What's new

[VIDEO] New Zealand win 1st Test by 101 runs despite heroics by Fawad Alam (102) and M. Rizwan (60)

Misbah was captain for 7 years while Fawad was scoring runs for fun in domestic cricket. He instead played Asad Shafiq, a vastly inferior batsman to Fawad, for all those years.

So? Blame the selectors of that era. Not everything is Misbah's fault
 
Its still going to be very difficult to save the test but at least they have given themselves a chance. Excellent batting by Fawad and great support by Riz
 
Misbah was captain for 7 years while Fawad was scoring runs for fun in domestic cricket. He instead played Asad Shafiq, a vastly inferior batsman to Fawad, for all those years.

Asad almost won us a test match in Australia single handedly. He played a similar innings to Fawad today. He lost his form afterwards.
 
Safety first with Misbah at the helm and for once I agree with him. Not enough batsmen in the dugout to ensure a draw if one of these guys get out attacking. Pakistan need to save this game and then go hard in the next one when Babar hopefully returns

Faheem who scored 92 in the first innings is still there. Required rate at this point is around 4.4. They scored 45 in the last 10 overs. They should keep trying to score at around 4 to 5 an over, and if they lose a couple of wickets they should shut down.
 
Great test match heading towards 5th day last session with all results possible.

Flat pitch and the only spinner who can get wickets is bowling tripe. Santnar has been a huge disappointment. I see an easy draw here unless Pak batsmen play brainless shots.
 
Marathon inning by Fawad, great test match for Rizwan as well with injured leg and shararti ankh.
 
So happy for fawad alam , didnt expect him to survive first 10 overs today. He could have had a very good career in the last 10 years but he was discarded after 3 tests even though he scored a big hundred as an opener. A very sad story , lets hope he has a happy ending.

I wish him to be not out today at the end of the day.
 
Faheem who scored 92 in the first innings is still there. Required rate at this point is around 4.4. They scored 45 in the last 10 overs. They should keep trying to score at around 4 to 5 an over, and if they lose a couple of wickets they should shut down.

Easier said then done. A draw will suffice
 
Always said Rizwan is a fighter and a grinder. He works hard and is determined and will be best wicket keeper batsmen in a few years
 
So happy for fawad alam , didnt expect him to survive first 10 overs today. He could have had a very good career in the last 10 years but he was discarded after 3 tests even though he scored a big hundred as an opener. A very sad story , lets hope he has a happy ending.

I wish him to be not out today at the end of the day.

Food may taste nice but its got to look good for people to buy it
 
Faheem who scored 92 in the first innings is still there. Required rate at this point is around 4.4. They scored 45 in the last 10 overs. They should keep trying to score at around 4 to 5 an over, and if they lose a couple of wickets they should shut down.

Faheem I do not think is consistent enough to repeat his batting performance, and Yasir batting technique is too lose.
 
Asad almost won us a test match in Australia single handedly. He played a similar innings to Fawad today. He lost his form afterwards.

And yet he didn't take us over the line. In fact towards the end Yasir Shah was playing better than him because Shafiq could never handle pressure. Asad Shafiq has never played a match winning innings.
 
If we had one more wicket in the tank or if wicket No.8 could have been trusted with the bat, we could have had an outside chance. Right now, expect KW to try and go for the wickets for the first 10 - 15 overs. After which he is likely to try and push for keeping the rate down.
 
To come back from 0/2 is outstanding from pak. I'm so happy for fawad, he deserves a 100. Fawad has been ignored for a decade despite being paks leading run scorer. He is the opposite of amir personality wise.

This match is different from aus vs ind, which didn't need 5 days to finish. Brilliant test cricket.
 
I didn't think Pakistan will survive till tea today and now that they have I am too nervous to watch it anymore. Kudos to Fawad and Rizwan for keeping it going, if we go on to draw this test I would consider it a win.
 
Do we even dare just thinking of a possible win here?

It’s too soon to say that. We have just 3 guys who can bat, I’m including Faheem from last innings only. Don’t think too far ahead is what the batsmen should be thinking. Just play.

I’ve learned my lesson after Shafiq almost pulled off the heist vs Australia last tour.
 
Faheem who scored 92 in the first innings is still there. Required rate at this point is around 4.4. They scored 45 in the last 10 overs. They should keep trying to score at around 4 to 5 an over, and if they lose a couple of wickets they should shut down.

Faheem has a poor defence. I don't trust him to survive if we lose Fawad and Rizwan from the other ends. The less said about the rest of the tail the better
 
Easier said then done. A draw will suffice

A draw will definitely be a win for Pakistan, but a win will be a double win :)

These two have played fearlessly, no reason for them to not keep playing the way they have the last 10 overs.
 
The IQ level of these commentators is really low. Discussing whether that bump catch would have been given out by the third umpire had the umpire's soft signal been out. Wth??!! The ball clearly hit the ground after the bat, why would you even think of such a question.
 
The IQ level of these commentators is really low. Discussing whether that bump catch would have been given out by the third umpire had the umpire's soft signal been out. Wth??!! The ball clearly hit the ground after the bat, why would you even think of such a question.

They are really sad. A bit biased like Indian commies.
 
A draw will definitely be a win for Pakistan, but a win will be a double win :)

These two have played fearlessly, no reason for them to not keep playing the way they have the last 10 overs.

Misbah will not advise them to go for the win
 
So? Blame the selectors of that era. Not everything is Misbah's fault

Misbah was the most powerful captain we've had since Imran Khan :)) Of course the selectors are to blame as well, but it's no secret that Misbah liked having Shafiq and Azhar Ali in his team. Now Azhar Ali makes sense, he was averaging in the high 40s until Misbah's retirement, but Shafiq was not. In fact, it was entirely obvious that the guy could not handle pressure at all. Misbah very much had a hand in keeping Fawad out of the team in his best years
 
People really need to let go of actually Pak going for a win.

For them we should be hoping they draw this which is no less than a win in itself.
 
Unfortunately i can't watch the next hour or 2 so good luck Pakistan fans but i hope NZ can pull off a win.
 
The IQ level of these commentators is really low. Discussing whether that bump catch would have been given out by the third umpire had the umpire's soft signal been out. Wth??!! The ball clearly hit the ground after the bat, why would you even think of such a question.

Yeah, very disappointing to hear how biased and delusional they are.
 
Real talk NZ commentators have always been sort of biased for their own team.

It’s time for Pakistan to show who is the boss.
 
Its still going to be very difficult to save the test but at least they have given themselves a chance. Excellent batting by Fawad and great support by Riz

Pitch is doing nothing, bowlers are tired, batsmen are set, new ball has come and gone.

If these two don’t do anything stupid, no reason this shouldn’t be a draw now.
 
If Pakistan need something like 80 in the last 10 overs of the day with 5 wickets in hand

I say Go for it
 
Good progress towards a draw but not getting too ahead of ourselves, collapse can happen anytime. 25 more solid overs needed at least.
 
Pakistan should try for draw! Fawad's best performance? Perfect player to make a movie on.
 
Is it realistic to expect a Pakistan win?

No. We lose 1 wicket here and Faheem, Yasir and the tail could easily fall like dominoes.

If we had Shadab and a tail actually capable of scoring then yes, but we need to avoid getting greedy here and recognise it has been an exceptional individual effort to get us even this far.
 
So now is the panic time.

NZ will give you plenty of opportunities to find boundaries by just middling the ball. Every 4 is going to worry Kane
 
I have to come out of retirement from Pakpassion just to post few words on Fawad Alam ,my most favourite of all current batsmen. A few years ago I was so vibrant on Fawad injustice here in PP that someone here just got annoyed and posted a comment " stop your Fawad fetish". But I continued posting on and on just to demand the inclusion of Fawad in Pakistan team as Fawad was on top of his game at that time. But with time I realized that Misbah was in power and he along with the Pak management at that time just won't let Fawad (still don't know why) in. I just stopped. After a long long time it is just amazing to see Fawad again, thanks to the Almighty. He is not at his peak, still he is better than others to rely upon to save a test match for Pakistan in New Zealand. MashaAllah Fawad ,you are a real gem and I wasn't wrong about you.
 
Last edited:
So now is the panic time.

NZ will give you plenty of opportunities to find boundaries by just middling the ball. Every 4 is going to worry Kane

Run scoring has been so difficult on this pitch more so on the 5th day plus the sluggish out field. It wd be wise if we just aim for a draw ..
 
Good job by fawad so far but it has to be seen if he can save this test or these are gonna be useless runs for team like Asad useless shafiq have done in his career.
 
Yup forget about win, this draw would be as good as win. Maybe if we get 90 in first 26 overs and need under 70 in last ten with 6 wickets in hand, then we have outside chance. Till then no risk plz.
 
No one in Pakistan knows how to identify talent or build a team. The case of Fawad though is not one of identifying talent. It is one of understanding and evaluating it. Fawad is ugly to watch but he is patient, looks to score runs, and bats well under pressure. He works incredibly hard and is consistent. These are all skills. The likes of Inzamam could never see that because it’s not obvious. It requires a bit of critical thinking and research.
 
Good job by fawad so far but it has to be seen if he can save this test or these are gonna be useless runs for team like Asad useless shafiq have done in his career.

If Fawad was Gujjar you would be bending backwards to sing praises of him irrespective of match result
 
Good job by fawad so far but it has to be seen if he can save this test or these are gonna be useless runs for team like Asad useless shafiq have done in his career.

Even if his innings ends the next ball it will still be better then anything Asad Shafiq or Umar Akmal have done in their careers. But yeah ideally he needs to see it till the end.
 
It’s not Fawad vs Asad. Fawad was scoring runs long before Azhar came to the fore. He was usurped by the likes of Haris as well.
 
What an outstanding performance by Fawad and Rizwan. Excellent comeback by Pakistan. Go for the win, boys.
 
Encouraging start to the session by Rizwan. This is going to be a very interesting session of cricket...
 
Back
Top