South Africa vs Pakistan | 2nd T20I | Centurion | December 13 | Pre-Match Discussion

[The Bald Eagle]

Haris Rauf in a pre game press conference shared following thoughts:

Q: Are you happy with your current bowling form?

First of all, all praises to Almighty ALLAH that I won the player of the month award for the last month (November). Such accomplishments will keep coming with time but one has to remain focused to improve performance. We are trying hard to do good in this series too like we did the last time when we visited South Africa and won the series. Our momentum is quite good, and the team is well gelled (as a unit) too so we would try to win tomorrow's encounter by not repeating the mistakes from the first T20I.

Q: Strategy for Tomorrow's encounter:

In the last game, we made many mistakes and discussed them at length too but tomorrow we shall try to do our best in the ground as it is an important match of the series. So, we shall try to do great tomorrow especially as a bowling unit because as you all know these (South African) pitches produce quite high scoring games. So as a bowling unit we shall try to contain them at the lowest total possible so it becomes easier for our team to chase down that total.

Q: What were the positives for you from the last game?

It was a great game (1st T20I), we tried our best to win it. The positive for us was that we have youngsters in our side, who are performing so we shall try to give them more chances (in this series) now as it is quite important for the team too and will try to win the match tomorrow.

Q: Long South Africa tour still ahead, any strategy to keep your momentum intact?

It's personally a very long tour for me bearing in mind that I am coming here after partaking in the Australia and Zimbabwe series. But still it is fine for me as in cricket it's all about (exhibiting) patience and I am quite happy to exhibit it.

 

[salman24]

Saim
Bobsy
Rizwan
Omair Bin Yousuf
Tayyab
Agha
Irfan
Jahandad
Shaheen
Haris
Abrar

Not much to pick form but they need more batting depth

 

[RidiculousMan]

What about Rizwan? You could bowl wide of off stump with another fielder on the off side and he’ll still look to hit in the leg side.

Look at stats of both Rizwan and Usman in T20Is.

I would replace Rizwan with Harris btw

 

[RizwanT20Champ]

Babar needs to find his mojo. He should play his natural game which is to take his time and explode at the end rather than playing like a ball basher which Pakistan do not need. He should open with Rizwan in the next game, Saim has shown enough promise at number 3 and he should be the number 3 going forward. Rizwan, Babar, Saim is a solid top 3. Pakistan need to find solid middle and lower order players.

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Centurion: Pakistan-South Africa T20I Series

The national squad practice at Super Sports Park ahead of the second T20I Pakistani players practiced batting, bowling and fielding Batters participated in net practice The second T20 between Pakistan and South Africa will take place tomorrow. The match will start at 6 pm local time.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Don't have much interest in T20s, but PAK's batting lineup for T20 is ill planned - you can't put two similar type of righthanders as openers, who happens to be top two bulk scorers as well at 1-2.

It has two consequences - 1. None of these two openers are blasters to score 30 of 14-15 balls - so, their play book is quite simpleton ... play till 10-12th overs at 6-7 rate and then expect to add another 100 in last 10. When the target (doesn't matter batting first or second - there is always a per target) is reasonable for the playing condition, PAK looks extremely solid. For example, had SAF not added 20 extra yesterday for 2 wickets, I am sure PAK would have won it by 8 or 9 wickets with one of RizBar into a nice 75+, or even both. 2. This makes the team a sort of vulnerable (read scared) if there is an early wicket - the remaining one of the pair goes into shell to play out the overs, others are not good enough to play long innings. This is exactly what happened in first game - otherwise Saim did cover for Rizwan, but couldn't carry beyond 31.

This is a bit experimental series, therefore won't judge much, but this is also true SAF is well, well under strength in bowling particularly and PAK was simply outclassed in Australia, which again was a compromised T20 XI for Aussies. But, for serious games, RizBar opening pair won't serve and I think teams have figured PAK batting out also - team is extremely careful (I say sacred) of loosing early wickets (as they have put almost every hope on # 1 & 2), so they start to choke PAK batting early, which is interpreted by fans as stat padding batting. I am sure PCT reads these posts, discusses among themselves as well, but it'll not change unless the play book is changed. If I were the manager and put RizBar opener, I would have asked the same also and put pressure on bowling to restrict the target to a manageable proportion.

What's the alternate - well, obviously I don't believe that there are Richards and Gilchrists wait for the selectors mercy, therefore the solution has to come from within what is already there.

First thing, PAK needs to believe that they are a bowling team - won't ever win series (odd game is different) the way AUS, IND or ENG does. To simplify, even on an absolute batting belter, I believe PAK has a better chance to defend (or restrict target) 170, rather than chasing/posting 210. PCT must make sure that they have at least 16 overs worth of bowling picked based on pure bowling merit.

Regarding batting line-up, RizBar can't open together - two similar right handers and they are getting predictable. Of the two, I drop Riz at 4 like ODIs (actually, instead of Abdullah, Babar should open in ODI also), open with Babar/Saim and play Fakhar at 3 (if he is allowed to return). Riz at 4 to play the spinners and 5-7 are hitters, preferably proper hitters.

As of now, this will be my XI
Babar, Saim
FZ, *Riz+
Hitter, Hitter (don't know who, Usman is not one)
Shadab
Shaheen, Rauf, Naseem
A proper spinner who can flight and turn, instead of darting around. Or a 4th pacer, Saim can roll arms for spin.

Shadab has been utterly mediocre over the last 18 months in every format and in every league almost.

They should play Arafat Minhas if he is in the squad.

Agree with the rest of your post

 

[Dr_Bassim]

Babar needs to find his mojo. He should play his natural game which is to take his time and explode at the end rather than playing like a ball basher which Pakistan do not need. He should open with Rizwan in the next game, Saim has shown enough promise at number 3 and he should be the number 3 going forward. Rizwan, Babar, Saim is a solid top 3. Pakistan need to find solid middle and lower order players.

So back to status quo.

Babar and Rizwan bat for 14 overs and score 100 runs and then last 6 overs you ask the remaining 9 batters to hit 100 more runs.

Babar and Rizwan strike 50s.

Rest of team fails.

Rizwan and Babar get hailed heroes again.

Wonderful!

 

[RizwanT20Champ]

So back to status quo.

Babar and Rizwan bat for 14 overs and score 100 runs and then last 6 overs you ask the remaining 9 batters to hit 100 more runs.

Babar and Rizwan strike 50s.

Rest of team fails.

Rizwan and Babar get hailed heroes again.

Wonderful!

It is not their fault that Fakhar averages 22 and failed miserably when opening. Babar and Rizwan are forced to anchor because of the rest of the line up. With Saim promising at number 3 maybe it will free them up more. Numbers show that Rizwan and Babar are the most successful and dreaded opening combination in T20 cricket today. Compare their numbers to likes of Pant, Sharma, Head etc.

 

[RizwanT20Champ]

Template for Pakistan to get their mojo back.

Babar and Rizwan need to build and take the score to 80-85 after 10 overs with risk free batting. We know they can explode when needed. Last game vs SA, Rizwan exploded and nearly won the game off his own bat against SA in SA. It is a pity the rest of the line up is so bad. Hopefully Saim can come good at number 3.

 

[Cricket Warrior]

so lets see who will open tomorrow... I think Saim and Omair should give a chance.

 

[YousafTheBeast]

Look at stats of both Rizwan and Usman in T20Is.

I would replace Rizwan with Harris btw

Not really a fan of Usman, but I don’t think he’s the biggest problem in the team right now. Babar and Rizwan in T20’s is a bigger issue regardless of how consistent they are.

 

[RidiculousMan]

Not really a fan of Usman, but I don’t think he’s the biggest problem in the team right now. Babar and Rizwan in T20’s is a bigger issue regardless of how consistent they are.

Usman literally has worst strike rate and average than Rizwan

EDIT: Not to mention his WK skill is also inferior