Inti takes the responsibility for Batting order changes

Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam blamed his team’s defeat on poor bowling and fielding.

‘We had a bad day,’ said Alam.

‘We probably gave away 30-40 extra runs and that made the difference. We must improve our fielding because New Zealand is one of the best fielding sides in the world, on a par with South Africa.’

Alam defended his decision to promote Shahid Afridi (no runs) and Kamran Akmal (four) to fourth and fifth in the batting order.

‘They were my decisions,’ admitted Alam. ‘Both batted well in the first match but didn’t click in the second.’

Link : http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect...s-vettori-ts-02

If this old far.t would check our history, even most recent one too...there are rarely any matches when 2-3 of the same players (especially Afridi/Akmal/Razzaq)...fired in consistent matches, when playing against better oppositions!

That's why I always say that the captain should always decide the batting order and playing eleven. It's not the coach's role in anything. If a team wins or loses, it's the captain's fault, since he's the one who led the team out there and he should take full responsibility for whatever happens out there. Not the coach, because all the coach has to do is just sit and watch the game like any other spectator.

1) Playing eleven should always be decided by the Captain and the Vice-captain. Nobody else. Not the manager, not the coach.

2) Batting order should always be decided by the Captain and possibly the vice-captain if his input is required. Nobody else.

3) I'm not sure who right now in the Pak team decides when the batting powerplay will be taken, but I think it's the captain who's deciding it most probably. It should be the two batsmen batting out in the middle who should decide it since they know when they're both set and ready to fire.

Here I was complaining about Younis Khan's captaincy decisions. Intikhab Alam stinks as a coach he always has. I ve never heard yk or imran khan ever say anything good about him. He's just been lucky enough to be a passenger on a train to success.

We seriously need an Australian/Kiwi/South African coach again. Someone who has the skills to coach a side properly, inspire them, and make them perform like no other. We need someone who's willing to come to Pakistan and live there, see the talent and potential that the current team has and work on it. We need someone who can perform well as a coach and make the other players perform well too by motivating them and doing anything possible.

We need someone like Bob Woolmer.

I know people like Bob are very hard to come by, but there are people like him out there. We need one of them.

I know most people here will think that the team's performance and ranking is all up to the captain and the players and how they perform, but behind the scenes there's a coach who also plays a bigger role than we think.

There was nothing wrong with the bowling, NZ were just excellent at batting. The fielding and our batting was poor. ONE SOLUTION: DROP BUTT. He's one of the most stupid cricketers i know. He just can't field, it was his mistakes that cost us those extra 20-30 runs. 270-280 was easily achievable. Even 300 was. It was just his inability to rotate the strike and his selfish defending (with a bit of YK) which put too much pressure on Afridi/Akmal. Their positions in the order were fine, but they knew they had to repeat their 1st ODI heroics, something they wouldn't of had to do if Butt wasn't in the team. So you see, one person CAN make a difference, either positive or negative. In this case, it was Butt who made the negative difference. His fielding added pressure on the others and lowered the team's all-round confidence because he's unreliable.

Afridi was planning to start of slowly first, the shot he got out to wasnt an aggressive shot as such, he was aiming for an innocent chip for a couple of runs, unfortunately for him he hit it straight to the fielder.

Akmal found the fielder. Anyways they were sent up for a purpose to push the scoring rate along. It didnt work out, Mohd Yousaf is not scoring at a fast rate these days. Malik has got to come in at no 3 from now on. YK has to come in at no 5/6 just like he did during Inzi's captaincy.

Inti protecting Younis. You scratch my back, I scratch yours.

Atleast a little blame can be taken off YK

I didn't think it was such a bad idea, just didn't come of on the day.

Theres really no point in playing Malik if he's going to come in at 6 or 7 though. Might as well play Umar Akmal so he gets experience. Malik is at his best at the top of the order. I thought our batting line-up was a good one in the CT, we were just missing the firepower of Razzaq down the order. We have that sorted, but we've reverted to two specialist openers which never seems to work for us.

We have to get all these little things together before going Down Under.

Nope, YK is being protected by Inti. Inti is still pak couch because of YK.

Couldn't agree more...he is a useless Butt-aaaah

How can he blame it on thwe bowling... it was our batting that let us down...

We are more then capable of having an order of XI that can chase 300, YK/Coach just dont have the brains to pull it off. Selfish people.

eh? conceding 300 runs is not the responsibility of the bowlers/fielders?

anyway, good to see him owning up to his mistakes

Butt and latif can't play in the same team..I just don't think it works..however I don't think we lost coz of the batting order..it was a good idea and shows that our think tank is will g to at least try to think out of the box..if it would have come off we would have won by miles..but no matter..I've got to say our initial ten overs were rubbish and umar gul is really I consistent!!

We were struggling with the run rate and a good inning from Afridi or Akmal would have made a huge difference. We are just criticising Intikhab because it didn't work. Imagine a quickfire inning from Afridi and everyone would have showered praises on Younis and Inti. It wasn't a bad decision, it just didn't work.

In the end, there were many more reasons we lost. Batting order didn't make much difference to the end result.

Playing two regular openers is simply NOT working.

^^ believe it or not, that is exactly the way our openers were told to play...occupy the crease, see off the NZ new ball bowlers, while keeping the innings going at a decent rate...did they achieve all of these objectives? absolutely

if there was any need to increase the RR, why did YK not take it upon himself to do that...why was he scratching around and looking to pick up the ones and twos instead of going after the bowling and looking for boundaries?

simple, because the gameplan was to bat the overs, one guy holding up an end, and then go for the push in the last 10-12 overs, with the powerplay in hand as well...it didn't work, too bad, but to say it was 'cos of slow batting at the top is ridiculous

I have a Question .Do we realy need a coach at this level ?

My answer is no. Give 100% authority to captain in decesion making in the field , batting order and if it comes to selecting the playing eleven why not involve selectors rather than coach .

yes, the Cuptaan who dropped the brightest batting talent in Pakistan after one bad innings

But still we dont know exactly if Younus has full autority in selecting the team.becaue at the moment according to news its coach captain and chief selector are selecting the team .

then why did he create all the iQuit drama if this was the end result? face the facts, it was YK who had a major hand in the decision to drop Umar

Yousuf and Butt have got to go, they are just too big a liability in the field, and the team just does not bat around Yousuf the way they used too, plus there is no way he will last till the 2011 WC so better to wrap him in cotton wool for the Test Matches. Butt has two problems, first he is way too defensive at the start, mainly because he is playing for his place, and secondly he is a pathetic fielder. I say bring U Akmal and Farhat in, Farhat may play for his place too but he is by nature and aggressive player and will only be able to control his intent for so long. Younis should drop to number 5, Malik at 3 and U Akmal at 4. YK is brilliant in the field and a decent captain, but his batting form has really evaporated. At 5 he has options which he does not have at 3. If we are 60 for 3 or something like that, it will require an accumulator anyway, if we are 200-3, he has the option of sending in K Akmal or Afridi to keep the momentum going.

if you look at the dissmisals no one gave away their wicket except for silly run out of butt. it was all best fielding and if but had been their we may had a chance as razzak was there till the end. inshallah today we will win

I disagree, YK and Kami also played 2 very loose shots