharing your analysis here now.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to your comments, we often are very critical for the defensive and poor decision making of Afridi as captain and rightly so as he is a mediocre captain generally speaking and in many ways is holding back our chances of being as good as we actually can be and playing under full strength conditions. He is no great thoughtful strategist or tactical expert like Misbah, Younis or even Malik for example who can control proceedings and extract the best out of the players. He is just the so called talisman. Yesterday, his captaincy was shocking, but the actual move of appointing Rehman to open the bowling was “out of the box” thinking. New Zealand are vulnerable to spin and there has been a lot of pressure not to open proceedings with Razzaq. Therefore, this particular decision was praiseworthy and in fact worked out. However, I totally disapprove of Razzaq and Rehman bowling at the death stages. It was asking for trouble. Rehman should have bowled in the middle too, not at the end, otherwise it would have worked out perfectly overall. Also, we are playing a bowler short. Wahab should be in the starting line up and he can be excellent at the death with his reverse swing, variations and ability to bowl quick and steamy, but the team management think tanks feel otherwise and are showing a more defensive and concerned mindset.
I agree that despite the comical keeping display the execution and captaincy at the death was extremely poor, however we cannot deny the damage Kamran has done. Had he held on to the chances, the situation could have become a whole lot easier and simpler in the first place and of course this is nothing new to us. His keeping is morale shattering. Of course as we all know he has the most important fielding position and presence and we cannot underestimate the significance his costly misses bring both statistically from a match situation and mentally from a bowling perspective which is undisputedly infuriating. Akhtar produced 2 absolute snorting delivers outside the off stump channel and had Taylor feeling for the ball only to be let down by a well regarded architect in the infighting and spot fixing sagas.
@Maaz
ReplyDeleteActually I kept on visiting your old site until stani told me about your new blog. Congratulations and hopefully it will be a success I will update your link in my blog roll my current theme doesn not have a blog roll but very soon I will revert back to my old theme and will update the blog roll.
I think that the move to bowl Rahman wasn't out of the box but was Bhair chaal. I can give the management the margin that they did it as a trial for the preperation of Quarter finals or the Indian wickets they should have done it in the warm up matches or against the weaker teams, on a seaming track against a good team we should not have done it.
And even if they used Rahman upfornt I believe they should have used some of his overs in the middle over to save some overs of Afridi and Gul for death.
I hope Afridi will learn from this experiment and this match won't be so damaging in the long run. Because I fear Afridi loses confidence in players very quickly remember since Ajmal got a mauling from Hussey we have turned him from a first choice spinner to a bench player.
As regards Akmal only Acsu or ICC can help us in getting rid of him as PCB keeps on bringing him back.
TJ
ReplyDeleteTotally agree on Kamran Akmal. Enough is enough. How bad does a keeper simply have to be before he can be removed?
Razzaq's role needs to be defined properly and they need to maximise his effectiveness and involvement with the bat otherwise it is virtually pointless even having him in the starting line up. They need to utilise his batting strengths and wants as opposed to treating him like dirt.
You make a very good point in regards to Afridi's lack of animation and interaction when the bowlers were being dispatched. He was just standing there watching and following the flow of the game.
Also, thanks for notifying Wasim.