What cost us this match? Pakistan vs New Zealand (Super 8) [Merged]

[rhussain33]

In my opinion....

Misbahs 3 off 13, moreover his selection over Fawad...


Abdur Rehmans last shot !! They only needed to hit anywhere along the ground and run for the superover and given them a better chance to win, if they hit high and got caught out it was over, wasnt worth the risk.

[PB]

Kamran Akmal
Misbah Ul Haq
Umar Akmal..If stupid Akmal Jr atleast scored 5 runs, we would be the winners now.

[Paradox]

Choose one of the following..

1) Misbah playing out the maiden over

2) Last ball six off NZ's batting innings

3) Razzaq playing and missing consecutively off Bond

4) Salman Butt running a bye to get Rehman on strike

5) Sami's 5 wides

I think what had the biggest effect on us was the last ball six in the NZ innings, it was a poor delivery by Ajmal, short on leg stump. Not something you'd want to bowl in the last over of the innings.

[*sallu*]

Our batting
Earlier in the tournament our bowling was letting us down, but when the bowlers delivered, the batsmen couldn't.

Just one of those tournaments. We were simply not good enough to challenge the top sides.
We've lost to Aus, Eng and New Zealand. Losing 3 imp matches, no complains for getting knocked out now.

[hamzie]

Misbah shouldve been replaced by hammad

[Prince_Pathan]

dropping fawad alam and playing misbah instead but to be fair he still played better than u akmal and has all tournament...lol

[Amjid Javed]

The Batting was poor once again. The so called Middle order of this current team doesnt have a single batsmen of any truely quality or substance. Pakistans struggles will continue for a very long time!

[rhussain33]

Originally Posted by Paradox Choose one of the following.. 1) Misbah playing out the maiden over 2) Last ball six off NZ's batting innings 3) Razzaq playing and missing consecutively off Bond 4) Salman Butt running a bye to get Rehman on strike 5) Sami's 5 wides I think what had the biggest effect on us was the last ball six in the NZ innings, it was a poor delivery by Ajmal, short on leg stump. Not something you'd want to bowl in the last over of the innings.

Can we have a poll please, with the above options... thanks

[rhussain33]

Originally Posted by Amjid Javed The Batting was poor once again. The so called Middle order of this current team doesnt have a single batsmen of any truely quality or substance. Pakistans struggles will continue for a very long time!

The situation was made for Fawad... Why was misbah selected over him, when he hasnt done squat for the last many many many matches ??

[Saj]

53 dot balls.....enough said !

You know who played out most of the dot balls, I dont need to name names.

[cricketcrazy]

Why Saj, I see you usually dont take the names?? is there any reason? Misbah n Akmals were the culprits whats wrong in this?

[chui_kadoo]

rehman cost us the match. Why on earth did he hit the ball in the air. Pathetic shot under the circumstances. No common sense shown

[PB]

Originally Posted by Saj 53 dot balls.....enough said ! You know who played out most of the dot balls, I dont need to name names.

Look at the plus side,
we scored 132 off 67. .

[<< Rashid >>]

N McCullum nicked it, not given, and he hit that last ball six.

[mastermind_quad]

Batting ....except butt sahab....!!

[Boi]

Billy Doctrove.

[Abdullah22]

Originally Posted by rhussain33 Can we have a poll please, with the above options... thanks

+ This:

18.5
Mohammad Aamer to NL McCullum, no run, 86.5 mph, big shout and not given! Walks down the track and swings again. There is a sound of a nick as the ball passes the bat and also a deviation. But Billy Doctrove thinks otherwise

19.6
Saeed Ajmal to NL McCullum, SIX

[*sallu*]

Well,
overall, you guys may point out small points here and there.

But at the base level, its just 1 simple thing by the name of logic.

We don't realize the importance of singles, we keep persisting with tried and tested failures, we play stupid shots when they are not required.
and a whole lot of other points that all happen because always, someone in the process, someone lacks logic

[GLORY OF '92]

Misbah!

Cost us 2 WCs now.

[CricnPak]

Out of all the reasons, Butt's decision in the penultimate should be the last one. He had to take it because if it was a dot-ball, it'd mean that he'd need to score 3 off the last ball...which is even harder than running for a two because he'd essentially need to score a boundary.

[SohailQureshi]

N McCullum edge which resulted in the last ball six! misbah not rotating the strike, and razzaq throwing his wicket away at the time we needed him to stay there... afridi played pathetic again as usual and also samis 5 wides

[Rizwan25]

Let's just say its Afridi who cost us this whole tournament.

[Sledger]

Obviously the batting mucked up again. Even 140 should have been a doddle. Akmal bros and Misbah should take the major load of the blame.

[TalhaSyed]

In true Pakistan fashion I blame:

18.5; Mohammad Aamer to NL McCullum, no run, 86.5 mph, big shout and not given! Walks down the track and swings again. There is a sound of a nick as the ball passes the bat and also a deviation. But Billy Doctrove thinks otherwise

[Tiger316]

Its just down to pak stupidity that they lost the match. Now they are definitely out especially since they are dependent on the run rate situation. Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal and players of this class cost us the match. Sami is always going to give runs the whole squad wasnt selected properly. No one can bowl depth overs apart from Aamir. They are missing Gul, so they should have selected a depth bowler. Poor Salman butt playing with a whole bunch of idiots

[Mueed Ahmed]

Fall of Razzaq cost us the match as simple as that.Razzaq should have waited for the 18th over which definitely was going to be of fast bowler.

[Amjid Javed]

Originally Posted by rhussain33 The situation was made for Fawad... Why was misbah selected over him, when he hasnt done squat for the last many many many matches ??

You will have to ask Pakistan great Skipper why Fawad was misused and then dropped!

[Tiger316]

above all, In pakistan cricket, no brains involved like Afridi!

[*sallu*]

Originally Posted by CricnPak Out of all the reasons, Butt's decision in the penultimate should be the last one. He had to take it because if it was a dot-ball, it'd mean that he'd need to score 3 off the last ball...which is even harder than running for a two because he'd essentially need to score a boundary.

It shouldn't be a reason at all.
Butt almost sealed the tie by taking the bye, it was a very smart decision infact I think
Surely you would expect Rehman to get bat on ball and atleast take the 1 if he doesn't get the gap

[asifp]

Afridi for not chaning the batting order.

He should have been brave and come one down and guide us to victory.

[Amjid Javed]

Am sorry but if you cant chase totals of 130 against a team like kiwis you deserve to go home early!

[Safar55]

Originally Posted by Paradox Choose one of the following.. 1) Misbah playing out the maiden over 2) Last ball six off NZ's batting innings 3) Razzaq playing and missing consecutively off Bond 4) Salman Butt running a bye to get Rehman on strike 5) Sami's 5 wides I think what had the biggest effect on us was the last ball six in the NZ innings, it was a poor delivery by Ajmal, short on leg stump. Not something you'd want to bowl in the last over of the innings.

this.... although apart from sami wides.... other things are forgivable EXCEPT Misbah playing like he did....UNFORGIVABLE under the circumstances

[pakcricketfan]

Misbah's 3 runs of 13 balls!!!
Sending Rehman to bat instead of Aamer/Sami
Rehman's last shot. He should have kept the ball on the ground, take a single and try to get back for a double. Even if any one got out while taking the second run, we still would have had the super over.

[IMMY69]

The not out given againt McCullum did have a huge impact in the end but you would stiull expect our boys to get 134 runs...

Anyway, Abdur Razaq cost us the game more so then Misbah or even Rehman..I dont blame Rehman so much because it was his T20 debut, he's not a batsman and well he played a silly shot..

I dont blame MIsbah too much either because we were in dire straights when he came on and he was wrongly given not out..

Razaq played beautifully until that over againt Bond..He looked absolutely clueless against his slower bouncers..Yes he managed to hit a 6 off the last ball, but truth is that over should have gone for atleast 8 or 9 runs, thereby costing us the match. He then went onto to hole out against an extremely ordinary delivery from McCallum...

Even then I dont blame Razaq too much. In the end we just needed one more top flight batsman to give Butt company to remain with hin until the end...We should never have let it get to 6 down! Thats what really cost us

[KingSwing]

Originally Posted by GLORY OF '92 Misbah! Cost us 2 WCs now.

Disagree with you... Actually yes i must say he cost us this worldcup of 3(13) but because of him we were in the final in 2007.

[WNC]

Originally Posted by Abdullah22 + This: 18.5 Mohammad Aamer to NL McCullum, no run, 86.5 mph, big shout and not given! Walks down the track and swings again. There is a sound of a nick as the ball passes the bat and also a deviation. But Billy Doctrove thinks otherwise 19.6 Saeed Ajmal to NL McCullum, SIX

^ THAT

and

Early 3 wickets in quick successions (though Hafeez got out to a gem of a delivery), Misbah uncle's whirlwind 3 of 13 balls.

Bowling and fielding was good barring that 5 wides by Sami.

[cricket_fever]

samis damn 5 wides

misbahs damn waste of deliveries

[pakmania]

Batting again.
So damn unreliable !

Sami was dreadful,ok he took 2 wickets but 3 overs for 25 is not good enough.The man gives away too many runs,extras,steams in and doesnt think at all whilst bowling,you need the Asif-style guile and to be able to think on your feet when bowling,Sami doesnt have a brain to do this !
He's a pace addict and needs to be dropped and not recycled again.

Abdur Rehman,bowling-wise was good but he'll never be forgiven for that shot at the end.He was an unknown figure before,but a decent spinner but he'll be ostracised for that moment of madness.He has to go back to the Pakistan A team and domestic cricket and stay there.

Misbah...enough said,he needs to retire.Way too old and blocking the right of the younger,talented players like Fawad to shine.Get rid of the waste of space and one-man band,he does not play for the team.

We lacked balance too,someone like Rana Naved gives you that or a Younis or Shoaib Malik.

We just couldnt decide on a starting 11 to stick to like we did more or less in 2009.

Hopefully Waqar and Ijaz will look at this and try and get these guys to play the successful aggressive, tiger-spirit way of the 90s where we wouldnt lose games without a big fight.Nowadays teams dont even have to be at their best to beat us which is unthinkable for the team of the 80s/90s.

[MalikMohsin]

The whole team has failed except Razzaq and Butt. Every bowlers have done their jobs completely.

Afridi captaincy, and batting line continue to collapse and collapse. Salman Butt is the only batsman that kept giving great start consistently and even during the tour of Australia tour in both format.

Shall we kick every batsmen except Salman Butt and the bowlers? That would be definition of knee jerk reaction. But it is possible with PCB as that method appears to be standard for PCB. Sometimes, you just gotta love PCB.

[pakcricketfan]

Originally Posted by CricnPak Out of all the reasons, Butt's decision in the penultimate should be the last one. He had to take it because if it was a dot-ball, it'd mean that he'd need to score 3 off the last ball...which is even harder than running for a two because he'd essentially need to score a boundary.

Agreed. It is harder to score 3 off the last ball than 2 or for that matter 1 to tie the match and take it to the super over!

[iafzal]

we lost the match because

Afridi again played a senseless shot when there was no need.
Misbah
Akmals
Afridi sending AR instead of Sami

[Paradox]

How did Afridi play a senseless shot? He played a pull shot, middled it pretty decently actually, was unlucky to find Nathan McCullum who took a.. controversial catch.

[Savak]

On what basis was Misbah selected? I just wish to know.

Why werent Imran nazir, Shahzaib taken? Why was Asif taken if he wasnt mentally ready for cricket after the Veena issue and if the pitches didnt suit him?

[pakcricketfan]

Originally Posted by iafzal we lost the match because Afridi again played a senseless shot when there was no need. Misbah Akmals Afridi sending AR instead of Sami

Agreed. Rehman was playing his first match of the tournament. I don't know how good a batsman he is..never saw him bat in international matches and he was sent to the middle in such a crucial time! Sami or Aamer would have been better choices. Both know how to bat and have put up fairly good show in the past.

[Pak_Pace]

Pathetic batting from everyone except Butt. Period.

[Lethal]

The batting sucked but I wasn't too optimistic with this current side.

Apart from Gul missing from the side - there was something else missing. It just seemed Pakistan weren't capable of a win.

Dissapointing loss. Top order to blame barring Salman Butt. Abdul Razzaq missed quite a few times but I'm not going to blame him - he got Pakistan back into a good position although he lost his wicket at the wrong time.

Still when he departed Pakistan needed 23 runs off 15 balls. Easy.

[pakcricketfan]

Originally Posted by Savak On what basis was Misbah selected? I just wish to know. Why werent Imran nazir, Shahzaib taken? Why was Asif taken if he wasnt mentally ready for cricket after the Veena issue and if the pitches didnt suit him?

His age was the basis of his selection. How can you forget he is a "senior" batsman?

[Ismailtoca]

Up till now i could not understand y PPers hated misbah...

Now I know :-(

LOST US THE STUPID MATCH!!!! Who scores a 3 off of 13!! Atleast get out.......


Meh atleast Ijaz Butt is going to lose his job :-)

[Lethal]

Completely forgot about the bowling.

Sami is absoutely useless.

Annoying bowler if ever there was one.

[MalikMohsin]

Originally Posted by Paradox How did Afridi play a senseless shot? He played a pull shot, middled it pretty decently actually, was unlucky to find Nathan McCullum who took a.. controversial catch.

He was supposed to build the partnership with Salman Butt. Instead, decide to play risky shot to leave Salman Butt alone in the field. It's thirteen years, and he still can't understand the simple basic of how to survive during the under pressure.

[Dr. Khan]

To be honest, I would not blame McCullum's last ball six, the umpires decision to not give him out, or Sami's 5 wides. All in all it was a total that should have been chased by anytime deserving of going into the semis.

They lacked aggression when they came out to bat, looked scared up first. This was a tactical mistake and criminal was Misbah's 3 ball 13. Some argue that the situation demanded it, in the modern game especially T20s one has to be able to manoeuvr the field and pick up singles.

I blame Misbah above all and the people responsible for his selection. I hope that this is the end of the road for this dinosaur.

[workkey]

why we forget that cricket is the game of making enough of the chances been given by the opponents.
Rehman showed good nerves and bowled well and was unlucky that the ball went to the fielder..
120 balls and 134 runs.....just common sense was needed from the top 5 ..if they could just have manged 60/2 in first ten overs it would have been different...
Lets accept we didnt played well and we dont deserve to be the champs..
Just look at aussies..how brutally they attacked us and india and are clear favourites along with england...

Mr ejaz butt is also responsible for meddling in the affairs of selection commitee and conducting a stupid inquiry to ban shoaib malik and rana naveed..
Shahzeb hasan was the member of the squad in england last year...why he was not selected ahead of fawad alam?

lots of stupid things....lets pray that ejaz butt is now removed by zardari and his brother in law ahmed mukhtar doesnt supports him this time

[Ali888]

afridi, crap captaincy, crap selection, crap bowling, crap batting

He just can not handle the pressure

Misbah atrocious as ever and for two tournaments running demonstrated he is past it

Razzaq past it as well, 100 strike rate and he doesn't bowl, is he really good enough to get into the team as a specialist batsman

Braindead akmals, one shrieking incessantly behind the stumps the other full of himself but lacking any discipline or temperament to deliver when under pressure

Back to the drawing board for the whole
Bunch of wasters

Only Butt and Fawad and Aamer come out of this tournament with any credit

We need proper class thinking seniors like Younus Khan and Shoaib Akhtar back

Younus Khan reputation should grow manifold after Afridi shows that captaincy is one skill that it takes a real man with a brain to accomplish

Younus khan come back with a stick and beat the crap out these wasters and show them that they are just sheep and need to be led

[Usman Chadda]

Abdur Rehman cost us the match. Nothing else

[Down2Earth]

Razzaq's dot balls

[MIG]

WE lost matches because we play as if the world is sitting around to give us another chance to win the cup.

Sorry - have news for Pak players - wake up! As they say about Namaz - pray like its your last namaz - same applies to matches - play it like your life depended on it and then you will take those half chances etc

I guess another word for that is professionalism.

[Lethal]

Originally Posted by Down2Earth Razzaq's dot balls

Yeah right - without his 29 Pakistan would not have made it towards the end or got close towards the total.

No use blaming 1 guy.

[razoobadmash]

Cant blame the players, its time for the chariman to be sent off with a red flag.....
Top PCB leadership needs to be dismantled and sent packing to Abu Grahib or Gitmo!!
Butt and Bari, get ready I have a pair of nice OraNge jumpsuits for you two...

[Radiance Of Australis]

Originally Posted by Usman Chadda Abdur Rehman cost us the match. Nothing else

Are you kidding me?
It was his job to bowl and he took wickets and bowled pretty well.

The fault goes to the batsmen namely Umar and Misbah who couldnt even bat properly.The former who got out with his brainless cricket and the latter who defended everthing that came to him!

The fault also goes to Nathan who BUMPED the catch clearly.I suspected it as soon as he caught it.The replays just cleared the doubts.

Also,the last ball six off Aamer's over....that was everything.Thats sealed the fate before the chase had begun.

The batsmen failed.They always do.It always happens to Pakistan.The bowlers play well.The batsmen,except for one or two fail and collapse like dominos.

[Bilsher007]

1. Wrong Team squad selected, hafeez, misbah, latif and sami were not right players at this level. In their places a number of worthy youngsters missed out like mohammed Irfan, Raza Hasan, Naved Yasin and Asad Shafiq .

2. Failure to hold onto sitters, fielding standards not improving at all and poor running between the wickets.

3. People like yawar saeed still associated as manager with this team as he has been widely exposed as encouraging groupings in the team.

4. Wrong batting orders and poor decisions by afridi in giving overs to certain bowlers at the wrong time.


5. Failure by our batsmen to captilise on good starts and some playing duck balls . Showing no effort to take singles and rotate strike and keep momentum building up.

[Usman Chadda]

Originally Posted by Super Sixer Are you kidding me? It was his job to bowl and he took wickets and bowled pretty well. The fault goes to the batsmen namely Umar and Misbah who couldnt even bat properly.The former who got out with his brainless cricket and the latter who defended everthing that came to him! The fault also goes to Nathan who BUMPED the catch clearly.I suspected it as soon as he caught it.The replays just cleared the doubts. Also,the last ball six off Aamer's over....that was everything.Thats sealed the fate before the chase had begun. The batsmen failed.They always do.It always happens to Pakistan.The bowlers play well.The batsmen,except for one or two fail and collapse like dominos.

We had this won. Whatever happened before did not matter. A tail-ender bottled it when it mattered the most. We were still in a position to win DESPITE all that happened before. I still cannot get over the last ball. Salman Butt certainly did not deserve that

[Muzy]

why do people think misbah is going to do wonders in t20, they need to realise his performance in the t20 07 cup was IT thats all nothing special after that, does pcb iVIP still realise if you take out your middle order the sheep can be left standing ??? dumbos the whole batting display was a shambles barring butt who played a single handed innings alone.... no1 thinks about rotating the strike in this current batting line up not everyone can go for the big shots, razzaq looked lethal at one point but all is not well... this isnt the winning t20 XI team, afridi cant make them into a winning XI fact,

[Cricket_MN]

Pretty obviouse that it was our batting.

I am not a fan of Rehman, heck I don't even know him so why blame him? Why was he sent in at this crucial stage? Why not Sami or Aamir ? They both can bat. Atleats I have seen both of them(specially Aamir) bat much better then most of our so called batsmen.

Misbah has to retire and if he does not want to leave respectably then just kick him out. We have kicked out our heros like Waqar & Wasim after WC03 even though they did not deserved this kind of treatment. So, why not kick out the one who deserves to be kicked out.
Feel sorry for Fawad, poor fella always gets the harsh treatment.

PLUS umpiring also cost us but since 130ish is a very getable total speacially against a mediocre bowling like NZ I dont realy blame them.

[pakcricketfan]

Originally Posted by MIG WE lost matches because we play as if the world is sitting around to give us another chance to win the cup. Sorry - have news for Pak players - wake up! As they say about Namaz - pray like its your last namaz - same applies to matches - play it like your life depended on it and then you will take those half chances etc I guess another word for that is professionalism.

You summed up Pak's T20 WC2010 campaign nicely with that one sentence.
We never looked like we were in Windies to DEFEND our title. We never played like champions. We never fought. We gave everything away in a plate.

[mrk]

our brain.

[PB]

Originally Posted by Super Sixer Are you kidding me? It was his job to bowl and he took wickets and bowled pretty well. The fault goes to the batsmen namely Umar and Misbah who couldnt even bat properly.The former who got out with his brainless cricket and the latter who defended everthing that came to him! The fault also goes to Nathan who BUMPED the catch clearly.I suspected it as soon as he caught it.The replays just cleared the doubts. Also,the last ball six off Aamer's over....that was everything.Thats sealed the fate before the chase had begun. The batsmen failed.They always do.It always happens to Pakistan.The bowlers play well.The batsmen,except for one or two fail and collapse like dominos.

Ajmals over...Not Aamer.

[Indiafan]

Out of all the points made I would say that none individually lost you the match because Pak had a chance despite them. Its a combination of all (Akmals, Afridi's shot, Misbah's dot balls, Sami's bowling) which made Pak lose the match. You can afford to make a few mistakes but not too many. Pak didnt deserve to win today

[Cheguvera]

In order of importance:

First and foremost bad selection...too many bowlers, six bowlers were used and only a couple bowled their quota of four...there was one extra bowler in the side...

Should have never dropped Fawad or at least should have replaced him with Hammad and not a specialist bowler...

Second reason...Akmal brothers...they are just pathetic and taking up two important spots

Third reason bad umpiring...

Fourth reason Razzaq's stupid hoick...

Fifth reason Afridi's stupid shot...

Sixth reason Hafeez's typical two quick boundaries then out innings...

Seventh reason...Misbah the dead weight grandpa...

[Bilsher007]

Originally Posted by razoobadmash Cant blame the players, its time for the chariman to be sent off with a red flag..... Top PCB leadership needs to be dismantled and sent packing to Abu Grahib or Gitmo!! Butt and Bari, get ready I have a pair of nice OraNge jumpsuits for you two...

Exactly what i would like ..spoke my mind and what my heart feels strongly. Honestly joke aside it's time for serious actions...enough ******** i can't take incompetence, corruption and nepotism, inconsistency and unprofessionalism anymore.

[cantab]

Originally Posted by Rizwan25 Let's just say its Afridi who cost us this whole tournament.

Totally agree.

[the Great Khan]

This is what happens when you ban your only two star players..expecting miracles from akmal mr when he has done nothing major is stupid! afridi just looked under pressure throughout, I thought he could handle things better..alas he has proven me wrong..misbah has always been rubbish..I expect a big fifty from him our next meaningless encounter..hafeez is also rubbish bit was unlucky looked in good nick..kami like his best friend mr sania is another player who should never play for pak again...

Bring in shahzaib, but the middle order is where we lack players! I think they should have pushed kami down the order!!

[jr]

the batting was atrocious. they are simply mentally too weak to chase in a pressure situation. and only this set of batsman could get themselves into a situation of running out of deliveries when chasing a low target.
misbah was the worst of the lot. totally clueless batting

[*sallu*]

we are missing a very important component of the human body, its called a brain

thats why we lose a lot of matches

[LovePak]

Hafeez is neither good for bowling,batting or catching. Why is he in the side?
Misbah is the same, used to pull of awesome shots in T20 07, he was old then at 33. 3 years later he seems to be inept at everything.
AFRIDI- Has seen Pakistan crumble time and time again. Needed to keep composure as captain, play sensibly with singles and then boundaries once the partnership was settled.
Kamran- If as unpredicatable as the rest, did well as wickey today but was quickly dismissed by Mills.
Collectively these lot made 27 RUNS. If you include Umar in the equation that is 5 of our batsmen having gone for 27. If that isn't worrying I don't know what is.

Well played Butt today, not often you say it but he was very unlucky in the circumstances. Razzaq has a huge shot and can play the kinda role a 'super sub' does in football, the kind of impact Afridi is supposed to have. However, today he needed to realise that Butt would need to be supported right to the end to secure victory.

Do we honestly think we can beat SA with a team like this?

[dhump]

I think again our lack of mental strength cost us the match, when we came out to bat we were trying to be over defensive. I cant really blame a single players for this loss but misbah was the worst he seems like totally out of touch, Omer Akmal got a better delivery to swallow which he failed to do, hafeez I was not expecting from him to good do any and shahid afridi should have asked for a re-check or tried to borrow brain from some one, also while bowling he should have tried another over from rehman instead of finishing his 4 and conceding those extra sixes.

not a fan of butt but played amazingly well today.

and above all saj mentioned we played 50+ dot balls.

[azk]

surprised you guys are so overcritical and singling players out. it was a good game and an improved showing. leave it at that. if anything no right to complain with a squad like this. don't deserve to win the cup with this squad anyway but we have a chance.

just look ahead to a good win against south africa and hope england (form team) beat new zealand.

[SOSami]

Mohammad Hafeez's technique - he has no ability to rotate the strike against good bowling. He gets bogged down as a result of this and gets himself out trying to go for a big shot. We have this pattern every time he bats.
With Afridi's poor form with the ball I can see why he wants Hafeez in the team but that man is not a No3 in any form of the game.

Fawad Alam, despite his faults, is far better equipped to bat at the top of the order.

[SOSami]

Originally Posted by cantab Totally agree.

And lets just say Afridi won us the last tournament too?

What short memories....

[qaiser]

Originally Posted by Paradox Choose one of the following.. 1) Misbah playing out the maiden over 2) Last ball six off NZ's batting innings 3) Razzaq playing and missing consecutively off Bond 4) Salman Butt running a bye to get Rehman on strike 5) Sami's 5 wides I think what had the biggest effect on us was the last ball six in the NZ innings, it was a poor delivery by Ajmal, short on leg stump. Not something you'd want to bowl in the last over of the innings.

I add that not giving n. maccullum out on a clear edge off aamer, n. macc last ball six and afridi not standing his ground on doubtful catch by guess who..again n. macculum

[Ryankhan]

I think fawad should have been playing in place of Misbah....That old ***** cost us the match with playing a test match. bad selection. glad to see rehman got a chance and he showed good performance apart from his last ball effort with the bat. Fawad would had played much better in this situation and if fawad was inplace of misbah then those 13 balls that misbah played, if that was played by fawad im sure he would have scored atleast 10 off 13 balls. kick out misbah for good. Hafeez was very poor with shot selection. he got 2 fours in 2 balls then whts the need after going for every ball..umer was stupid enough to play that shot.