2nd ODI - Batting Analysis - Pakistan v West Indies - 9th April 2017

[CricketingMinds]

In my previous post I analyzed the Pakistani batting performance in the 1st ODI.

http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/s...ting-Analysis-1st-ODI-West-Indies-vs-Pakistan

One of the main concern was the high dot-ball % of almost all batsmen. Pakistan played out 141 dot-balls in the 1st ODI [i.e. a dot-ball % of 47%]

So, did pakistan improve in the 2nd ODI? Lets find out.



Shahzad

Once again the guy shows how big of a gap there is between our Domestic and International cricket. Shahzad was a standout performer in PSL & few domestic cups. However, he hasn't been able to work on his biggest flaw which is: STRIKE ROTATION

In the 1st ODI he had a 53% dot-ball %.
In the 2nd ODI, with an 80% dot-ball percentage, our Kohli-alike is at the top of the shame-list. Not sure how the Shahzad fans can really back this?

I am sure he will get another chance tomorrow - let's see if he can show some improvement.

Kamran

Similar to Shahzad, the domestic champ has been unable to perform in ODIs.

In the 1st ODI he played out a staggering 31-dot-balls out of 48 [~65%]. In this game, he slightly improved his dot ball %.

In the 2nd ODI you can see that he played out 15 dot balls out of 27. Still a high Dot-ball % of 55.56%.

He has the ability to hit boundaries and clear the ropes - no doubt. And he should be encouraged by the management to do so. But the management should also encourage him to lower this Dot-Ball % which really hurts Pakistan at the end of the day.

Hafeez

This is exactly what Hafeez is capable of. And throughout his career he hasn't changed his approach so I am not sure if he would ever change his approach now that he nearing the end of his career.

A slow - really slow start. If he gets lucky then he makes up for it (like he did in the 1st ODI), but if he doesnt (which happens more often) then the entire team suffers & faces the pressure of slow Run Rate.

Playing out 29 dot balls out of 50 is truly criminal - a 58% dot ball %.

Strongly feel he should be left out of the XI for the next game and we should try out Fakhar Zaman or Asif Zakar or Fahim Ashraf.
(I'd prefer Fakhar Zaman)

To Hafeez's credit though: He has been able to always chip in with 1-2 wickets everytime he has been given the ball. But is he playing as a batting-all-rounder or bowling-all-rounder? That's the question Hafeez & Pakistan team should really think about.

Babar

Babar scored 125* - his 4th ODI ton vs WI and 5th ODI ton in all ODIs. Congratulations to him. He is a true champion and I am glad Sarfaraz sent him at #3 - and the results are there for everyone to see.

His ability to stay till the end & anchor the innings is what makes him so special. However, one thing Babar needs to work on if he is to be in the Joe Root, Kohli, Williamson class - is the ability to hit boundaries and up the tempo towards the end phase of the innings.

He had a low dot-ball % which is good, but he scored only 36% of the runs in boundaries.

We did see him clear the ropes with relative ease after 47 / 48 overs. I wonder why he couldn't do that at the start of 45th Over?

Malik

Strange innings there from the experienced Malik. He was outstanding in 1st ODI and a complete opposite in the 2nd.

11 out of 17 balls were dots. (~65%) - which is again, criminal in my opinion.

Malik really needs to up his game as well in the 3rd ODI, otherwise it would hurt his "consistency".

Sarfaraz

As I said in my previous post, I think he is being wasted at #6. He is a good rotator of strike & should be playing where Hafeez plays (@#4) - during the middle overs when there are lots of gaps in the field and batsman can easily score off single/double.

But not sure what Mickey or Sarfaraz think that they have Sarfaraz at #6 - he has the a good Dot-Ball % of 38% but as a #6, the boundaries should improve. We really are missing a Razzaq/Mahmood kind of a finisher.

Imad

A much better innings by Imad. Saw him smack a few clear blows down the ground. He should keep working hard on his power strokes down the ground.

Good innings by him, but if there is an area to improve, I'd say a quick-fire 50 off 30-35 balls is what's required off Imad.

[Again, something that the Razzaq of early 2000s would do for Pakistan].

Conclusion

Pakistan didn't really improve their major weakness - playing dot balls.

141 dots in 1st ODI;
144 dots in 2nd ODI.

A much higher % of runs were scored in boundaries in 1st ODI [48%], compared to the 2nd ODI [35% only].

Anyway, not much improvement in batting it seems. Lets see what happens in the next ODI

Good Luck men in Green!

 

[IAJ]

So all in all a consistent performance from the batsmen, talking about dot balls

 

[Deewana Mastana]

I want to share your analysis somewhere...is it good to do so or you want to do it on the other place yourself?

 

[Abdullah]

i guess we need to factor in the pitch was truer for the first game so similat amount of dot balls is actually an improvement

 

[CricketingMinds]

I want to share your analysis somewhere...is it good to do so or you want to do it on the other place yourself?

Sure, where do you want to share this?

 

[BD-fan]

So after "NOT MUCH IMPROVEMENT" in the batting side how could the team win? Very strange for those who blamed the 1st ODI loss on the batsmen.

Comprenda folks? 303 was more than enough.

 

[MMHS]

It's a good way to look at the data (dot %), but it's a bit misleading, because it doesn't consider other factors. May be, looking at the data by strata, say 25 balls slot (that's dot % of 1st, 2nd, 3rd ... 25 balls slot) could have been more conclusive.

Another way can be to add partnership - ideally the longer a partnership, the better (lower) dot ball % should be.

Another consideration is the batting period - 1st 10 has 9 fielders in, next 30 has 5 & last 10 has 4 - obviously % of dots will be different in 3 different sections, even if we don't consider other factors. May be, too many singles in first 10 overs isn't that helpful, when better teams are scoring almost 75% runs in boundaries in first PP.

Overall, I never thought finishing was PAK's problem & even before this 83 of 7 overs, I wrote it several times that key to 100+ runs in last 10 overs is set pair at middle & lots of wickets at hand. PAK's biggest problem is between over No. 11 to 40, when with 5 inner fielders, hardly anyone can rotate strike & that No. 3 to 6 are not good enough to clear rope on grass or in air, once in every 2/3 overs with 4 of the quickest men patrolling the line. Moreover, players like MoHa, Malik, Kakmal, Shehzad are averaging in early 30s with a SR below or around 80 - which means often PAK loses 3/4 wickets in that 30 overs without a significant partnership, & even if there is a decent partnership, the likes of MoHa contributes 29 of 48 balls in best of batting conditions.

With Sharjeel out, 1st 10 is also becoming a problem, but that was uncalled for stupidity - PAK 'll need to invest another year to find his replacement.

 

[DRsohail]

It's a good way to look at the data (dot %), but it's a bit misleading, because it doesn't consider other factors. May be, looking at the data by strata, say 25 balls slot (that's dot % of 1st, 2nd, 3rd ... 25 balls slot) could have been more conclusive.

Another way can be to add partnership - ideally the longer a partnership, the better (lower) dot ball % should be.

Another consideration is the batting period - 1st 10 has 9 fielders in, next 30 has 5 & last 10 has 4 - obviously % of dots will be different in 3 different sections, even if we don't consider other factors. May be, too many singles in first 10 overs isn't that helpful, when better teams are scoring almost 75% runs in boundaries in first PP.

Overall, I never thought finishing was PAK's problem & even before this 83 of 7 overs, I wrote it several times that key to 100+ runs in last 10 overs is set pair at middle & lots of wickets at hand. PAK's biggest problem is between over No. 11 to 40, when with 5 inner fielders, hardly anyone can rotate strike & that No. 3 to 6 are not good enough to clear rope on grass or in air, once in every 2/3 overs with 4 of the quickest men patrolling the line. Moreover, players like MoHa, Malik, Kakmal, Shehzad are averaging in early 30s with a SR below or around 80 - which means often PAK loses 3/4 wickets in that 30 overs without a significant partnership, & even if there is a decent partnership, the likes of MoHa contributes 29 of 48 balls in best of batting conditions.

With Sharjeel out, 1st 10 is also becoming a problem, but that was uncalled for stupidity - PAK 'll need to invest another year to find his replacement.

many of us were bashing i,ad but he did wat he is capable of...he can improve but this guy hafiz is shameless and play for his own record..hi just nudged the ball to 3rd man and that was 2 to 3 balls per over ...if he goes out after azhar ali we will become an improved side ...kami can go antime,,malik is not the [roblem from my prospective ..brilliant fielder and can step up his strike rate as well..good offi aith good match awareness and he is the fittest of the guys if i am not wrong...56 average at 103 strike rate post wc....what else we need....but hafeezzz.....his stats may be better but he is awful for the team cause.....i dint think amir sohail will support his inclusion now ....

 

[MMHS]

many of us were bashing i,ad but he did wat he is capable of...he can improve but this guy hafiz is shameless and play for his own record..hi just nudged the ball to 3rd man and that was 2 to 3 balls per over ...if he goes out after azhar ali we will become an improved side ...kami can go antime,,malik is not the [roblem from my prospective ..brilliant fielder and can step up his strike rate as well..good offi aith good match awareness and he is the fittest of the guys if i am not wrong...56 average at 103 strike rate post wc....what else we need....but hafeezzz.....his stats may be better but he is awful for the team cause.....i dint think amir sohail will support his inclusion now ....

In a team, there should be separately role for each player & one has to be the anchor - for PAK that's Babar & he is quite good at that. It's the other players that has to ply around him & to his credit & PAK's fortune, he is an anchor with strike rate of 90, on top of his average of 56. Advantage with anchor like Babar is that, he can accelerate if required & he can hold on one side even in toughest of conditions. Problem with players like MoHa is that, he can't average 50, even batting at Test rate, neither he can accelerate. Malik can't survive much against quality attack (unless it's spin based), but he won't cost like MoHa.

Considering that Sharjeel is out, for CT, I think PAK has to bring back Umar & take a chance at 6. MoHa can't work at 6 & playing him at 4 means pushing Sarfraz & Malik deeper to wrong side. One of Kamran or Ahmed has to drop out for a lefti opener (Talat or even Haris) & Umar at 6, is probably the best solution now. It's a catch 22 situation - Kamran has better range than Ahmed as opener, but he'll cost at an average 10 runs more than Ahmed in fielding. In terms of contribution to team, theoretically, Ahmed's average of 23 is probably comparable to Kamran's 35 considering individual fielding & running capacity. But, what Ahmed isn't helping is his SR of <75 compared to Kakmal's 85+. This is why, even with an average of ~30 (lower, if I take out his 153 against IRL), Sharjeel was more valuable than anyone - if he fails, he won't cost more than 6/7 balls; but he had the range to hit 48 (29).

Moha has got few wickets with his "modified action", which might keep him in playing XI, but Malik can play that role equally enough - on that wicket, defending 282, Malik'll also get 2/3 wickets if he is allowed to bowl full quota, coming to bowl at 3 down; but Sarfu helped MoHa's cause, which should cost PAK in CT.

 

[DRsohail]

In a team, there should be separately role for each player & one has to be the anchor - for PAK that's Babar & he is quite good at that. It's the other players that has to ply around him & to his credit & PAK's fortune, he is an anchor with strike rate of 90, on top of his average of 56. Advantage with anchor like Babar is that, he can accelerate if required & he can hold on one side even in toughest of conditions. Problem with players like MoHa is that, he can't average 50, even batting at Test rate, neither he can accelerate. Malik can't survive much against quality attack (unless it's spin based), but he won't cost like MoHa.

Considering that Sharjeel is out, for CT, I think PAK has to bring back Umar & take a chance at 6. MoHa can't work at 6 & playing him at 4 means pushing Sarfraz & Malik deeper to wrong side. One of Kamran or Ahmed has to drop out for a lefti opener (Talat or even Haris) & Umar at 6, is probably the best solution now. It's a catch 22 situation - Kamran has better range than Ahmed as opener, but he'll cost at an average 10 runs more than Ahmed in fielding. In terms of contribution to team, theoretically, Ahmed's average of 23 is probably comparable to Kamran's 35 considering individual fielding & running capacity. But, what Ahmed isn't helping is his SR of <75 compared to Kakmal's 85+. This is why, even with an average of ~30 (lower, if I take out his 153 against IRL), Sharjeel was more valuable than anyone - if he fails, he won't cost more than 6/7 balls; but he had the range to hit 48 (29).

Moha has got few wickets with his "modified action", which might keep him in playing XI, but Malik can play that role equally enough - on that wicket, defending 282, Malik'll also get 2/3 wickets if he is allowed to bowl full quota, coming to bowl at 3 down; but Sarfu helped MoHa's cause, which should cost PAK in CT.

i was thinking that malik spins it more than hafeez but he is not given an over yet....do u think sarfo will suvive post CT..i think babar or hafeez gonna take captaincy.....

 

[MMHS]

i was thinking that malik spins it more than hafeez but he is not given an over yet....do u think sarfo will suvive post CT..i think babar or hafeez gonna take captaincy.....

Depends on next PCB leadership. He is from Karachi, therefore always'll be under pressure.

Personally, I'll never appoint a WK as ODI or Test Captain. Ideally, Malik should be made Captain till next WC & Babar or Amir as deputy, but unlike Babar, Amir isn't delivering in field. PAK needs a bowling Captain, therefore I am in a fix - Hasan is also too raw for vice Captaincy.

This is all because of this stupid kid spoiling it for couple of no balls - by now, he should have been PAK's unanimous Captain.