"Unfortunate that despite playing good cricket in 4 games we didn't qualify for SFs": Sarfaraz Ahmed

[PakPremi]

There were nine of them Sarfraz. NINE.

Pak won 5 and one rained off. Even some semifinalist lost 3. Pak played badly in West Indies game losing with heavy margin which ultimately cost them. In rest of the games they punched well above their weight. Well done. Lots of promise in this team especially when Hafoz and Malik removed and some deserving youngsters given chance in their place.

 

[pakistani pride]

Nothing unfortunate, you played pathetic cricket against Afghanistan. Today’s win doesn’t count either. Bangladesh were already out and Pakistan didn’t have any pressure on them because they were basically out as well.

If today’s match would have been a virtual quarter-final, it would have been very close. The fact that Sarfraz appears to be gloating over this soft win exposes his mental state.

How do you explain ENG only finished 1 point ahead of PAK in the WC and also given the fact ENG was the only team not to have a game washed out from the top 4 I guess.

 

[BlueBeamer]

Pakistan team should be proud....They finished 5th which is better than their ODI ranking.

 

[Mamoon]

How do you explain ENG only finished 1 point ahead of PAK in the WC and also given the fact ENG was the only team not to have a game washed out from the top 4 I guess.

They performed below their capability, but they did show their class in the two must win matches vs India and New Zealand.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Considering your keenness to humiliate me, you would think Pakistan have won the World Cup. I don't exactly remember what I predicted, but I probably would have said that Pakistan are unlikely to make the semi-finals and cannot beat the better teams unless they catch them on their off-days.

Keep quiet? I suggest you look in the mirror. You delusions with respect to the capabilities of this team are well-documented, and they have left you embarrassed multiple times over the last two years. The Asia Cup was of course the zenith of your embarrassment but you chose to not learn from that experience.

You said Pakistan might get one or two fluke wins but would otherwise be humiliated as would their fans. At the time I was in agreement, although I thought we would win about 2 to 3games, those too against the supposed minnows. I didn't agree on us getting any wins due to luck, and in hindsight, Pakistan have actually had some pretty bad luck in this tournament.

They had good wins against decent opposition, and I think showed enough to have earned a semi-final spot ahead of NZ. You can't claim Pakistan benefited from luck in previous competitions and fail to acknowledge that this time they lost out to NZ who had all the luck in this tournament.

 

[PakPremi]

They performed below their capability, but they did show their class in the two must win matches vs India and New Zealand.

Pak matches against SA and Nz were also must wins for Pak and they won both well, although in the end not well enough to improve run rate further.

 

[PakPremi]

You said Pakistan might get one or two fluke wins but would otherwise be humiliated as would their fans. At the time I was in agreement, although I thought we would win about 2 to 3games, those too against the supposed minnows. I didn't agree on us getting any wins due to luck, and in hindsight, Pakistan have actually had some pretty bad luck in this tournament.

They had good wins against decent opposition, and I think showed enough to have earned a semi-final spot ahead of NZ. You can't claim Pakistan benefited from luck in previous competitions and fail to acknowledge that this time they lost out to NZ who had all the luck in this tournament.

Its Luck or Fluke if Pak are beneficiary and merit if it's some other country. Basically any excuse to put Pakistan down.

 

[pakistani pride]

They performed below their capability, but they did show their class in the two must win matches vs India and New Zealand.

Can you explain what below their capability is as we have seen ENG cant bat on pitches when the par score is 240ish. The 59 meter boundary and Dhoni playing for a draw helped them. The NZ game well NZ is a weak team.

Eng lost vs PAK and AUS while chasing and failed doing what they did 4 years long CHASING.

AUS to put them out of their misery next week. Has been a humilating wc for ENG.

 

[Mamoon]

Can you explain what below their capability is as we have seen ENG cant bat on pitches when the par score is 240ish. The 59 meter boundary and Dhoni playing for a draw helped them. The NZ game well NZ is a weak team.

Eng lost vs PAK and AUS while chasing and failed doing what they did 4 years long CHASING.

AUS to put them out of their misery next week. Has been a humilating wc for ENG.

All this talk of England not having the ability to do well on slower wickets etc. is desperation by people who badly want to see them fail.

A week earlier, the narrative was that England cannot handle pressure and are too soft. After they thumped India and New Zealand in must win games, the narrative has changed to “but they can only do well if they bat first on flat wickets”.

England continues to prove people wrong because people cannot come to terms with the fact that they are the best ODI side in the world along with India.

 

[pakistani pride]

All this talk of England not having the ability to do well on slower wickets etc. is desperation by people who badly want to see them fail.

A week earlier, the narrative was that England cannot handle pressure and are too soft. After they thumped India and New Zealand in must win games, the narrative has changed to “but they can only do well if they bat first on flat wickets”.

England continues to prove people wrong because people cannot come to terms with the fact that they are the best ODI side in the world along with India.

LOL they didnt thump India, our dear parosees just rolled over. Guess they took some inspiration from Gavaskar knock in 76 chase vs Eng.

Besides Eng will indeed be the best ODI team of the world but for that they actually need to win the cup.

About time as well 3rd time a big ICC trophy is being played in the UK.

CT 2013 CHOCKED
CT 2017 THAT IS WHAT YOU CALL A THUMPING
WC 2019 surely they will win so our **** wannabee/ low on self esteem Mamoon can be happy.

 

[Xoib]

All this talk of England not having the ability to do well on slower wickets etc. is desperation by people who badly want to see them fail.

A week earlier, the narrative was that England cannot handle pressure and are too soft. After they thumped India and New Zealand in must win games, the narrative has changed to “but they can only do well if they bat first on flat wickets”.

England continues to prove people wrong because people cannot come to terms with the fact that they are the best ODI side in the world along with India.

Don’t you always cry we beat in CT since it was a slow used pitch, Now you are saying England not doing well on a slow pitch is just an excuse from people who put down England, make up your mind pal can England play on as low Pitch or not if they can which means the Cardiff defeat had nothing to do with the pitch but were outplayed by a better team

 

[Mamoon]

Don’t you always cry we beat in CT since it was a slow used pitch, Now you are saying England not doing well on a slow pitch is just an excuse from people who put down England, make up your mind pal can England play on as low Pitch or not if they can which means the Cardiff defeat had nothing to do with the pitch but were outplayed by a better team

That was a learning experience for England. They weren’t expecting a pitch like that and failed to adjust. They also lost on a slow pitch to Sri Lanka in the World Cup, but they didn’t have Roy and got some rough calls from the umpires. If they are served a slow wicket this time, they will be ready for it.

 

[Mamoon]

LOL they didnt thump India, our dear parosees just rolled over. Guess they took some inspiration from Gavaskar knock in 76 chase vs Eng.

Besides Eng will indeed be the best ODI team of the world but for that they actually need to win the cup.

About time as well 3rd time a big ICC trophy is being played in the UK.

CT 2013 CHOCKED
CT 2017 THAT IS WHAT YOU CALL A THUMPING
WC 2019 surely they will win so our **** wannabee/ low on self esteem Mamoon can be happy.

India didn’t roll over. They conceded 338 and England are the only team who can pile up so many runs against such a quality attack. India don’t have the lower-order firepower (except Pandya) to chase down such a total.

They needed Kohli and Rohit to score hundreds but unfortunately Kohli fell shot, and once Pandya was dismissed, they didn’t stand a chance with a washed up Dhoni and Jhadav. Plunkett and Woakes also bowled superbly and used angles and variations to make it hard for the Indian to pair to go for big shots.

You need to overcome the delusions that India deliberately lost to England in order to eliminate Pakistan. England is a far bigger threat for them and by eliminating them, they would have double their chances of winning the World Cup.

 

[pakistani pride]

India didn’t roll over. They conceded 338 and England are the only team who can pile up so many runs against such a quality attack. India don’t have the lower-order firepower (except Pandya) to chase down such a total.

They needed Kohli and Rohit to score hundreds but unfortunately Kohli fell shot, and once Pandya was dismissed, they didn’t stand a chance with a washed up Dhoni and Jhadav. Plunkett and Woakes also bowled superbly and used angles and variations to make it hard for the Indian to pair to go for big shots.

You need to overcome the delusions that India deliberately lost to England in order to eliminate Pakistan. England is a far bigger threat for them and by eliminating them, they would have double their chances of winning the World Cup.

When and wherw did I say India lost on purpose? Its quite clear India is not good lower down the order. We know that but when you habe 5 wickets in the tank you go hard. Thats not mine opinion but also every cricket pundit mentioned this.

 

[ExplicitAI]

Even though this is probably one of the worst world cups in history due to no reserve days, we shouldn't be satisfied with our overall performance since we do not understand the requirements for this WC format where NRR is concerned. For a team that was violating West Indies all year round, losing to them in that manner is unacceptable. Obviously you cannot win every game but the thing is that you shouldn't be losing games against teams that you are most likely to beat.

 

[pillionrider]

he can be the king of england and your wife. it still does not mean that he's right about everything.

I agree with this completely in regard to his opinions on Pakistan cricket

Anyway the context of all this has been lost now...

 

[Chokli]

If it is any consolation, Pakistan are not as bad as their 14 match losing streak showed. That is associate level performance and even Law of Averages failed to do its magic.

The 6th rank is a fair reflection of the level of this team. It will lost the majority of matches to the top sides and win the majority of matches from minnows like Ireland and Zimbabwe. Hence, finishing 5th in the World Cup is quite a par result.

Makes sense, glad we could come to an agreement.

 

[Majid Khan]

There you have it, we played well - it was just luck that didn’t go our way.. no need to improve or do anything differently then, carry on the same way.

I’m guessing the 12 games we lost consecutively was also due to bad luck and key ‘senior’ players losing form at the wrong time due to bad luck also.

Never admit any weaknesses , and never
aim to improve as that means accepting you are lacking something. Just go with the flow, it’s a game and someone has to win and someone has to lose, if luck is on your side and you play like cornered tigers you can beat anyone - what a great philosophy for sports.. who needs all this sports science about fitness and performance improvement and developing a winning mindset.

 

[Kianig89]

Sarfraz is a legend only luck came.in his way otherwise we would have a captain with CT medal amd WC medal nevertheless get ready for WT20

 

[sweep_shot]

I get the feeling Pakistan never cared about NRR from the beginning. They were happy to win. It came back to bite.

 

[Chokli]

There you have it, we played well - it was just luck that didn’t go our way.. no need to improve or do anything differently then, carry on the same way.

I’m guessing the 12 games we lost consecutively was also due to bad luck and key ‘senior’ players losing form at the wrong time due to bad luck also.

Never admit any weaknesses , and never
aim to improve as that means accepting you are lacking something. Just go with the flow, it’s a game and someone has to win and someone has to lose, if luck is on your side and you play like cornered tigers you can beat anyone - what a great philosophy for sports.. who needs all this sports science about fitness and performance improvement and developing a winning mindset.

5 of those were against Australia where we supposedly played a weak team

 

[fitCricFan]

There you have it, we played well - it was just luck that didn’t go our way.. no need to improve or do anything differently then, carry on the same way.

I’m guessing the 12 games we lost consecutively was also due to bad luck and key ‘senior’ players losing form at the wrong time due to bad luck also.

Never admit any weaknesses , and never
aim to improve as that means accepting you are lacking something. Just go with the flow, it’s a game and someone has to win and someone has to lose, if luck is on your side and you play like cornered tigers you can beat anyone - what a great philosophy for sports.. who needs all this sports science about fitness and performance improvement and developing a winning mindset.

Spot on.... Only the weak rely on luck as you can be lucky only so many times

 

[khan_aa]

I agree with this completely in regard to his opinions on Pakistan cricket

Anyway the context of all this has been lost now...

congratulations on your agreements with nasser hussain.

 

[DHONI183]

"Unfortunate that despite playing good cricket in 4 games we didn't qualify for SFs": Sarfaraz Ahmed

Given the initial three defeats, and also the fact that a place in the semi-finals seemed impossible, I'd made up my mind that it's time for wholesale changes. Although it stayed the same way as Pakistan did indeed not qualify for it, but I'm double-minded and also a little confused as to which way to go following a brilliant comeback in the tournament by them. I'm of the opinion that the coach, Arthur, should stay and be given some more time. Under his coaching, Pakistan have won the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 and now performed quite well in the ongoing World Cup. When was the last time, before him, that Pakistan performed as well in two consecutive ICC tournaments?

A few things are clear though. Now that Malik has retired, Hafeez too must go. Pakistan need to look to new blood for the future. Fakhar must go back to domestic cricket to sort out his temperament, and Hasan Ali too must go back to find form and his lost touch. Both are otherwise still fine players and still a part of the future plans, especially the latter.

Undecided about Sarfaraz though. I suppose it's a question for the board. Do they think that his captaincy and leadership had a part to play in Pakistan winning four consecutive matches in the latet stages of the tournament? If yes, I wouldn't mind if he's continued with for some more time. One thing is given though, he must give up on treating his players like children under his guardianship. He must stop with yelling at his bowlers and fielders and with giving them scary looks.

From the batting point of view. Look, Sarfaraz doesn't have the game, he doesn't have the ability to hit big towards the end of the innings. Neither do I find him being capable of being able to handle the pressure of batting with the lower-order and the tail. Now with the departure of Malik, and hopefully also Hafeez, he could be the ideal guy to bat at number four or five. He definitely has the game to keep milking the bowling for ones and twos and also to allow others bat around him. His this ability should be made use of in the sense that he should be asked to look to anchor the innings. If he's kept at lower down the order, his game is coming down rapidly I'm afraid.