Akmal brothers face a familiar task
on December 27th, 2009 at 9:21 pmThe second day completely belonged to Australia they dominated Pakistan team in all departments.
Pakistan’s bowlers failed to get early break throughs due to some below par bowling and defensive field placements, Mohammad Yousaf didn’t gave any close in fielders to Ajmal his field placements and Ajmal’s bowling was focused on the control of runs he kept on darting on the pads and bowling above 90k’s, it was painful to watch the ease with which Haurtiz was able to score his runs.
It was expected that Asif might provide an early break through with the second ball but he also failed, he never tried to bang the ball on the deck to extract seam movement he was only putting the ball just outside the off stump or on the off stump with no movement what so ever, the final whip of the wrist just before delivering the ball which enables him to get a bit of pace and slight movement off the pitch was missing through out the Aussie innings. Pakistan also missed the reverse swing ability of Umar Gul with the old ball his replacement Rauf was simply not good enough for test level cricket.
The team management again knowingly created a handicap in Pakistan’s bowling and batting, there was absolutely no justification in dropping Umar Gul and not considering Mohammad Sami for this match. Khurram Manzoor or Shoaib Malik would have been much better choice for the # 3 position, Faisal has demonstrated time and again that he can’t handle pace bowling.
This match is perhaps the last chance for Misbah Ul Haq to save his career. If he fails then there is no justification in playing with six specialist batsmen when the #6 batsman is consistently failing a genuine allrounder will be a better option.
The Australia bowlers bowled aggressively they either attacked the stumps or the rib cage and Watson did managed to reverse the bowl which raises the question why Asif was unable to move the old ball.
It’s highly unlikely that Misbah and Akmal brothers will be able to pull Pakistan out of the hole, but they do face a familiar task and often times they have managed to succeed a lot will depend on Umar Akmal’s performance.
Pakistan faces a Herculean task but the pitch is still quite easy to bat, Pakistan will have to bat from session to session they will have to kill as much time as they can to give themselves a chance in the second innings.
Stani
Yousaf, Kamran Akmal and Misbah they all like to put brakes on Umar Akmal, I think once he is set he should be allowed to play his natural game, Kamran Akmal is in form he usually comes at #7that is a bit too low for him and just gives him a licence to play stupid shots. He has a good range of shots and can bat long so in my opinion we are wasting him. The shot he played to get out was highly irresponsible and stupid he should have tried to forge a partnership with Misbah.
Isn’t it funny that he tries to put brakes on Umar Akmal but his own shot selection at times is horrendous.
Wasim,
I think Kamran also feels the pressure brought on by Umar. He shouldn’t though because Umar is a prodigious talent, natural. Kamran should just go on like he used to before. Kamran had to come in late because of Aamer being night watchman.
Really happy for Misbah and completely agree with the way the Aussies panicked a little when they were attacked.
Rauf is consistently bowling down the leg side, he needs to bowl just outside the offstump and curve the ball in on middle and off and then bowl an occasional away swinger.
All of a sudden the pressure is off from the Aussie’s Ajmal and Rauf are bowling both don’t look like taking any wickets.
Aamer and Asif are on fire, this is what we missed in the first innings, Asif swinging the ball and Aamer targeting the batsmen with full pace. A couple more wickets before close of play and Pakistan will be back in the match.
Stani
Heck even if we play a regular bowler he might bat longer than him.
And have you noticed that Kamran Akmal came at #8 today usually it is #7 he shouldn’t be batting that low.
I think although Aamer did a great job in holding one end but due to his presence the run rate dropped considerably and we couldn’t attack from both ends.
K Akmal was a bit over aggressive, I think he psychologically feels the burden to score quickly since he bats too low.
Misbah capitalized on the chance he got and played a nice innings, but have you noticed that that when Umar Akmal and Misbah counter attacked the Aussie bowlers were getting under pressure even the field placements became more defensive.
Wasim
I would have loved Umar to get his century. He does look awesome. That over to Siddle was superb 4464.
The batting was needlessly negative on a decent pitch. Just have a look at the number of balls faced.
I do agree that no.6 should be a genuine all-rounder but I would swap for Iqbal. The all-rounder will easily get the runs Iqbal does but he will be able to bowl too. Iqbal is messing everything up.
Pakistan are batting too negatively, with the exception of Umar Akmal none of the batsmen showed any intent just prolonging the stay on the wicket is not going to pull them out of trouble they will also have to score the runs. Misbah has played some shots but it’s only a matter of time before he edges one to the slips, his footwork is not there.
Full marks to Aamer for his determination, it’s strange that I am more confident about him staying longer at the wicket than Misbah.