Thursday, September 15, 2011

3rd ODI Reaction. Zimbabwe Whitewashed!

We did not bowl out Zimbabwe in any of the 3 matches unfortunately. 22 out of a possible 30 wickets were taken. 8 of them belonging to Cheema.

However, in none of the 3 matches did Zimbabwe get 250. We contained and restricted them well.

Aizaz Cheema was outstanding. He would have been my vote for MOTS. Excellent find for Pakistan in the pace department. He is having a dream debut tour in the African continent. I am impressed by his short ball where he has got many of his wickets and his bravery to execute the slower delivery very deceptively. He gets the short ball UP and surprises the batsmen. He has a fair amount of wheels on his deliveries. He comes across as an attacking and genuine wicket taking option.

Waqar Younis’s tenure in one day internationals has ended with Pakistan winning 22/37 one day internationals in the time he was in charge. He will be missed.

Looking forward to the T20s. Another clean sweep will be marvellous.

We have been clinical on this tour with the exception of the 1st one day international which was a narrow win. Credit to Misbah and Waqar throughout.

The highlight of the ODI series for me would be the record breaking opening stand between Hafeez and Farhat. In all fairness Farhat has bounced back well after his 2nd ball duck in Bulawayo.

Shoaib Malik’s comeback series to resurrect his international career has been one to forget. Averaging 8 in the series and going at 7 an over with his pie chucking off breaks. 864 deliveries in the field. 19 with the bat including being dismissed twice. Only 36 deliveries with the ball. What a complete waste of space. Mediocre performance and that too against Zimbabwe. Incidentally Malik played the 3 first and last 3 one day internationals of Waqar’s tenure and in between missed 31 encounters.

Overall 5 half centuries and a ton were scored by the Pakistan batsmen in the 3 matches. Asad Shafiq reminded everyone of his class in his first appearance of the tour replacing Umar Akmal.

Sohail Khan seems like a decent option in ODIs. He is quick through the air, fairly accurate, varies his pace intelligently & has a smooth run up and action. Yasir Shah had an impressive outing on debut with 2 top order wickets including breaking the 100+ opening stand when Zimbabwe would have been hopeful of pulling this one off.

YK has 3 consecutive ODI half centuries now. After his horrors in the WC SF he has responded well and is having a brilliant tour. Scored well every time right from the word go and is yet to fail reaching 50 when being dismissed.

Team For 1st T20

Mohammad Hafeez
Imran Farhat/Asad Shafiq
Umar Akmal
Misbah- ul-Haq
Shoaib Malik/Asad Shafiq
Rameez Raja
Adnan Akmal
Sohail Tanvir
Sohail Khan
Saeed Ajmal
Aizaz Cheema

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