How the Kangaroos were conquered by the Eagles..!

How the Kangaroos were conquered by the Eagles..!

First of all, the whole nation thanks the Pakistani cricket team, for giving immeasurable joy and happiness to the entire nation, on the very auspicious occasion of the Pakistan Day, falling on the 23rd March.

The positive attitude and the aggressive mind set of our cricket team, was visible from the very word go. Our players displayed the INTENSITY of a wounded tiger, which was clearly missing against the Indians, thus Pakistani team was looking a totally different unit, from the Friday’s match.

Let us now dwell, on where we improved over the 1st match and where still we could have done a better job.

1. The score we got in 20 overs vs India, was achieved in 14 overs vs Australia. Our run rate (RR) on completion of 10 overs (83 runs) was reasonably good at 8.30 runs /over. In the next 10 overs, we scored another 108 runs, at a RR of 10.8 runs/over. We scored 191/5, at a healthy RR/ over of 9.55.

2. Pakistan played only 34 DOT balls (22 or 3.4 overs in 1st 10 overs and ONLY 12 or 2 overs in 2nd portion of 10 overs). Remember, we played 51 DOT balls against India.

3. Pakistan ONLY gave 5 no ball runs, that too on a single no ball, bowled in the whole Australian innings. Whereas, Australian bowlers also bowled 1 no ball, but gave 9 runs on wide account, by bowling 3 wide balls. This also reflects remarkable bowling discipline displayed by the Pakistani bowlers, as compared with the Australian bowlers.

4. Here, we must give full marks to the captaincy of Mr. M. Hafeez, for keeping his cool and focusing on the victory, in this high voltage match, when Australia blasted off to 102/2 in just 8 overs, during which the last 5 over, went for 82 runs. The way Hafeez marshalled his bowlers and fielders, immediately paid dividends in the next 10 overs, which resulted in 8 wickets for 58 runs.

5. We must salute the captaincy of Muhammad Hafeez, who in my opinion deserves 99 marks out of 100, for his crisis management abilities.

Just let me repeat, that we got to overcome our following short comings, if the remaining 3 matches journey to the final match, has to be without any hiccups.

a). Again our score in the 6 power play overs, was just 34 runs, when ONLY TWO fielders are allowed out side the 30 meters circle. We may ask Shahid Afridi to open the innings, with license to play freely, as per his temperament. However, we must aim for a score of 60-80 runs in the power play period. Not forgetting that Australia scored 82 runs against us last night, in 30 balls during overs numbers 4 to 8, even when they had lost both of their openers, in the first six balls; and their score was just 8/2, in the 1st over. Actually, we don’t have to look back whatever happens. Just focus on our aim of 60-80 runs in the power play overs.

b). Again we played a very high number of 22 dot balls in the 1st 10 overs. As we did in the 2nd half of the innings, where we played 12 dot balls, our aim should be (as we are aiming to be the world T20 champions) that not more than 8-10 dot balls are played in the 1st half, where there is a luxury of 6 overs of power play, as well. Our players ought to shun any negativity coming into the mind, due to the falling of early wickets, as was displayed by the Australian number 3 and 4 batsmen.

c). Mr. Hafeez, must realise that there is no room for complacency, because our position in the group is extremely precarious; as Australia, can easily bounce back, with better run rate, to oust us, from the race of the semi finals.

d). The joke must now end, of playing Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal. Believe me, whatever, they are contributing to the team, Younis Khan, Fawad Alam and Misbah ul Haq can do much better. These players (Shoaib and Kamran) are not the T20 material (obviously nothing personal against them or any other player, management committee members or any PCB person). And now, the next matches against the West Indies and Bangladesh, are going to be very crucial for us, because if we have to remain in the contention for the semi finals, we have to win these games with not a big margin, but with a HUGE margin.

e). As our team showed during the match against Australia, our players must remember that OFFENCE IS THE BEST DEFENCE. All our game scheming and strategy planning, must be based on just one premise, not just to win, but to win with a HUGE margin.

Wishing and praying for all the best for our cricket team in the days ahead.

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Lahore.

Sent from my iPad3 4G LTE

Tags: My Views