New Zealand [659/6 dec] beat Pakistan [297 & 186] by an innings & 176 runs to win series [2-0]

[JaDed]

One thing to note is that nobody expects an Asian team to win in New Zealand, England, SA, and Australia. India defied the odds at that MCG Test Match, like what Pakistan did a few years ago in England.

Look at the home records of these teams I have just mentioned, they are absolutely sensational. Test cricket has started to die because of the huge factor of home advantage. Back in the day, most teams built squads around the same general structure, so there was something in the wicket for at least one person on your team. Nowadays, oppositions do what any smart person would do, reduce the chances of the other team to get something out of the wicket.

Pakistan's bowling record on flat tracks is not good, and it's no surprise that New Zealand saw that and chose to go with a flat wicket. However, if we had taken our catches, we would have very much been in this test match, and that's a mistake our team made yet again. In the first game as well, and now in the second game. If we had taken our catches, I can guarantee you that we would have drawn this series, and possibly even won the series.

The bigger question is to determine where Pakistan's strength lies. Are we becoming better as a batting unit, or is our bowling still better than our batting. There are two ways to fix this, you bring in the cream-of-the-crop bowlers from domestic into the test team, the people who have toiled hard and performed, and simultaneously bring in some top batsmen from domestic. That way, you can create a balance in the team. A balanced team is the only way to dominate cricket in the modern age, look at all the great teams right now. India has a balanced batting and bowling lineup, so does Australia. England has the same. And New Zealand has as well. All the teams who do not have this balance have been struggling, so look at Pakistan, South Africa (they found balance recently), Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and West Indies.

So the question is, how do we move on from here?

For one, you have South Africa coming over to the subcontinent, so make dust bowls and bring in some spinners. Have our pacers toil hard as well, because they will get wickets due to the support from spinners as well. Get some confidence back through some big wins.

One thing we need to understand is that most big teams currently have a very poor overseas record. Look at New Zealand's own overseas record, if I'm not mistaken, they have a win-percentage of less than 10%. That might not be fully accurate, but they are pathetic on overseas tours.

If they can get such high praise and reach No.1 Ranking on the back of HOME PERFORMANCES that should be a signal to our simple-minded management that we need to make ourselves a force to reckon with on home tracks. Get as many wins at home as you can to at least show that you are unbeatable at home in test matches.

That's the only way up from here. We have the luxury of being able to play on Pakistani wickets, so use that resource to create pitches that make it very difficult for the opposition to play.

I'll tell you one thing, if our data analyst team even has some iota of common sense, they'd look at what SA did to SL on flat pitches, and that should be the only thing to consider and create a dust bowl. Look at what happened to SA in India on dust bowls.

NZ beat Pak in UAE, drew with Lanka in Lanka.. dominated home series and even the last time they toured England they drew the series there.

 

[UzmanBeast]

NZ beat Pak in UAE, drew with Lanka in Lanka.. dominated home series and even the last time they toured England they drew the series there.

They won that series by a margin of 1 run, but I will admit it, they did play well to earn that win. However, have any of these performances been miles above what the opposition has produced?

I get that they are a good team, but overseas, they will not be the same force they are at home. They are unbeatable at home, and very much beatable overseas, as is the case with many teams in the current generation.

I hope that you understood my point about the significance of home advantage in modern cricket, as it dictates the majority of results regardless of the opposition you go against. India beating Australia in MCG was defying the odds, like I mentioned earlier, and so was Pakistan beating England a few years ago. The same thing can be said about Sri Lanka beating South Africa, and West Indies beating England a few years back. Granted that most of these weren't series victories, but they form part of the shrinking minority of good overseas performances by touring teams.

South Africa redeemed themselves by absolutely dismembering Sri Lanka, as New Zealand did with Pakistan. If India lose the series to Australia, it will only prove my point about the lack of competitiveness created by home advantage and home pitch curations. Not that I am a fan of competitiveness in test cricket, because for ages we have seen how teams have used any factor available to win games. We saw Steve Smith signal to the dressing room about a review a few years back, and now there's the use of coded signals which England is looking to adopt. The point is, everything is going towards the home team nowadays, and the only reason it doesn't spiral into white-ball cricket is because that is highly marketable.

I'll give you a better example, the rule for two new balls in white ball cricket has only served to make the game much more marketable and generate heaps of revenue when people see their favourite batsmen hit fat hundreds and watch bowlers get decimated. Before the implementation of this rule, the game was relatively evenly poised out. Good fast bowlers who worked hard had experience with the old ball and could use reverse swing effectively. The older ball also suited spinners, who were much more relevant in white-ball cricket at the time. Since the rule with two new balls, spinners have had to change everything about their bowling. The art of off-spin bowling has died, and the only way a finger spinner makes it into a team is if he's really economical (look at Imad Wasim), or if he's a mystery spinner (Mujeeb). People went to leg spin because they'd get traction on most wickets, and a bad ball from a leg-spinner could produce a wicket.

Going back to the point about New Zealand, that post I made was just to emphasize that as fans, we will back our team no matter what, but expecting results in these conditions and when home advantage is of such high importance is a bit foolish. It would obviously mean a lot if a team could compete and win during times where home advantage is so crucial, but apart from a few exceptions that you have highlighted, there is rarely a chance of a touring team to beat another in an entirely different climate. If Pakistan, India, or Sri Lanka went to Bangladesh, you'd say that the odds were even, except for India who would be more likely to win. That being said, if subcontinent teams toured SENA, you'd see a dramatic shift in the chance of winning, in most cases, dipping below 30%.

However, home advantage is slowly growing which allows teams to even create pitches which are unfavourable for very similar teams. Look back at the test series between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and Pakistan and Bangladesh. Both teams were subcontinental with similar strengths, but in both cases, Pakistan out-batted the others.

It's becoming a rant now but I hope you understand my point was about home advantage, not trying to bring down New Zealand, who are a hard-working team that have earned the No.1 spot in the rankings.

 

[JaDed]

They won that series by a margin of 1 run, but I will admit it, they did play well to earn that win. However, have any of these performances been miles above what the opposition has produced?

I get that they are a good team, but overseas, they will not be the same force they are at home. They are unbeatable at home, and very much beatable overseas, as is the case with many teams in the current generation.

I hope that you understood my point about the significance of home advantage in modern cricket, as it dictates the majority of results regardless of the opposition you go against. India beating Australia in MCG was defying the odds, like I mentioned earlier, and so was Pakistan beating England a few years ago. The same thing can be said about Sri Lanka beating South Africa, and West Indies beating England a few years back. Granted that most of these weren't series victories, but they form part of the shrinking minority of good overseas performances by touring teams.

South Africa redeemed themselves by absolutely dismembering Sri Lanka, as New Zealand did with Pakistan. If India lose the series to Australia, it will only prove my point about the lack of competitiveness created by home advantage and home pitch curations. Not that I am a fan of competitiveness in test cricket, because for ages we have seen how teams have used any factor available to win games. We saw Steve Smith signal to the dressing room about a review a few years back, and now there's the use of coded signals which England is looking to adopt. The point is, everything is going towards the home team nowadays, and the only reason it doesn't spiral into white-ball cricket is because that is highly marketable.

I'll give you a better example, the rule for two new balls in white ball cricket has only served to make the game much more marketable and generate heaps of revenue when people see their favourite batsmen hit fat hundreds and watch bowlers get decimated. Before the implementation of this rule, the game was relatively evenly poised out. Good fast bowlers who worked hard had experience with the old ball and could use reverse swing effectively. The older ball also suited spinners, who were much more relevant in white-ball cricket at the time. Since the rule with two new balls, spinners have had to change everything about their bowling. The art of off-spin bowling has died, and the only way a finger spinner makes it into a team is if he's really economical (look at Imad Wasim), or if he's a mystery spinner (Mujeeb). People went to leg spin because they'd get traction on most wickets, and a bad ball from a leg-spinner could produce a wicket.

Going back to the point about New Zealand, that post I made was just to emphasize that as fans, we will back our team no matter what, but expecting results in these conditions and when home advantage is of such high importance is a bit foolish. It would obviously mean a lot if a team could compete and win during times where home advantage is so crucial, but apart from a few exceptions that you have highlighted, there is rarely a chance of a touring team to beat another in an entirely different climate. If Pakistan, India, or Sri Lanka went to Bangladesh, you'd say that the odds were even, except for India who would be more likely to win. That being said, if subcontinent teams toured SENA, you'd see a dramatic shift in the chance of winning, in most cases, dipping below 30%.

However, home advantage is slowly growing which allows teams to even create pitches which are unfavourable for very similar teams. Look back at the test series between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and Pakistan and Bangladesh. Both teams were subcontinental with similar strengths, but in both cases, Pakistan out-batted the others.

It's becoming a rant now but I hope you understand my point was about home advantage, not trying to bring down New Zealand, who are a hard-working team that have earned the No.1 spot in the rankings.

IMO Home Advantage was always a big thing in tests.. except for the mighty Windies and Aus team everyone has struggled to play away from home..

Even the super Aussie team won once in India which also coincided with rain in a test(not an excuse but it always has been difficult).

 

[runrainy]

Well Pakistan always suffers in NZ in recent years, even 2016 series they lost much badly than this series. Better to look at positives than the negatives. Batting is much better than previous visits. Its the bowling was very average. and fielding costs us too

 

[MenInG]

Inzamam speaking about our defeat:

"Looking at Pakistan's performance in New Zealand, its clear that we are in dire need of improvement in all three departments of the game but given the way catches have been dropped, we need big improvements in that aspect of the game"

"We will never be able to win games if we drop so many catches, unless we invite Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to play against us in Pakistan"

"This innings defeat isn't a one-off but its the third occasion in the WTC"

"And I say this with some regret as I am not used to saying harsh words but fact is that only against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka has our bowling performance been good; Against Australia, England and New Zealand our bowling has hit lows"

"Quality of batting will never improve and team will never win if you include batsmen who score once in every 5 innings"

"South Africa are coming over to Pakistan and its possible that we make some turning tracks to trap their batsmen and win that way but outside our performances are zero"

"Our players are good but they seem to have a crisis of confidence and look uncomfortable"