third eye
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This is what I call a sore loser... except for aliens, the author has roped in all possible ' villains' who conspired to keep Pak out of the final.
Questions need to be answered about semis defeat | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online
By: Mohsin Ali | Published: April 02, 2011
ISLAMABAD - Although Pakistan is out of the World Cup 2011 after loosing the semi-final against India in Mohali, yet there are still many questions needing to be answered.
Lets start with the toss, if the viewers closely watched the scene of toss, one thing was quite clear and astonishing that Pakistan captain Shahid Afirid did not bother to have a glance at the coin which was far away from the spot where Afridi had been standing, and the match referee Ranjhan Madhugalle without any hesitation declared that India had won the toss. The whole process of the toss by itself was dubious, as from Afridi to Madhugalle things were not as simple as the viewers watched them. Afridi rather than keep standing at his place must have walked to the site where the coin had fallen to see it and then accepted the result.
What the question rises is as to why Madhugalle immediately announced that Indians had won the toss without having a proper look at the coin. This theory can be judged by watching the videos of the toss carefully. Pakistan had been starting to bowl throughout the tournament with different combinations and the most successful of all those were the Umar Gul-Muhammad Hafeez combination, but what was the reason that Afridi decided not to have a go with Hafeez as the second new ball bowler, despite Hafeez had bowled exceptionally well in the quarterfinal against West Indies.
Afridi can argue that Indians are known to bat well against spinners, then why Saeed Ajmal, Hafeez and Afridi himself did not let them score freely throughout the innings, as the fast bowlers were being severely beaten up by the Indian batsmen, except Wahab Riaz who managed to take five wickets at the crucial stages of the match victimising top batsmen.
Umar Gul had lost his confidence right from the very first over, as Sehwag tremendously punihed him for his wayward bowling, Afridi could have used him in the middle of Indian innings when the Indians were at the back foot as Pakistani spinners were dictating the batsmen, as that was the perfect stage when Umar Gul should be introduced, rather than holding him for the later part of the innings; Afridi was fully aware that batsmen will go all out to make quick runs.
The Pakistan fielding in the semi-final was the worst till date. They were never known for good fielding but all the previous records were broken in this match. Six catches were dropped in which four of them of Tendulkar when he was batting on 22, later he managed to score 85 runs.
If someone calculates the runs made by him after the first life, 63 and than add 35 more runs which he managed to score with other batsmen; around 100 runs, so Pakistan throw away 100 plus runs only on Tendulkar and company, had Pakistan not wasted too many chances of Tendulkar alone, their target could have been much less.
Younus Khan, Misbahul Haq and Kamran Akmal; all these had played a lot of international cricket if they could not take such easy catches. What is the purpose of having so-called big mega stars in the team, even a club cricketer can field better then these big wigs.
Chasing a decent total of 261, Afridi should have come with a different game plan and a change in batting order was the need of the hour. Instead Afridi adopted same tactics, which resulted in disaster. It was not the Indian bowling, which inflicted defeat, but it was Pakistan batting which let down the whole nation.
From Kamran Akmal to Hafeez, Younus, Asad, Umer Akmal, Afridi and Razzaq all gifted their wickets to not more than an ordinary Indian bowling attack. Afrid got out on a full toss delivery, which was meant for hitting out of the park, Razzaq completely misread a straight ball and his stumps were shattered, Pakistani wickets were falling nine pins; every batsmen was trying to finish the match on a single delivery. All the team is to be blamed for that horrifying loss but if we had to pick one single individual, then no one else it was Misbah who with his selfish and over cautious approach cost Pakistan the semi-final.
Misbah consumed too many deliveries without making even singles which resulted in putting extra pressure on the non striker and also the required run rate which kept on climbing.
The whole result of the match looks dubious, if the match was fixed then you have to admit, it was fixed in a scientific way, as the match almost went to the wire, that is the main reason the reaction of the masses in Pakistan is a mixed one, some are blaming the loss on the team and others are bucking the players, who in there argument believe the team had played well but the luck doesn't favour. Anyhow one thing is clear the Pakistan team had reached the World Cup semi-final not by playing well but purely because of the prayers of the entire nation.
The team management specially the coach and manager had done nothing for the team and there is no use of having these gentlemen any further, the PCB must come out of a deep slumber and finally start to make decisions right for the team and country, its already too late on the part of PCB, act now before the masses patience burst.
Drastic changes are required to lift this demoralised team, and it needs to be done quickly. Ijaz Butt as Chairman PCB must contact other cricket playing nations officials to restore international cricket in Pakistani grounds after a gap of over two years.
Questions need to be answered about semis defeat | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online
By: Mohsin Ali | Published: April 02, 2011
ISLAMABAD - Although Pakistan is out of the World Cup 2011 after loosing the semi-final against India in Mohali, yet there are still many questions needing to be answered.
Lets start with the toss, if the viewers closely watched the scene of toss, one thing was quite clear and astonishing that Pakistan captain Shahid Afirid did not bother to have a glance at the coin which was far away from the spot where Afridi had been standing, and the match referee Ranjhan Madhugalle without any hesitation declared that India had won the toss. The whole process of the toss by itself was dubious, as from Afridi to Madhugalle things were not as simple as the viewers watched them. Afridi rather than keep standing at his place must have walked to the site where the coin had fallen to see it and then accepted the result.
What the question rises is as to why Madhugalle immediately announced that Indians had won the toss without having a proper look at the coin. This theory can be judged by watching the videos of the toss carefully. Pakistan had been starting to bowl throughout the tournament with different combinations and the most successful of all those were the Umar Gul-Muhammad Hafeez combination, but what was the reason that Afridi decided not to have a go with Hafeez as the second new ball bowler, despite Hafeez had bowled exceptionally well in the quarterfinal against West Indies.
Afridi can argue that Indians are known to bat well against spinners, then why Saeed Ajmal, Hafeez and Afridi himself did not let them score freely throughout the innings, as the fast bowlers were being severely beaten up by the Indian batsmen, except Wahab Riaz who managed to take five wickets at the crucial stages of the match victimising top batsmen.
Umar Gul had lost his confidence right from the very first over, as Sehwag tremendously punihed him for his wayward bowling, Afridi could have used him in the middle of Indian innings when the Indians were at the back foot as Pakistani spinners were dictating the batsmen, as that was the perfect stage when Umar Gul should be introduced, rather than holding him for the later part of the innings; Afridi was fully aware that batsmen will go all out to make quick runs.
The Pakistan fielding in the semi-final was the worst till date. They were never known for good fielding but all the previous records were broken in this match. Six catches were dropped in which four of them of Tendulkar when he was batting on 22, later he managed to score 85 runs.
If someone calculates the runs made by him after the first life, 63 and than add 35 more runs which he managed to score with other batsmen; around 100 runs, so Pakistan throw away 100 plus runs only on Tendulkar and company, had Pakistan not wasted too many chances of Tendulkar alone, their target could have been much less.
Younus Khan, Misbahul Haq and Kamran Akmal; all these had played a lot of international cricket if they could not take such easy catches. What is the purpose of having so-called big mega stars in the team, even a club cricketer can field better then these big wigs.
Chasing a decent total of 261, Afridi should have come with a different game plan and a change in batting order was the need of the hour. Instead Afridi adopted same tactics, which resulted in disaster. It was not the Indian bowling, which inflicted defeat, but it was Pakistan batting which let down the whole nation.
From Kamran Akmal to Hafeez, Younus, Asad, Umer Akmal, Afridi and Razzaq all gifted their wickets to not more than an ordinary Indian bowling attack. Afrid got out on a full toss delivery, which was meant for hitting out of the park, Razzaq completely misread a straight ball and his stumps were shattered, Pakistani wickets were falling nine pins; every batsmen was trying to finish the match on a single delivery. All the team is to be blamed for that horrifying loss but if we had to pick one single individual, then no one else it was Misbah who with his selfish and over cautious approach cost Pakistan the semi-final.
Misbah consumed too many deliveries without making even singles which resulted in putting extra pressure on the non striker and also the required run rate which kept on climbing.
The whole result of the match looks dubious, if the match was fixed then you have to admit, it was fixed in a scientific way, as the match almost went to the wire, that is the main reason the reaction of the masses in Pakistan is a mixed one, some are blaming the loss on the team and others are bucking the players, who in there argument believe the team had played well but the luck doesn't favour. Anyhow one thing is clear the Pakistan team had reached the World Cup semi-final not by playing well but purely because of the prayers of the entire nation.
The team management specially the coach and manager had done nothing for the team and there is no use of having these gentlemen any further, the PCB must come out of a deep slumber and finally start to make decisions right for the team and country, its already too late on the part of PCB, act now before the masses patience burst.
Drastic changes are required to lift this demoralised team, and it needs to be done quickly. Ijaz Butt as Chairman PCB must contact other cricket playing nations officials to restore international cricket in Pakistani grounds after a gap of over two years.
