"We fought hard and we fought right to the end" : Mickey Arthur

[MenInG]

Pakistan Head Coach, Mickey Arthur speaking to the press

We havent played well enough since we have been here but this was the time we were able to put NZ under pressure

I thought we batted well and the message we got from the middle was that 262 was competitive as the ball was gripping a little bit and we felt that we were in the game

Colin Munro played well and gave them momentum

But to have the match taken away by Grandhomme was pretty disapointing

We fought hard and we fought right to the end

Grandhomme totally changed the momentum and the game

There was some serious hitting and he did play exceptionally well and put our plans to him under pressure

There is a very disappointed dressing roomm tonight as we continually tried to fight and fight but had it all taken away in the end

We tried to take the game to Boult and Southee with Faheem in the top order

We thought 5 overs of Faheem may just give us that momentum

We had 4 50s from our guys but despite what everyone said, I felt we were still 15-20 runs short

I thought Haris Sohail's fifty was good

I am dissapointed that we let Kane Williamson get away though, with 2 wickets in his 10 overs

We really need to rotate in that part of the innings

Had we got Grandhomme out ealier, we woukd have banked those Shadab overs for later against the tail

NZ tick all the boxes in their home conditions

Shoiab Malik should have given us 10 overs of off-spin which was very much needed out there

Shoaib's not very good at the moment although we havent got the final report yet

 

[Amirforpresident]

Getting sick of hearing these nonsense over and over again.

 

[iRfaN_LA]

but you lost. Again.

 

[cricketjoshila]

This guy is very bad at even giving excuses.

 

[Amjid Javed]

Wow we were competitive for 1st time in 4 games, Pretty shameful stuff.

whilst i didnt expect pakistan to win the series and maybe just 1 win game or maybe 2 at best we have been cannon fodder in this series and some serious changes need to be made with the batting.

 

[Hamstead_joy]

The only good thing he said was admitting PAkistan were 20 runs short and tried something new with sending Faheem upfront but not named Hafeez for a slow and selfish batting.

No mention of Amir's consistent underperformance, no push for taking wickets screwing Pakistan's opening bowling spell. Today hasan ali also looked off colour why did they push him to bowl new bowl when he doesnot like to.
No mention of Babar Azam's poor game.
No mention of non-inclusion of Amir Yamin.
No mention of continuing with the same middle order who has lost us the series and now are going to suffer clean sweep.

 

[DRsohail]

[MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION] the guy tried to fix it with no option but what can he do....He shown inzi his garbage team selection by sending Faheem as an opener.sending haris ahead of hafeez and i think he knows the value of hafeez is just at 6 but cannot do much .Inzhi has made his job defficult and the guy knows it.

 

[Hamstead_joy]

[MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION] the guy tried to fix it with no option but what can he do....He shown inzi his garbage team selection by sending Faheem as an opener.sending haris ahead of hafeez and i think he knows the value of hafeez is just at 6 but cannot do much .Inzhi has made his job defficult and the guy knows it.

Agree with you, Inzamam is more to blame then Arthur here. Inzamam as Chief selector has cut down resources and has not selected any replacements for the batting order. No domestic player with a good batting average has been able to get into NCA contention[forget the national team] in 2 years of Inzi's tenure minus his nephew Imam and his favorite seniors Shehzad, Malik, Hafeez, Akmals [Babar Azam can be counted as Akmal], etc...
Can't blame Arthur for the biased squad selections

 

[DRsohail]

Agree with you, Inzamam is more to blame then Arthur here. Inzamam as Chief selector has cut down resources and has not selected any replacements for the batting order. No domestic player with a good batting average has been able to get into NCA contention[forget the national team] in 2 years of Inzi's tenure minus his nephew Imam and his favorite seniors Shehzad, Malik, Hafeez, Akmals [Babar Azam can be counted as Akmal], etc...
Can't blame Arthur for the biased squad selections

Going by his tenure and selection policy the guy is continuously making Arthurs job defficeult...A/nd he is accomodating his favorites in a way that common man cant understand like nawaz ,,AZhar ali hafeez and now IMAM.
For wi tour he selected kamran kamal knowing he willl fail and came back to Azhar ali now he selected imam as a replacement,and his selection of 33 year old middle order bat foregetting his name were all political things .The guy is playing is card very sharply but ........
Sonr be superized if he selects a TTF for next tour as an opener and coming back to AZhar.

 

[Kroll]

Where did this assessment of we fought to the end come from? NZ strolled through with overs spare and the team had given up during the CdG onslaught.

 

[Usman Chadda]

We were back in the game thanks to Shadab, KW and Nicholls. The latter two tried their best to give Pakistan their first win, but de Grandhomme had other plans.

 

[Deewana Mastana]

The way it is going it will be a thrashing in the T20 series too 3-0 coming up.

 

[Aami]

We just need to get our odi house in order...and people here have repeatedly shown how?

We just dont have the right type of batters...i know its quite obvious!

Too many players of the same type..
Sarfraz, malik, hafeez, azhar and haris should be fighting for 2 spots only.

So may be just haris and sarfraz...

I'd go with...
Sarf
Fakhar
Babar
Haris
And 2 more...(who can bat/play/hit/slog...anything.

 

[Hamstead_joy]

Going by his tenure and selection policy the guy is continuously making Arthurs job defficeult...A/nd he is accomodating his favorites in a way that common man cant understand like nawaz ,,AZhar ali hafeez and now IMAM.
For wi tour he selected kamran kamal knowing he willl fail and came back to Azhar ali now he selected imam as a replacement,and his selection of 33 year old middle order bat foregetting his name were all political things .The guy is playing is card very sharply but ........
Sonr be superized if he selects a TTF for next tour as an opener and coming back to AZhar.

Looks like Arthur and Sarfaraz understand this, they have not had any batting options for last 2 years barring same few people.

Pakistan has had no alternatives for these 6 seniors, and its Chief selector responsiblity more than Arthur. Inzamam has a controversial history also.
Inzamam has always been a politician and used other players to help his friends going back to the 90s using same tactics, when Mushtaq Ahmed was dropped by a much more stable and independent PCB under Majid Khan or losing our winning T20 captain Younis Khan episode for Yousuf in 2009. That was also playing the consistent New Zealand side.

If Inzamam would have his way Akmal, Shehzad and Salman Butt would be in the squad and Sarfaraz captaincy, the dressing room atmosphere would've been severely affected.


Have to commend Arthur for atleast not being a Lawson or Whatmore like character and allow Inzamam to install his favorites in the team.

 

[Eagle_Eye]

Fought hard?

What were that batsmen doing with such low SR? Send Faheem up and tell the rest to shut up shop.... great fight that was.

 

[Eagle_Eye]

[MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION] the guy tried to fix it with no option but what can he do....He shown inzi his garbage team selection by sending Faheem as an opener.sending haris ahead of hafeez and i think he knows the value of hafeez is just at 6 but cannot do much .Inzhi has made his job defficult and the guy knows it.

Mickey had pretty much the same team that won the ICC trophy. There was no way Mickey was going to change that and ask for someone else.

 

[MMHS]

[MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION] the guy tried to fix it with no option but what can he do....He shown inzi his garbage team selection by sending Faheem as an opener.sending haris ahead of hafeez and i think he knows the value of hafeez is just at 6 but cannot do much .Inzhi has made his job defficult and the guy knows it.

But, people were upset when that squad was criticized ....

 

[DRsohail]

Mickey had pretty much the same team that won the ICC trophy. There was no way Mickey was going to change that and ask for someone else.

Everyone knew it that the squad had many holes and CS should be the first man to identify it.After all he is having luxury of being CS not common men.

 

[Pakpak]

We were doing well but suddenly Haris and Fakhar decided to stop attacking and shut up shop.

Inexplicable.

 

[Eagle_Eye]

Everyone knew it that the squad had many holes and CS should be the first man to identify it.After all he is having luxury of being CS not common men.

It had holes but the winning team was not going to be changed, it will/should now as it has failed.

I went for Sarfraz right after champions trophy straight because I believe he is not a good captain and said within a year, he will prove to be such... which he has much quicker than even I predicted.

Same thing with the likes of azhar, Hafeez and malik.... we all knew the leopard was not going to change his spots and they didn't suddenly become world class players, but they had to be picked and played and now that they have failed.... need to be discarded forthwith from odi team.

It's just the quirkiness resulting from the unexpected ICC win that gave these guys an extended lease.

 

[Eagle_Eye]

We were doing well but suddenly Haris and Fakhar decided to stop attacking and shut up shop.

Inexplicable.

Williamson and Munro bowled 13 overs 2 wickets for 52 runs!!

What on earth were these muppets doing at the crease.

 

[DRsohail]

[MENTION=44089]Eagle_Eye[/MENTION] going by inzi and pcb i think malik and hafeez will still stay.

 

[Hamstead_joy]

We were doing well but suddenly Haris and Fakhar decided to stop attacking and shut up shop.

Inexplicable.

I think you have forgotten this team crashed out of the series by making 74 team total in the last odi.
Probably they wanted to avoid getting out again under 100 by not allowing Shoaib Malik andhafeez to come early. Fakhar fell when team total was near 100 and Harris Sohail got out on 123, and Shoab Malik again got out hoiking for the New Zelaland fielder at long on, 7 runs later.

When Hafeez, Malik and Azam are in the team even 200 looks respectable. Bu its not enough to win which is why we are crying for these selections.

 

[PakLFC]

Cheap excuses. Despite working so hard as he claims we gt hammered like no one's business. A truly pathetic performance even by our average standards.