CricketingMinds
Tape Ball Star
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2012
- Runs
- 730
- Post of the Week
- 1
Like most of the fans today, I am happy that after a long time Pakistan scored 300+
Fans of Kamran, Shahzad and Hafeez must be rejoicing that these three clicked.
Shahzad - 67 (83); Not too shabby
Kamran - 47 (48); Amazing SR!
Hafeez - 88 (92); Anchor with a good healthy SR.
But lets deep dive in to these numbers a bit, shall we?

Shahzad
A SR of 80+ seems healthy at the surface but look at the Dot Ball % - 53.01%. That is a big problem in Shahzad's batting that was a problem before he got ousted in 2015 - and sadly he hasn't improved that aspect of his game yet.
Imagine if he had at least converted 10 of those 24 dot balls into 1s. He would have been 77 (83) @ SR 92.77 and the intangible - less pressure on other batsman to score quick.
Kamran
Kami must be happy with his performance but to be honest, he shouldn't be that proud. He consumed ALOT of dot balls - 64.58%. i.e. 31 out of the 48 balls he faced! That is more pathetic than Shahzad.
Yes, he was able to compensate by scoring a flurry of boundaries = scoring ~ 81% of his runs in 4/6s - boundaries.
Again, imagine the impact of converting those 31 dot balls into at least 10-15 singles [1s]?
Both our openers really need to improve this habit of consuming dot balls.
Hafeez
I think everyone - ok sorry - most of us - will agree that it was an unfair call to promote Hafeez ahead of Babar given Babar scored 3 x 100s vs WI @ #3 and scored another 100 vs Aus in Austrail @ #3 position!
The kid deserves it!
Hafeez has a better dot ball % than Kami and Shahzad and despite the criticism I feel Hafeez did OKAY for his standards today. Started slow, really slow, could only up the tempo after his 50. He should have really converted this into a big 120-130 today and he would be disappointed not to.
But we all know Hafeez has always performed against weaker bowling attacks. May be we will see improvements in the next 2 ODIs from him.
[Sorry Fakhar Zaman - u won't be getting an ODI debut in WI]
Babar
Not the Babar we know. He was a bit off color perhaps because he was not playing at his usual position # 3. Only Mickey or Sarfaraz can explain why he got demoted
Malik
Great innings by him - however he should feel lucky since he got dropped in the early part of his innings.
You can see the Low Dot Ball % (~37% only); A 100+ SR;
For his role as a finisher he did 90% of the job. But then again, can we expect to see the same from him against better bowling attacks like Aus, Eng, Saf, NZ?
Sarfaraz
As a captain, a lot of us are just wondering why did he send Hafeez @ #3 but as a batsman, one thing I feel Sarfaraz is amazing at is "not playing too many dot balls" - and rotating the strike.
Only 1 dot ball in the 13 balls he played.
For a batsman who is excellent at strike rotation I feel he should bat up the order...but again, I am not the Pakistani Captain.
Imad
He plays as an attacking finisher but lacks the ability to clear the boundaries at will. In fact, no body in the Pakistani team can do that. Razzaq was the last of this breed.
Jadeja or Pandya have played a few innings where they would score a quick 20-25 runs off 7-8 balls.
Imad scored 6 off 6 - and I would expect him to score at least 12-15 off 6 to be a good attacking finisher.
Conclusion
Good performance by Pakistan but LOTS of room for improvement in:
- Strike rotation by Shahzad, Kami
- Attacking finish by Sarfaraz, Imad
Lets hope for a win for the men in green.
I will try to do the same analysis for the next two games vs WI.
Thanks!
Fans of Kamran, Shahzad and Hafeez must be rejoicing that these three clicked.
Shahzad - 67 (83); Not too shabby
Kamran - 47 (48); Amazing SR!
Hafeez - 88 (92); Anchor with a good healthy SR.
But lets deep dive in to these numbers a bit, shall we?

Shahzad
A SR of 80+ seems healthy at the surface but look at the Dot Ball % - 53.01%. That is a big problem in Shahzad's batting that was a problem before he got ousted in 2015 - and sadly he hasn't improved that aspect of his game yet.
Imagine if he had at least converted 10 of those 24 dot balls into 1s. He would have been 77 (83) @ SR 92.77 and the intangible - less pressure on other batsman to score quick.
Kamran
Kami must be happy with his performance but to be honest, he shouldn't be that proud. He consumed ALOT of dot balls - 64.58%. i.e. 31 out of the 48 balls he faced! That is more pathetic than Shahzad.
Yes, he was able to compensate by scoring a flurry of boundaries = scoring ~ 81% of his runs in 4/6s - boundaries.
Again, imagine the impact of converting those 31 dot balls into at least 10-15 singles [1s]?
Both our openers really need to improve this habit of consuming dot balls.
Hafeez
I think everyone - ok sorry - most of us - will agree that it was an unfair call to promote Hafeez ahead of Babar given Babar scored 3 x 100s vs WI @ #3 and scored another 100 vs Aus in Austrail @ #3 position!
The kid deserves it!
Hafeez has a better dot ball % than Kami and Shahzad and despite the criticism I feel Hafeez did OKAY for his standards today. Started slow, really slow, could only up the tempo after his 50. He should have really converted this into a big 120-130 today and he would be disappointed not to.
But we all know Hafeez has always performed against weaker bowling attacks. May be we will see improvements in the next 2 ODIs from him.
[Sorry Fakhar Zaman - u won't be getting an ODI debut in WI]
Babar
Not the Babar we know. He was a bit off color perhaps because he was not playing at his usual position # 3. Only Mickey or Sarfaraz can explain why he got demoted
Malik
Great innings by him - however he should feel lucky since he got dropped in the early part of his innings.
You can see the Low Dot Ball % (~37% only); A 100+ SR;
For his role as a finisher he did 90% of the job. But then again, can we expect to see the same from him against better bowling attacks like Aus, Eng, Saf, NZ?
Sarfaraz
As a captain, a lot of us are just wondering why did he send Hafeez @ #3 but as a batsman, one thing I feel Sarfaraz is amazing at is "not playing too many dot balls" - and rotating the strike.
Only 1 dot ball in the 13 balls he played.
For a batsman who is excellent at strike rotation I feel he should bat up the order...but again, I am not the Pakistani Captain.

Imad
He plays as an attacking finisher but lacks the ability to clear the boundaries at will. In fact, no body in the Pakistani team can do that. Razzaq was the last of this breed.
Jadeja or Pandya have played a few innings where they would score a quick 20-25 runs off 7-8 balls.
Imad scored 6 off 6 - and I would expect him to score at least 12-15 off 6 to be a good attacking finisher.
Conclusion
Good performance by Pakistan but LOTS of room for improvement in:
- Strike rotation by Shahzad, Kami
- Attacking finish by Sarfaraz, Imad
Lets hope for a win for the men in green.
I will try to do the same analysis for the next two games vs WI.
Thanks!