Strange bowling tactics by Pakistan on Day 1 of 2nd Test versus Australia

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So Pakistani bowlers are bowling leg side, defensive lines.
Bowlers are not even trying to take wickets and it's the first day of the Test match.
Poor tactics by Pak management.

 

[MenInG]

Umpires called leg-side wides as they felt that this was negative bowling....

 

[MenInG]

This is embarrassing for Pakistan, Babar needs to get himself sorted or will look really silly.

 

[Sycamore]

What about the fact, Babar took away the pacers just as they started to get a considerable amount of reverse swing.

Weird tactics today, very disappointing.

 

[Afhan Ali]

Babar the captain is a joke

 

[MenInG]

"Tactics we are seeing at the moment, it looks like we are looking for a draw - Its ridiculous" : Waqar Younis

 

[ARK Rafay]

Babar was pretty satisfied with the draw in the last match during the post match conference. Won't be surprised if the team's tactics is to take this game deep and see if they can win on the last, otherwise bat out for a draw.

 

[Shaddy86]

Trying to slow the flow of runs to get Aussies to start taking risks. A leg spinner is a must in any test side, would rather have Yasir Shah here than any of these two spinners.

 

[James]

Poor stuff from the skipper this.

 

[Energy]

If Babar and co can't see how stupid this is, no one can make them believe how embarrassing this has been to watch.

 

[Rana]

You appointed him

You all praised him

You all wanted him

You also want his deputy (Rizwan)

Now enjoy this brand of PCB

 

[MenInG]

You appointed him

You all praised him

You all wanted him

You also want his deputy (Rizwan)

Now enjoy this brand of PCB

Think you are confused with Babar as batter one.

 

[MenInG]

So we used our proper bowlers for negative lines, and then Babar and Azhar bowl proper lines...

 

[ElRaja]

could barely watch an hour of this, terrible viewing, regardless of strategy, and its questionable if there even is one, this is no way to build an audience to watch test cricket. best time to bat will be tomorrow and pak handing that day on a platter to aussies.

india vs sl much better watch, even tho that pitch is crazy, at least u know the games moving forward. this test series is turning into the biggest anti-climax ever.

 

[PakLFC]

Ramiz better be prepared for terrible criticism if this series ends up as 0-0.

 

[MenInG]

So embarrassing this

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[MenInG]

"Tactics we are seeing at the moment, it looks like we are looking for a draw - Its ridiculous" : Waqar Younis

Mike Haysman : “I wonder if the umpires are thinking of getting involved here because there is the situation that they can get involved if they think it’s too negative?”

Michael Kasprowicz: “If the plan was to bring down the scoring rate they’ve achieved that and had success, it’s less than three right now,”

“It has created a bit of a change there, but it seems like they’re waiting the Australians to get themselves out.”

 

[James]

So embarrassing this<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;"><iframe src="https://streamable.com/e/o3n5k0" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="100%" allowfullscreen style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute;"></iframe></div>

Cringe.

What are they doing.

 

[Wahid1234]

So embarrassing this

<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;"><iframe src="https://streamable.com/e/o3n5k0" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="100%" allowfullscreen style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute;"></iframe></div>

Absolutely pathetic from the pakistan player laughing and joking at their embarrassing reisplan of negative tactics. Babar has to go as a captain absolutely pathetic as a captain.

We are literally playing for a draw in a home series shocking

 

[pakistanigoneaussie]

Deeply embarrassing

 

[shaz619]

So embarrassing this

<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;"><iframe src="https://streamable.com/e/o3n5k0" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="100%" allowfullscreen style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute;"></iframe></div>

Listen to the roar of the crowd and then the situation on the field, it’s deeply pathetic. The fans have been deprived of good cricket and this is what they get, not a good advert for the young pakistani generation either. I hope Australia win to force Pakistan’s hand in the final test. Australia are a strong side and I get that Pak don’t want to lose / have a mental block to overcome, but not this way.

 

[Kroll]

Umpires called leg-side wides as they felt that this was negative bowling....

Fair enough if they are wides. But I wouldn’t have thought its the umpires job to dictate what bowling tactics Pakistan can and cannot do?

 

[Kianig89]

Because there is no leadership Babar made blunders in T20Wc Sf as well and paid the price lack of quality spinner in Pak Team is how much we have regressed Sajid and Noman are not International level bowlers

 

[James]

Fair enough if they are wides. But I wouldn’t have thought its the umpires job to dictate what bowling tactics Pakistan can and cannot do?

There are rules against types of leg side bowling which are perceived to be negative. Umpires can intervene and either call wides or enforce a change in tactic.

 

[jiduguravindra]

Fair enough if they are wides. But I wouldn’t have thought its the umpires job to dictate what bowling tactics Pakistan can and cannot do?

Negative bowling in test cricket is not allowed. If umpire feels the bowling team was doing it intentionally, they can call wide for balls going down leg. It's not the first time umpires calling wides for negative lines.

 

[Major]

Rameez Raja came up with these pitches... There isn't much for the bowlers hence nothing wrong.

Nauman picked Smith up on this line last match.....

If you want to blame someone, blame the media person chairman.

Fingers cross for demerit points for this pitch.

 

[Barragan]

The right strategy!

Why hand over the match to the Aussies?

They could have easily made 400 by the end of days play and Pak would have been deep trouble.

Pak are still in the game, thanks to the tactics.

 

[Kroll]

There are rules against types of leg side bowling which are perceived to be negative. Umpires can intervene and either call wides or enforce a change in tactic.

Negative bowling in test cricket is not allowed. If umpire feels the bowling team was doing it intentionally, they can call wide for balls going down leg. It's not the first time umpires calling wides for negative lines.

Ok guys, thanks.

 

[MenInG]

"In the last session, they bowled pretty much on the legside, with some negative plans to see if we would play some shots but we decided not to; We weren't going to give them some free wickets" : Usman Khawaja

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

Seriously pathetic cricket from Pakistan. 10+ overs of negative bowling was just madness. And their grand scheme didn't even work because Khawaja and Smith blunted the new ball. Plus, Khawaja is still there while the only reason Smith isn't is because Faheem Ashraf took an absolute blinder.

I know the pitch was unhelpful and everything but not even trying to get the opposition batters out is simply shameful.

 

[James]

"In the last session, they bowled pretty much on the legside, with some negative plans to see if we would play some shots but we decided not to; We weren't going to give them some free wickets" : Usman Khawaja

Pretty damning indictment to be fair.

 

[Sarwar89]

Very Smart captaincy by Babar.
In football at times you need to slow the game down and Italians are very smart in it, that is why their tactics are always called boring and anti football.


Had it been sarfaraz the captain, who costed us 2017 and 2018 home series in uae, scored would have been 320/4 and Aussies in driving seat.

 

[Kroll]

Very Smart captaincy by Babar.
In football at times you need to slow the game down and Italians are very smart in it, that is why their tactics are always called boring and anti football.


Had it been sarfaraz the captain, who costed us 2017 and 2018 home series in uae, scored would have been 320/4 and Aussies in driving seat.

Pakistan's tactics are even worse, cos with the Italians, they can hit you on the counter punch, whilst Pakistan's play was entirely negative with that kind of bowling.

Normally teams use the field placings for a defensive tactic, but Pakistan went even beyond this method. It may worth it to try and gauge a response but seems Pakistan prolonged it and Oz didn't bite?

 

[Sarwar89]

Pakistan's tactics are even worse, cos with the Italians, they can hit you on the counter punch, whilst Pakistan's play was entirely negative with that kind of bowling.

Normally teams use the field placings for a defensive tactic, but Pakistan went even beyond this method. It may worth it to try and gauge a response but seems Pakistan prolonged it and Oz didn't bite?

Pakistan’s counter punch has already started
1) Smith gone
2) Lyon was dropped.

There are 100 runs to play with
Tomorrow morning with new ball if shaheen and hasan can do the damage, and pak ending up scoring 450, Aussies will struggle in 3rd innings. Lets rest our case till lunch time tomorrow.

 

[MenInG]

Mohammad Rizwan when asked about these tactics:

"We all know that Usman Khawaja, David Warner and Steve Smith are good Test batters, they know the conditions and know very well how and when to attack our bowling; But this is the beauty of cricket that we saw their intent and tried to dry the runs and this is why we went for a legside attack; This is Test cricket and everything like this is possible; We wanted to dry the runs and this was the only tactic for available to us."

"We wanted to dry the runs after Australia made good use of the advantage they gained by winning the toss; Look such tactics cannot be considered as negative as other big teams also do these things, and thankfully our bowlers did make a comeback; We should play in the way its demanded by the nature of the pitch, their run-rate was very high so in order to dry that, we bowled in that way"

 

[Rana]

Cringe.

What are they doing.

Just Rizwan the love of the nation things bro.

At least he isn’t screaming and shouting at his bowlers his fans would say

 

[Zaz]

The tactics were fine for a little while Theres nothing in it for bowlers in this pitch so when you cant take wkts the next best thing is just to slow the run rate down n maybe see if they will gift a wkt or too

No point giving them freebies and seeing the scoreboard get away They wrestled some control back

They probably just overdid it for a few overs too many In between they couldve shouldve used the pacers again for a quick burst

There was no point to continue giving the aussies eastly runs 4 where they wouldve been at 320 at end of play

 

[cricenjoyer]

It wasn't terrible tactics, however I feel that Babar could have thought a bit outside the box and used a spinner at one end and then rotated Shaheen, Hasan and Faheem from overs 60-70 considering the amount of reverse they were all getting near the end of session 2

 

[Zaz]

What wouldve been ridiculous to do is continue to attack all day leak runs when theres nothing it it for the bowlers and see the game slip away

Just like any sport youve got to play smart n do game managememt They pulled the run rate back so the score hasnt got away

Couple of early wkts tmrw with the semi new ball is the best chance of getting back in the game

 

[cricketerB94]

Aus missed the trick here. They should have let Khwaja face the full overs of Nauman and Smith face the full overs of Sajid. This would have been a good way to counter this leg-side tactic of drying the runs.

 

[JibranAnsari]

Extremely poor mindset on day 1.

 

[Kroll]

Pakistan’s counter punch has already started
1) Smith gone
2) Lyon was dropped.

There are 100 runs to play with
Tomorrow morning with new ball if shaheen and hasan can do the damage, and pak ending up scoring 450, Aussies will struggle in 3rd innings. Lets rest our case till lunch time tomorrow.

Tactics built on fear or actually trying to gain an advantage?

But yeah lets see, need quick wickets then a massive counter punch from the batting.

 

[Forward Defensive Push]

Nothing wrong with the tactics. Pakistan is justified in doing so to stem the run rate. Too many snow flakes on this forum.. worrying about things that are fine and not giving a damn about the important things

 

[Colorblind Genius]

What about the fact, Babar took away the pacers just as they started to get a considerable amount of reverse swing.

Weird tactics today, very disappointing.

Babar the captain is a joke

Babar was pretty satisfied with the draw in the last match during the post match conference. Won't be surprised if the team's tactics is to take this game deep and see if they can win on the last, otherwise bat out for a draw.

Poor stuff from the skipper this.

But he said, he wanted to be a captain like Imran Khan.

 

[Zaz]

Well a couple of wkts early and they are back on top

There was no point attacking only to see aus say at 350-5 and with both the runs and rate of them out of pakistans control after day 1

 

[ARK Rafay]

The tactic itself is not that bad but the situation demanded wickets. They've managed to slow down the run rate. Lets see if they are able to restrict Australia below 350 tomorrow. Because that would be a good outcome

 

[ARK Rafay]

But he said, he wanted to be a captain like Imran Khan.

He'll learn

 

[ask_analyse_act]

What about the fact, Babar took away the pacers just as they started to get a considerable amount of reverse swing.

Weird tactics today, very disappointing.

This indeed poor captaincy.. Hasan ali could have got more wickets if used with old ball properly..

 

[ask_analyse_act]

The tactic itself is not that bad but the situation demanded wickets. They've managed to slow down the run rate. Lets see if they are able to restrict Australia below 350 tomorrow. Because that would be a good outcome

Aus dont have enough experience down the order after this pair but Im sure they will reach 400+

No bite in spinners , both chachus are just playing gully mohalla cricket against Aus

 

[shamaan]

Nothing wrong with the tactics. Pakistan is justified in doing so to stem the run rate. Too many snow flakes on this forum.. worrying about things that are fine and not giving a damn about the important things

They should have attacked when the reverse was happening.

 

[Kroll]

Mohammad Rizwan when asked about these tactics:

"We all know that Usman Khawaja, David Warner and Steve Smith are good Test batters, they know the conditions and know very well how and when to attack our bowling; But this is the beauty of cricket that we saw their intent and tried to dry the runs and this is why we went for a legside attack; This is Test cricket and everything like this is possible; We wanted to dry the runs and this was the only tactic for available to us."

"We wanted to dry the runs after Australia made good use of the advantage they gained by winning the toss; Look such tactics cannot be considered as negative as other big teams also do these things, and thankfully our bowlers did make a comeback; We should play in the way its demanded by the nature of the pitch, their run-rate was very high so in order to dry that, we bowled in that way"

So our tactics are based on what Australian batsmen can and cannot do?

I'd like to see the team be a bit more proactive but sorry to say, this is quite minnow mentality. We're playing at home as well where the conditions are supposed to suit us better?

 

[Mesozoic]

Pakistan had 'strange tactics' on each and every day of this tour. They just don't look like a team who wants to win..

 

[Kroll]

Pakistan had 'strange tactics' on each and every day of this tour. They just don't look like a team who wants to win..

They want to thank the Aussies for their first visit in 24 years.

 

[Cricfan4eva]

Aus were coasting when Warner Khawaja were out there, so if they had ended day at 350-3 then it was almost curtains for Pak in this test.

Pak now have a chance in this test. Tomorrow morning a burst of 3/10 runs and suddenly Aus are 260/6 and you can look to wrap them up below <350.

However negative lines isn't the answer. It just show how unimaginative Babar is as captain that instead of setting fields that can plug scoring he told his bowlers to resort to negative bowling. Not a good look for him as captain. It's not down to him alone though, these tactics must be something they've discussed with their head & bowling coach too.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Get Yasir in the team somehow. Nauman and Sajid aren't going to produce wicket taking deliveries here.