Posts Tagged ‘Pakistan’

5 results.
Feb27

A step in the right direction

by wasim on February 27th, 2008 at 4:32 am
Posted In: Uncategorized

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PCB has approached former bowling great Waqar Younis once again for the post of bowling coach,Waqar was removed as bowling coach by the same PCB administration last year before the WC 07 and Mushtaq Ahmed was appointed in his place as a result his relations got sour with the Board and he moved to Australia with his family where he is working with Ten sports as a commentator.

Nasim Ashraf met Waqar recently during the Zimbabwe series and has offered Waqar the job again depending upon his availability.There was a visible improvement in Pakistan bowlers under Waqar  which was heartening, He transformed Umar Gul  into a lethal bowler, he helped Asif and Rana Naveed and since his resignation Pakistan’s bowling has struggled and our bowlers have struggled to bowl out the opposition on too many occasions, Pakistan is still blessed with talent in this department the new crop of fast bowlers is quite impressive, there are quite a few young bowlers who are knocking at the doors of International cricket Anwar Ali, Jamshed Ahmed, Wahab Riaz, Abdul Rauf, Mohammed Aamir, Adil Reza and many others, the only thing lacking is the final dimension to their bowling they all are good talented have good run ups, they have speed but almost all of them are quite flat they need to learn the art of swing, they need to learn to bowl toe crushing yorkers right in the block hole. Waqar is an ideal candidate to help these fast bowlers to take them to the next level.I have always been advocating for a fast bowling Academy in Pakistan where former greats should be employed to train the youngsters.Although PCB is operating several academies in Pakistan, the facilities are there and billions were spent to create these facilities but most of these academies remain vacant through out the year the vision was great but as they say that without action a vision is just a dream, PCB needs to be proactive on the issue and should transform these Academies into the best cricket coaching institutions in Asia they have the funds they have the  other resources to accomplish this task all they need is bit of passion and determination.I will still advocate that we not only need Waqar but we also need Wasim as most of the youngsters are lefties and there is no body better than Wasim Akram to guide them. PCB made a huge mistake of hiring a second grade Australian fast bowler as the head coach, the guy was never a great bowler in his time and had nothing to offer to our players  under him our team has declined, it was an illusion that foreigners are better equipped to coach our players its good to see that PCB officials are now moving in the right direction.

The ball is in Waqar’s court now whether he accepts the offer or not, my suggestion would be let bygones be bygones and take the job.

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Jan20

SriLanka wobbles after a great start

by wasim on January 20th, 2009 at 8:22 am
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket Pakistan

Srilanka won the toss and elected to bat, as a surprise move they sent Dilshan to open and the move payed as Sri lanka are off to a flying start they are 71/1 from 8.4 overs, Dilshan just got out after scoring 42 from 33 balls, he was dropped by Younis khan in the slips on the bowling of Shoaib Akhtar and finally fell on the bowling of Omar Gul.

Pakistan’s move to play four fast bowlers have not paid so much as both Tanvir and Shoaib Akhtar proved to be quite expensive, Shoaib Akhtar along with Misbah was reported to be doubtful for this match yesterday but both players finally made it.

Normally Kamran Akmal is regarded as the Mr. Butter fingers of Pakistan cricket but today the pathans are dropping catches, Younis who is the best slip fielder of Pakistan dropped a sitter and now Afridi dropped Jayasuriya, this one is going to hurt Pakistan.

The selection of Pakistan team for this series is debatable, dropping Fawad Alam and Nasir Jamshed was a stupid mistake especially when both have been scoring runs in the domestic matches, Shoaib Akhtar’s selection has also been widely criticized I think either Mohammad Amir or Sohail Khan deserved a chance in his place.

Its 89/2 Jaya suriya just departed Umar Gul provided a huge relief to Malik.

Its 89/3 now Jaywardane is gone.
OUT, Gone! Jayawardene’s horror run continues, short of a length ball, pitches on off and moves a touch away, Jayawardene feathers it through to the keeper and the complexion of the game has changed in five deliveries. Rao and Omar Gul have brought Pakistan back into the match.

Srilanka after a flying start are wobbling they have Sri Lanka have breached the 200-run mark only once in their last eight games, all of which were against the unthreatening bowling attacks of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.

Pakistan needs to remove Sangakara.

The Lankan top order was out of form in Bangladesh and it appears that Pakistan’s bowlers and fielders are also out of form and rusty, Tanvir and Shoaib gave away too much width, Tanvir also strayed the line too much they were not bowling on target, one must remember that this same Srilankan batting line up struggled against Bangladesh through out the series, I hope that Pakistan’s batsmen do not display the same rustyness.

The runs have dried up for Sri Lanka, its 106/3 after 19 overs, Malik should bring in Afridi now.

Malik brings back Shoaib Akhtar instead. Four runs came from the over.

Afridi has been given the ball by Malik, 9 runs came from his first over.

Malik needs to control the singles and plug in the gaps, Afridi came back strong in his second over and removed Kapugadera he is turning the ball.

Afridi needs to control his line and length he is giving away too many runs, bowling either too up or too slow and short.

Pakistan needs a wicket here.

Shoaib Malik to Sangakkara, 1 run, OUT, A run-out as the batsmen looked to pinch a quick run, Sangakkara turns it towards square leg, and wants two but Mubarak is run out when is sent back, Misbah-ul-Haq doing some good work.

Afridi gifted two bad balls to Sangakara but he failed capitalize Malik should bring back Rao or Tanvir.

Wow I am good, just what the doctor ordered.

Malik brings Rao as I suggested and he immediately removes Sangakara.

Iftikhar Anjum to Sangakkara, OUT, The big wicket of Sangakkara. His innings is sawed off at 49, as Sangakkara decides to upper cut the ball at the last moment, after intially shaping to let the bouncer outside off go, Salman Butt at backward point dives to his right and completes an athletic catch.

Rao takes another one and it is 176/7 Srilanka is in deep trouble.

34.4 Iftikhar Anjum to Thushara, OUT, A footwork-free waft, to a short of length ball just outside off, from Thushara ends up in a simple catch to the keeper, the faintest of edges and Iftikhar is on a hat-trick

Sri Lanka are all out for 219, it was Umar Gul and Rao Iftikhar who brought Pakistan back into the game, Malik also bowled decently the score of 219 looks quite easy but its still anybody’s game, Pakistan still has a lot of work to do.

Pakistan won the match comfortably by 8 wickets, Salman Butt and Khurram Manzoor batted sensibly there was no need for flamboyant  strokes earlier on as they were chasing a small target, Salman scored a  well deserved 100, the thing which impressed me the most was that neither Murali nor Mendis could trouble any of the Pakistani batsmen and as Malik said they had a plan for Mendis, he was attacked from the very beginning and failed to cause any problems for pakistani openers, I am happy that Pakistani players were not over cautious in their approach against him, one can find finger spin/Carom spin bowlers in every street of Lahore, I wouldn’t be surprised if our batsmen practiced against some of the locals.

This victory will perhaps silence some of the journalists and bloggers  who have made it a ritual to only highlight the negatives in Pakistan team and it’s players, before every series un necessary speculations and predictions are made about some players and some players are un neccessarily criticized and targeted.

Most probably these people will demote Srilanka also to a minnow level if Pakistan went on to win the series.

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Dec20

A positive start by Pakistan

by wasim on December 20th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket Pakistan

Pakistan started there Australian tour in a positive fashion. Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal both scored contrasting centuries in the tour opening three day practice match against Tasmania. The pitch reportedly had some juice in it for fast bowlers, both Imran Farhat and Salman Butt batted patiently and they managed to see off the new ball. They survived hostile bowling spells by the Tasmanian pacers led by Brett Geeves.

 Pakistan haven’t played a lot of test cricket in recent years as a result their batsmen were finding it difficult to adjust to this format they lacked the determination and the skill to bat through sessions but the three test series in NewZealand provided there batsmen a rare opportunity to adjust mentally and technique wise to the longer format. Almost all the batsmen showed some determination and got good starts but with the exception of Butt and Akmal nobody else could convert it into a big score but the good thing was everybody got good match practice and chipped in with a few runs.

Pakistan scored 437 runs and at the close of the second day Tasmania were 132/6.

Abdul Rauf, Mohammad Aamer and Saeed Ajmal took two wickets each, Umar Gul was the most expensive out of the Pakistani bowlers and also failed to take any wickets most probably he will get replaced by Sami or Rauf in the first test.

Ricky Ponting has said “ Australia’s bid for success would rest with keeping Pakistan on the back foot.

“As a package, if you look at their team they’ve got a number of exceptional players,” he said.

“If they stick together as a group and play well together as a team, they can be very dangerous.

“Our job is to make sure we don’t let them gel too much and combine too well.

The Aussie’s will try to target the key players in Pakistan team, they know which players are under pressure to perform and that is the only way they can not allow the team to Gel.

Australia is planning to tackle Pakistan with sheer pace and bounce, I don’t think that they will make the mistake to prepare tracks which offer too much movement as Asif and Kaneria has already demonstrated their capabilities in New Zealand, Australia will ensure that they neutralize these two bowlers. Perhaps this was the main reason that Pakistan recalled Sami they wanted a bowler who could consistently bowl in high 140′s.

This crop of Young Aussie pacers just rely on pace, bounce and seam movement they are not good at moving the old ball Pakistan’s best bet will be to make them tired and then go on attack. Pakistan has a more balanced bowling attack than Australia all they have to do is to lift up their fielding and batting.

After the Sulieman Benn incident the Aussies will be cautious and hopefully there will be no ugly incidents on the ground.

It will be an interesting series, Pak cricket fans should support their players through good and bad times during the whole series and should refrain from over criticism of players.

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Dec26

An Australian pitch made in Pakistan

by wasim on December 26th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket Pakistan

After the first days play Australia are comfortably placed to score over 500 runs in their first innings. They won the toss and elected to bat on a surface which was probably imported from Faisalabad or Rajkot. There was no sideways movement, no pace and no bounce in it. Tailor made for a struggling Ponting who looked desperate to show the world that he has no problems with the short pitched stuff.

All the claims made by the curator that the pitch will offer pace and bounce was a load of crap, the first days play clearly showed that every time the Pakistani bowlers tried to bend their backs to bowl a bouncer the ball stayed below the shoulder height, this pitch was a Christmas present from CA to Ricky Ponting.

 

Pakistan received a big blow when Danish Kaneria was declared unfit for the match due to a finger injury before the match, but they shot themselves in the foot by dropping Gul and not considering Sami in place of Rauf.

Umar Gul and Sami would have extracted more pace and bounce than Rauf from this pitch and their ability to reverse the old ball could also have caused some problems for the batsmen.

Rauf looked ordinary on this pitch, he had no pace and extracted very little movement from the pitch he also erred with his length at times and was expensive reducing an already depleted

Pakistan bowling to just three bowlers.

Pakistan bowlers although controlled the flow of runs in the first four sessions but they never troubled the batsmen, Asif and Ajmal caused occasional problems for the batsmen but Ajmal bowled a bit too fast and failed to bowl a perfect line just outside off stump and at times he bowled too full. Three catches were dropped and two run out chances were missed, Misbah dropped the easiest of catches.

Mohammad Aamer will have to learn fast, he bowled too straight to cause any problems for the batsman he is just 17 and has a long way to go but he has to realize that his role is of a strike bowler and not of a stock bowler, he will have to learn how to set up a batsman and how to trouble batsmen by varying his angles and length on flat tracks.

Pakistan will have to change their strategy of going in a test with just four bowlers they will have to find a genuine all rounder, it is high time that they recall Afridi and Razzaq for the test matches. They got Sami as a back up bowler in anticipation of flat tracks but failed to include him in the squad, even Rana Naveed or Sohail Tanvir would have been a better option than Rauf, he is not the right bowler for this kind of a pitch.

All the Australian batsmen scored some runs, Watson and Katich missed their 100′s, Ponting scored an aggressive 57 and was looking to dominate the bowlers before he fell on a perfect out swinger from Asif. Hussey looked confident and was scoring runs quite easily.

Pakistan needs a few early wickets today if they have to curtail Australia below 500.

I think the Australian bowlers will hit the deck hard and will extract more pace and bounce from this pitch. But so far the pitch has shown that there is nothing in it for the bowlers, it’s a batting paradise, it will be interesting to see if Pakistani batsmen take advantage of this home like pitch or they again self destruct themselves. All it needs is a little determination and patience to bat long and score runs on this pitch.

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Jan07

The clash of the minnows

by wasim on January 7th, 2011 at 5:46 am
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket Pakistan

 

The clash between the Titans of test cricket just ended yesterday, England defeated Australia 3-1 and the series between South Africa and India ended in a draw. Both series were quite exciting. England with their dominating performance against Australia have become the team to beat in world cricket. South Africa and India are not to far behind but both team have some grey areas.

Starting from today cricket fans will watch the clash between minnows as the first test between NewZealand and Pakistan commenced today. Both team are equally pathetic, the series doesn’t promise top class cricket but  certainly promises drama, both on the field and off it.

NewZealand has already won the T20 series 2-1 as Pakistan team found new ways to lose, all they had to do was to just change the batting order a few selectorial blunders and poor captaincy and that enabled them to lose against perhaps the worst cricket team in international cricket.

The test series won’t be any different, they have already dropped Umar Akmal who was the top scorer for them when they last visited New Zealand, they are missing Saeed Ajmal who had to go back home to attend his father’s funeral. If the team plays to it’s potential and is lead properly they should win the series 2-0. On paper the team looks quite weak especially the bowling without Aamer, Asif and Ajmal there isn’t a bowler in the team who could single handedly win the match for us. Umar Gul is out of form and out of rhythm, Wahab is not trust worthy, Tanvir doesn’t have enough skill, and Rehman is not a test bowler.

Despite all the above limitations, Newzealand at one stage were reeling at 177/7 but Misbah persisted with Rehman for too long and didn’t bring Umar Gul and Wahab to for the kill and allowed the Kiwis to survive.

Earlier Misbah surprised everyone when he decided to field after winning the toss on a flat track, normally the tracks are more helpful to the bowlers in New Zealand but I think they prepared a flat track to prepare for the World Cup but this might help Pakistan as their batsmen thrive in such conditions.

Pakistan bowlers didn’t bowled superbly it was a poor performance by the Kiwis .Especially Umar Gul and Riaz they were not accurate either they bowled too short or outside off stump, on a wicket like this bowlers of their pace should bowl wicket to wicket with slight variations in angles, Umar Gul becomes ordinary if he can’t reverse the ball, I am not sure why he failed to do so whether it is the Kokaburra ball or poor ball management he couldn’t reverse any ball, Wahab will never be able to replace Aamer unless he brings the ball back into the right hander.

 The inaccuracy of Wahab and Gul has allowed Southee and Kane to survive and NZ are 260/7 at the end of the day. Guptil, McCullum, and Southee scored 50′s , Rahman took 3 wickets, Tanvir 2 and Umar Gul just 1. The dropped catch by Younis Khan has proven to be quiet costly Pakistan missed several chances in the field.

 

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