Cheer up guys, it's not ALL that bad.

[pinger]

Well the first test has come and gone and like usual, with Pakistan, it is anything but boring.

As an Aussie, I had a real sense that this test was here for Paksitan to win. Johnson and Bollinger, our two main strikers were ineffective in both innings. Pakistan had the pick of the conditions and it is not often we set less than 300 in a first innings. We had to rely on part timers, luck, and poor shot selection from the Pakistani players.

In the end, you still made nearly 300 in your second innings, which is still a good effort.

The Positives:

Young pacers- Amir is a genuine weapon.

Asif- was very good, but benefits from English pitches. You need to cultivate competitive pitches in Pakistan which let seam bowlers learn their craft.

The young bats- Ali and Amin did everything right as far as I was concerned. They valued their wicket and fought hard.

Salman Butt- continues to develop very well.

The negatives.
Not going to dwell on these but they are the same gremlins you have had for the last 10 years.

1. Fielding - although still improving, your bowlers are still passengers. You need to do something outside the box like the Aussies did (appointed an American Baseballer as the fielding coach) because your in house training is still not showing enough results.
2. The tail- with modern equipment, a brittle tail like yours is no longer acceptable. Bowlers must be forced the spend hours in front of a bowling machine facing lifting deliveries.
3. Partnerships and valuing your wicket.

The less said about Afridi perhaps the better, but there continues to be obvious problems with development and management of individuals within Pakistani cricket.

I hope they take the opportunity to elect a young captain, and exclude all the old dead wood, egos and baggage, from all forms of the game (Shoaib, Afridi, Malik etc).

I really think whoever becomes next Captain needs to sit down with the players and the board, and establish a Code of Conduct for the team, so the disciplinary process is transparent, understood, and most importantly enforced regardless of seniorority, form, or perceived importance to the team.

Likewise, the Captain has to be given a clear strategic plan that the whole of Pakistan Cricket establishes, along with time frames, measurables and targets. And they have to be gven a fair time frame to achieve it, without chopping and changing every 5 minutes.

Anyway, the thing is that Pakistan really need the fans to get off their backs for a year or so, and let them build a young team. And then, a young team bonded together could do great things.

[AZ]

it would have been all good if Butt had gotten a 100...you guys had to ruin the party :po: :po: :P

[Poison]

I think the positives in this match far outweighed the negatives ... really it comes down to two sessions of play, the one where we batted pretty poorly with bad conditions, and the session where we let the Aussie tail put on another 120 runs. Our fielding and bowling was absolutely top notch, and Salman Butt's shown the maturity which may make comparisons to former Pakistani openers valid.

Our bowlers performed pretty much all game, our fielders were excellent, it all came down to the batting, which in the end should've been expected, with three 20 year olds making up our middle order. I'm pretty satisfied myself with the way Pakistan fought hard.

[UmarAkmals-fan]

it would have been all good if Butt had gotten a 100...you guys had to ruin the party :po: :po: :P


i agree it really hurted me when butt got out on 92 ..i use to be the biggest butt haters but now iam in love with him ....remember ..theres always a next time bhai ... :butt tusi great ho

[pinger]

it would have been all good if Butt had gotten a 100...you guys had to ruin the party :po: :po: :P

I desperately wanted to get him out, but sad to see him fall short of what would have been a chanceless hundred in pretty tough conditions.

If you could somehow guarantee he would have got out straight after getting his hundred, I would have been happy to makee that deal!.

But cheer up, he is still in your squad. he's going to be a good player for a very long time. :)

[tdigi]

Good first thread Pinger...nice to see another Aussie here. Don't hesitate to proudly display your country's flag next to your name :)

[FreePalestine]

Mr. Butt will crumble under the pressure of the forthcoming captaincy. You can have all the great fast bowlers you want, if you have no batsmen, then you will never win test matches. Pakistan cricket is dying.

[pinger]

Mr. Butt will crumble under the pressure of the forthcoming captaincy. You can have all the great fast bowlers you want, if you have no batsmen, then you will never win test matches. Pakistan cricket is dying.

Ooooohh, lock up the depressants, Heath Ledger is here.

[Random Aussie]

1. Fielding - although still improving, your bowlers are still passengers. You need to do something outside the box like the Aussies did (appointed an American Baseballer as the fielding coach) because your in house training is still not showing enough results.

Good point. People forget that we were actually a pretty shabby fielding unit back in the 80's, used to regularly drop catches especially against the West Indies...

[Genghis]

You've been a welcomed addition to PakPassion pinger and a great first thread.

Onto the topic, I agree for me the positives far outweigh the negatives. We really had 2 bad sessions in which we just didn't bat well. The rest of the game we showed enough fighting spirit. We were playing with two debutants as No.3 and No.4 and a 20 year old as No. 5, and in the second innings at least the debutants stood up.

The most positive thing is that everyone seemed to be playing for the team. If only our new captain can keep that harmony in the team than I am sure the wins will come.

[SOSami]

Well the first test has come and gone and like usual, with Pakistan, it is anything but boring.

As an Aussie, I had a real sense that this test was here for Paksitan to win. Johnson and Bollinger, our two main strikers were ineffective in both innings. Pakistan had the pick of the conditions and it is not often we set less than 300 in a first innings. We had to rely on part timers, luck, and poor shot selection from the Pakistani players.

In the end, you still made nearly 300 in your second innings, which is still a good effort.

The Positives:

Young pacers- Amir is a genuine weapon.

Asif- was very good, but benefits from English pitches. You need to cultivate competitive pitches in Pakistan which let seam bowlers learn their craft.

The young bats- Ali and Amin did everything right as far as I was concerned. They valued their wicket and fought hard.

Salman Butt- continues to develop very well.

The negatives.
Not going to dwell on these but they are the same gremlins you have had for the last 10 years.

1. Fielding - although still improving, your bowlers are still passengers. You need to do something outside the box like the Aussies did (appointed an American Baseballer as the fielding coach) because your in house training is still not showing enough results.
2. The tail- with modern equipment, a brittle tail like yours is no longer acceptable. Bowlers must be forced the spend hours in front of a bowling machine facing lifting deliveries.
3. Partnerships and valuing your wicket.

The less said about Afridi perhaps the better, but there continues to be obvious problems with development and management of individuals within Pakistani cricket.

I hope they take the opportunity to elect a young captain, and exclude all the old dead wood, egos and baggage, from all forms of the game (Shoaib, Afridi, Malik etc).

I really think whoever becomes next Captain needs to sit down with the players and the board, and establish a Code of Conduct for the team, so the disciplinary process is transparent, understood, and most importantly enforced regardless of seniorority, form, or perceived importance to the team.

Likewise, the Captain has to be given a clear strategic plan that the whole of Pakistan Cricket establishes, along with time frames, measurables and targets. And they have to be gven a fair time frame to achieve it, without chopping and changing every 5 minutes.

Anyway, the thing is that Pakistan really need the fans to get off their backs for a year or so, and let them build a young team. And then, a young team bonded together could do great things.

That just about sums up everything in a nutshell. Would be nice if it was all implemented, especially the focus on fielding.

Quite simply, the supposed $2m from the Australia series could be ringfenced for a proper long-term fielding & throwing coach. A generous $50k per annum gets you his services for 40 years by my reckoning. Not sure how we are gona get an American to move to Pakistan though.

[the Great Khan]

Strategic plans?? Lol...you need to stick around a bit and you'll understand why that word has no meaning in pakistan!!

I agree with everything you said.. We played well and if we had restricted aus to less in the 2nd innings we would have won..it was slot closer than the result suggests..

[LG]

All in all, it wasn't really such a terrible match. Nobody expected much from this Pakistan side, and they fought hard despite that collapse in the first innings, and I was happy to see that. But Butt falling on 92 was really, really disappointing. :(

Btw, excellent thread. Hope to see more of your posts.

[dhump]

Pinger I vote you as chairman of PCB for your openinig post.

[bhakkar]

Not that bad lol, even for Pakistan crickets low standards this is bad.

[FreePalestine]

Pakistan have been re-building a new team since Wasim and Waqar left. Woolmer and Inzy were doing well, but since that world cup, Pakistan has had five different captains, been wrought with in-fighting and have performed very, very poorly in the field. This team is going nowhere.

And yes, those anti-depressants sound pretty good right now. I normally get my drugs from Asif and Akhtar, but they've run out at the moment.

[pinger]

Strategic plans?? Lol...you need to stick around a bit and you'll understand why that word has no meaning in pakistan!!

I agree with everything you said.. We played well and if we had restricted aus to less in the 2nd innings we would have won..it was slot closer than the result suggests..

Yeah, well if you don't know where you are going, and don't know if you are heading in the right direction, then why do you call yourself a Manager? What are the roles of managers and coaches if not to
a) define
b) manage, and
c) achieve change??

This was the real beauty of the John Buchanan years in Australian cricket. He taught players that they are the ones responsible for their own performance and development, not some batting/bowling or fielding coaches. They are big boys now, and they need to be adults. Adults have the responsibility of taking care of themselves, and asking for help when they need it.

I had the opportunity of meeting John a couple of times when he talked to our Senior Management Group about leadership and development etc. He was really strong on a first class coach not being about how to play a cover drive, but about preparing the players mentally, helping them understand the processes and the mindsets that make them professional athletes, and about challenging them every day to do something to improve, or be challenged. Not about throwing 50 balls at them in the nets.

It was real out of the box thinking which they continued with the fielding coach (making everyone learn how to throw opposite hand etc, making illiterate fast bowlers read "The Art of War")

You would not run a small coffee shop like the way the PCB runs cricket in Pakistan. Hopefully, this can change.

[Hash]

I agree actually.

We didn't do as badly in this test match as I expected us to. And for most of the game we were competing with the Aussies. If we hadn't allowed their last 2 wickets to put on 124 runs....it would have been a much closer game.

The way I see it is that the real tour starts from now. This was basically a 'warm up test match' for the 5 tests that are going to follow. The important thing is that we learn our lessons from this defeat.

Positives and negatives:

Our bowling is looking very good. Australia struggled in both innings and it was only Hilfenhouse, Paine and Dougie Bollinger who mutilated us in the end.....we took care of their best batsman (who also happen to be amongst the best batsman in the world) in both innings.

Our fielding was not too bad at all. I don't think we dropped a single catch or missed a single stumping. Let's hope this is a sign for the summer and that things will improve further.

In the second innings our batsman faced no real difficulty against Hilfenhouse, Dougie Bollinger and Mitch. It was only typical of Pakistan that somebody like Marcus North was going to anhiliate us. In fact, as soon as he came on to bowl I knew that he would be the difference on day 4. It was obvious.

A much improved batting performance by Azhar Ali and Umar Amin in the second innings. Umar in particular looked a lot less tentative and nervous as his innings progressed. They showed enough signs of a promising future. Another problem we have had over recent times is that our number 8, 9, 10 and 11 are all basically number 11s who put no price on their wicket and are just, walking wickets, basically. But yesterday at least Aamer showed he has enough talent and strength to hang around for a bit. From a number 8....19 runs from 48 balls is acceptable. Let's hope Gul and Danish can learn a thing or two from him.


HOWEVER

Our constant outright refusal to take singles is really starting to get on my nerves. We are either hitting boundaries or blocking. Our batsman need to realise that there is no fatwa in Islam against taking singles. They wont go to hell and burn for eternity if they just work the ball around a bit and take some 1s and 2s. It is not a capital offence, which is how they treat it. It also relieves pressure because it keeps the scoreboard ticking and there is no need to go for gung ho shots and get yourself out like half our batsman did.

We still can't bat for 100 overs or score 300 runs. Don't expect us to win a test match if we can't do those things.

What we desperately need is for Younus Khan to be immediately drafted into the side for the second test and for Ijaz Butt to be on the next plane to Bolivia, never to return.

[pinger]

**bump**