Decoding Pakistan’s Close Defeat Rationally and Impassionately

[prisha]

Rizwan's dismissal was stupid. Why would you go after the best bowler on a tricky pitch and stonewall every other bowler.
Fakhar's dismissal was pathetic but even after his departure it was chaseable.

Imad showed legit 0 intent with the bat despite batting in the last 5 overs.

It was a stupid stupid performance with the bat.

Iftikhar needs to be sent out of the team permanently. He is nothing but an aged chicken.

It's hard to support this team. But it's a microcosm of what the whole country is going through.

This is a country at its worst with no plans or intentions of improving. Every one has simply given up and everyone just wants to save himself.

May be riz wanted to attack our best bowler and show what he could do to bumrah to prove a point. We will never know. May be he wanted to finish the match sooner and go take rest. As they were scoring well to that point and thought the proverbial ‘cat in the bag’. We never know until riz comes out and speaks.

 

[jnaveen1980]

May be riz wanted to attack our best bowler and show what he could do to bumrah to prove a point. We will never know. May be he wanted to finish the match sooner and go take rest. As they were scoring well to that point and thought the proverbial ‘cat in the bag’. We never know until riz comes out and speaks.

He played a similar shot in the first over and almost cost him the wicket as Dube dropped him. He tried again.

 

[Justcrazy]

It is regressing but hasn't quite reached the beyond repair point.

However we are rapidly heading in that direction.

Its done and dusted. Trust me , when you are about to play an associate country like USA and people talking it will be tough game , that means you have reached that level. After every WC , the excuses are same, the issues are same. But no one is willing to take responsibility. The first step in changing something is to accept the mistake , but that is clearly not happening.

 

[Justcrazy]

It wasn't even a minefield, Kirsten in his interview afterwards hinted as much when he said the pitch was decent with a tendency to keep low. It looked like the ball was stopping a bit at worst, but you could argue India had the worse conditions after losing the toss and having to bat first.

The major problem with chasing any sort of score is going in with only 3 proven batsmen. Usman Khan was an unknown, Shadab and Imad are bowlers who can hit the odd boundary, and Iftikhar is a pensioner.

The middle order does not exist.

 

[lucky_fish]

Cricket is about seizing moments in the game. No matter what format.

The toss is a moment - we won that.
Bowling first as a result was a moment - we won that.

Until that point we did really very well. Now you can argue that if India made 120 we were always going to struggle.

BUT IT WAS STILL ONLY 120.

Any team...no matter if you are world champions 5 times over OR an associate would fancy their chances at that stage. Its a moment.

I think we actually lost the most crucial moment when Babar was dismissed. We needed to have shown flexibility and Fakhar should have been sent in at 3. Right/left combination and his natural attacking game was exactly what was needed. Instead we sent in Usman.... not only is he inexperienced but when you consider the journey he has been on to get catapaulted into the side this last few months he then went in at 3 in an India/Pak WC game. Bad call.
He struggled and I think that impacted Rizwan who then got stuck. And it was that moment in the game that we lost. It took all the momentum out of the side.

Fakhar tried too force the issue and couldn't.
Everyone else struggled.

This game was our moment to turn around our campaign after the defeat to USA. Win back pride and get something going.

In my calm head that is where I see our game as being lost.

I think Rizwan did OK until that moment. Our management needs to accept some responsibility for that call.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

This was really a hurtful experience.

No one expects Pakistan to chase down 200, even on the flattest of pitches. They don’t have the batters to do that.
But this chase was tailor made for them — the target was , in essence, a run a ball. Get a boundary or so an over and no dot balls. All could have been achieved playing relatively conventionally (which is all they can do, Fakhar aside).

The fact they failed to win because their run rate was too low when chasing 120 was pathetic — it would almost be understandable if they were blasted out by Bumrah et al. for 90 odd

The preparation was woeful (why come to England in May when the tournament is in the Caribbean/US).
The selection was confused.

Babar is a fine ODI player, a good Test player but not a T20 opener. A poor and limited captain (and that won’t change)
Rizwan is also a capable player but has limitations. Truly a dreadful shot, at that stage against India’s best bowler.
Usman looked like a boy playing against men.
Fakhar will be hit and miss — I’d forgive him
Imad has one shot (making room and hitting through the offside) — block that and you negate him
Shadab is more miss than hit.
Iftikhar is a franchise league player

The point is that I doubt whether there is a more competitive eleven to put out there.
Kirsten will be removed after a year and he’ll join the long list of coaches who wonder why they took the job.

Pakistan are no longer mercurial, they are just average.
What an indictment for a nation of 250 million where cricket is the main sport.

imad actually hits the ball down (between mid off and mid on) the ground pretty well. No idea why he didn't even attempt it even once yesterday.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

May be riz wanted to attack our best bowler and show what he could do to bumrah to prove a point. We will never know. May be he wanted to finish the match sooner and go take rest. As they were scoring well to that point and thought the proverbial ‘cat in the bag’. We never know until riz comes out and speaks.

it was a stupid decision which ended up costing Pak the match. 120 should be chased in any type of conditions.

 

[cricketmania22]

One from Babar or Rizwan needed to bat through the innings to chase down the target. Babar was the only player from Pakistan who was timing it well but played a stupid dab shot. Rizwan spend the most time on the crease and played a mindless shot. Why would you attack Bhumra when you knew match slipping away from India and that’s why he was brought into the attack. Zaman lacks brains. Not sure what he was trying to do there. Since he gave out that statement where he said that they will try to play attacking cricket, he has started to play mindless cricket. Imad was awful! He’s done! He should be binned along with shadab.

Iftikhar needs a special mention. Pitch was very difficult to score runs, agreed, but please somebody tell me how could you miss full tosses on the pads. Those balls took pitch out of the equation. All he had to do was connect, and at Bhumra’s pace they were easy sixes but he was so late on those shots.

Pakistan needed proper batsmen. Pakistan went in with only 3 batsmen and none of them stayed long enough to win the match for them.

 

[MenInG]

Look at how SA are playing Bumrah - IF only Rizwan had done that!

 

[JaDed]

Look at how SA are playing Bumrah - IF only Rizwan had done that!

Good thing about Bumrah is he makes a comeback, Rizwan also faced him at same situation where Bumrah took away the game today

 

[maha3us]

Look at how SA are playing Bumrah - IF only Rizwan had done that!

In the final also the equation was almost similar to what happened in India Pakistan match. SA had to make around 30 runs in 30 balls and the pitch was better for batting than the minefield in New York. Then came Bumrah and what happened? Of course the other fast bowlers held the nerves and supported Bumrah.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

NY pitch where scoring off 6-10 m lengths was near impossible off pacers.

Indian seamers hit those lengths more often than PAK seamers

Same reason why Canada beat Ireland. Josh Little kept overpitching while Heyliger and others kept banging away