Lesson learnt for Sarfraz Ahmed and co.? Never underestimate the opposition

[CricketingMinds]

This should be a good eye opener for Sarfaraz & Co to never underestimate the opposition.

Sarfaraz overbowled the part timers and always seemed confident that he has enough runs on the board and history to back him and his team.

Too early to point fingers at the new captain. Failures happen, but it would be interesting to see how Sarfaraz learns from his mistakes and from this match.

WI has made this an exciting series for the men in green who were clearly super overconfident after the T20 wins.

 

[arehaan]

Surely today's blame goes to Sarfraz hands down his captaincy was all over you cannot play 50 overs like 20 20. The bowlers were never allowed to get any rhythm. Imad was underutilized on a spinning track. Shadab was changed unnecessarily after getting hope with bowl spinning a.mile. where was the planning never went for the kill just overconfident

 

[pakistanigoneaussie]

its scared me close to death that he said Professor batted well and didnt at all blame the batting. Disappointing

 

[Pete Rose]

He will learn, but I have to say it was a captaincy that borrowed the worst traits of Miabahs and Afridis captaincy. The first half captaincy was like misbah where he was content to choke batsmen and not taking wickets and second half was all afridi: panicky, animated, and clueless

 

[PakHammer]

He will learn, but I have to say it was a captaincy that borrowed the worst traits of Miabahs and Afridis captaincy. The first half captaincy was like misbah where he was content to choke batsmen and not taking wickets and second half was all afridi: panicky, animated, and clueless

Agree 100%, he certainly was not our Dhoni, cool under pressure. He let the pressure show and that effected the bowling team. To be fair though, Wahab & Amir again showed they are a spent force in LODI's.

 

[MMHS]

I thought opposite - they overestimated WI & looked scared, even when asking was 10 with 4 wickets down. A confident team doesn't panic for a 12 runs over, when the asking is 10.

 

[Pete Rose]

I thought opposite - they overestimated WI & looked scared, even when asking was 10 with 4 wickets down. A confident team doesn't panic for a 12 runs over, when the asking is 10.

He panicked because he was expecting windies would gift him wickets because he choked them with part timers and held his matchwinners to bowl unchanged in the end

 

[Speedster777]

He was too defensive today

 

[MMHS]

He panicked because he was expecting windies would gift him wickets because he choked them with part timers and held his matchwinners to bowl unchanged in the end

If you recall my first post in WI innings, I did write that PAK'll definitely score 300+, but not sure they'll win the match or not - that too knowing that WI had never chased 300+ & this is almost their A team.

The reason being the wickets, the opening over, the outfield & the ease of PAK batsmen timing the ball had given me a feeling that it's a bare minimum 325 wicket; which PAK should have reached comfortably with that sort of start, but for MoHa's horrible & selfish innings. It eventually ended with an under per score & 5 wickets at hand, which suggests there was a major miscalculation in middle overs.

When PAK started fielding, I felt Sarfu was never convinced that he had enough runs. He has been quite good with his attacking approach in T20s, but today he looked confused, defensive & somewhat scared; otherwise he would have gone for the kill. The final nail in the coffin was Amir's 17 runs over - Sarfu kept almost every egg in one (2) basket & left 7 of the last 8 to be bowled by Amir & the kid. Once Amir went for that beating, Sarfu was mentally shot down to zero confidence. I can tell you that even with part-timers MSD or Mashrafee won't allow this Nurse guy to chase 307, scoring 33 of 14; while PAK pacers kept feeding Mohammed in his slot for free swing of high back-lift; not sure if I have seen a single yorker or short staff, apart from couple of half trackers, both ending in the crowd.

Anyway, the only positive can be, if Sarfraz learns to see his nemesis - he won't win many matches, if he starts to panic at the first point, when it goes out of plot.

 

[Boi]

its scared me close to death that he said Professor batted well and didnt at all blame the batting. Disappointing

Yep that's the worrying part. Failing to accept that we were 30/40 runs short means that he'll be happy with the selfish batting performances like that in the future.

 

[Pete Rose]

If you recall my first post in WI innings, I did write that PAK'll definitely score 300+, but not sure they'll win the match or not - that too knowing that WI had never chased 300+ & this is almost their A team.

The reason being the wickets, the opening over, the outfield & the ease of PAK batsmen timing the ball had given me a feeling that it's a bare minimum 325 wicket; which PAK should have reached comfortably with that sort of start, but for MoHa's horrible & selfish innings. It eventually ended with an under per score & 5 wickets at hand, which suggests there was a major miscalculation in middle overs.

When PAK started fielding, I felt Sarfu was never convinced that he had enough runs. He has been quite good with his attacking approach in T20s, but today he looked confused, defensive & somewhat scared; otherwise he would have gone for the kill. The final nail in the coffin was Amir's 17 runs over - Sarfu kept almost every egg in one (2) basket & left 7 of the last 8 to be bowled by Amir & the kid. Once Amir went for that beating, Sarfu was mentally shot down to zero confidence. I can tell you that even with part-timers MSD or Mashrafee won't allow this Nurse guy to chase 307, scoring 33 of 14; while PAK pacers kept feeding Mohammed in his slot for free swing of high back-lift; not sure if I have seen a single yorker or short staff, apart from couple of half trackers, both ending in the crowd.

Anyway, the only positive can be, if Sarfraz learns to see his nemesis - he won't win many matches, if he starts to panic at the first point, when it goes out of plot.

I saw something different tbh:
- batting order similar to what we did under misbah and Azhar, but for a freaky innings from Malik they were not getting even 300
- defensive bowling upfront, and an eagerness to bowl the fifth bowler partimer early
- a lack of composure when the got tough
Looked at in its entirety, this was a team being lead to lose

 

[Pete Rose]

Yep that's the worrying part. Failing to accept that we were 30/40 runs short means that he'll be happy with the selfish batting performances like that in the future.

While runs were short, it's the bowling units fault if you can't defend ten an over for 15 overs against the windies. But then again it was the captain's fault that he bowled part timers early so we took too few wickets upfront, allowing their power hitters to come later

 

[PakLFC]

Just yesterday I think it was most here thought Pak will win 3-0

 

[Boi]

While runs were short, it's the bowling units fault if you can't defend ten an over for 15 overs against the windies. But then again it was the captain's fault that he bowled part timers early so we took too few wickets upfront, allowing their power hitters to come later

I wouldn't be too harsh on the pacers. It was a very good wicket to bat on and the Windies hitters proved that. There was some turn available but Shadab was the only bowler capable of making use of it whilst the other 'spinners' don't even turn it the best of times. Asghar needs to come in next game, especially when they're playing on the same ground again.

But yeah Sarfraz was pretty poor in the field. People used to criticise Azhar for bowling the part timers too long in the middle and not 'attacking', today it was no different. Hopefully he learns from it.

 

[srh]

This should be a good eye opener for Sarfaraz & Co to never underestimate the opposition.

Sarfaraz overbowled the part timers and always seemed confident that he has enough runs on the board and history to back him and his team.

Too early to point fingers at the new captain. Failures happen, but it would be interesting to see how Sarfaraz learns from his mistakes and from this match.

WI has made this an exciting series for the men in green who were clearly super overconfident after the T20 wins.

not sure he is learning any lesson; this is what he said post match :

We put together a good total

 

[godzilla]

the blame is not all sarfraz's by any means. he didn't over bowl the part timers, they were the best bowlers on show from the Pakistani side. the rhythm argument is not one that works in my mind, this is professional cricket, they should be well oiled, well practiced, it should not be a matter of rhythm of one or two overs that make a difference.

progressive odi cricket is essentially very similar to t20 cricket, ballistic starts, and ballistic ends with some form of accumulation in the middle, so to use your bowlers to stifle any rhythm from the batsman is a strategy worth testing.

where he lost it was in order:

1) horrendous bowling skills and intent, and the inability of bowlers who have been given every confidence and chance to bowl with any control or any strategy according to their field - the seniors have to face the brunt of this blame, amir and wahab, since they are the only ones with guaranteed places which are totally ill deserved. imad too needs a very strong reminder that he shouldn't take his place for granted, his bowling has sharply deteriorated for some time now, and he is at this point, a passenger from his batting, bowling and fielding.

2) the batting at the start and end is so far from whats required, its impossible to know where to begin. Shehzad is early on in his recall, so perhaps he should be given some rope, but all the sign are that he still has no ability to rotate the strike, and offers no impetus at the start. hafeez started poorly, and should not really be in the side, and the end from sarfraz on has been non existent. for the elite of the batting side to be Malik and kakmal, neither of whom would make any other international side, speaks louder than any words to just how catastrophic that situation is.

3) the field. there is something culturally systemically problematic for a side languishing at the bottom of global league table to ever become complacent, and that was evident in the fielding an body language throughout. I don't know how to fix a situation where professional sportsman need to be told not to take things fro granted - the only thing that springs to mind is what ultimately is the problem with the whole cricketing institution, and that is gross negligence, incompetence and unprofessionalism right at the top.

total disaster and the worst loss I have witnessed - against a second string team of one of the worst sides, made up of novices with hardly any experience, with all their first team players off in india.

 

[shane]

If an international team has yet to learn that particular lesson then there is not much hope for it...

 

[Bilal7]

Wasn't this just a case of Jason Mohammad playing a superb innings rather than the Pakistanis being at fault? The batters got 300+ and the bowlers were all over them for the first 35 overs. Just forget about this game and move on.

 

[bleaf27]

Wasn't this just a case of Jason Mohammad playing a superb innings rather than the Pakistanis being at fault? The batters got 300+ and the bowlers were all over them for the first 35 overs. Just forget about this game and move on.

LOL ! WI 8th down tailender was smacking 4s and 6s off Wahab and Amir , Nurse says Hello !
So WI playing cautiously until 35th over is a job well done and when they unleashed , Captain is jumping around headless chicken and Trundlers forgot to bowl with ATG to be Hasan ali taken to cleaners? Welcome to international cricket.

 

[ads101]

its scared me close to death that he said Professor batted well and didnt at all blame the batting. Disappointing

Technically batting performed. Hafeez was rubbish early on but he made it up. 88 at a SR of just under 100 can't really be a bad innings. and 308 should have really been defended. Sure Shehzad was a little slow but even then he was striking at 80. Hafeez shaky starts tbh indicate that he's probably past it, but at least he did accelerate at the end. Should be out of the team tbh, not much future and I feel Malik currently is better. But his contribution to the match today was a positive one, not a negative one despite the start. We are wasting Malik should be batting at four, Sarfraz at five, Babar at three. Let the form batsman bat up the order, Sarfraz at six especially is a waste. Hafeez if he has to play either should open (though don't think he can do the job there anymore) or play at 6. I don't feel Babar was disadvantaged at four, it's still a good position, 3 or 4 doesn't matter. What was clear though is I think had Sarfraz had more of the strike/time by playing up the order, we would have boosted that total.

Compare to the West Indies top order who batted at SR of 70. It was the mid/lower order of WI that won them the game, who batted at obscene strike rates to make up the failures of the top order.

The blame to why we didn't defend was pacers (and perhaps captaincy). When you're pacers are going at 7/8/nearly an over, always going to be hard to win. Sarfraz also gave too many overs to the pacers, and didn't bowl out a single spinner, when he 4 spinners to choose from. WI's struggle against spin and we didn't take advantage of that, and Jason was looking completely at ease against the pacers, hitting them out the park. The only pacer I rate in the LOI format is Amir who consistently bowls well. The others are hit and miss and often liabilities.

 

[TahirFan]

Defensive captain. Wahab was bowling mainly at 145 kmh and he was given no slip fielders. Pakistani best bowler Shadab did not bowl his 10 over quota.

 

[Gr8Gaur]

If Sarfaraz continues like this then Akmal brothers will have him for the dinner, Imad acts like Kohli but the question is should he ?

 

[Abdullah719]

Sarfraz yelling at the fielders 'relax nahi hona', guess he learnt the hard way.