"We wanted to win the game but we didn't want it to end like this" : Azhar Ali

[Abdullah719]

Azhar Ali speaking after the 2nd Test:

"The plan was to go and get a big opening partnership."

"We couldn't bat well in the last few overs."

"We wanted to win the game but we didn't want it to end like this."

"Test match wins mean a lot, specially when you're 1-0 down and you want to give yourself the full opportunity to win."

"We couldn't get going in the manner we wanted, the run rate was probably not where we wanted at Tea. We left too much for the last session."

"We tried but later on the new ball was also in our mind but we lost quick wickets close together."

"I think we're better prepared for Australia. The conditions weren't as difficult as they looked. There was grass on the pitch but it was good to bat on."

"In the first innings the ball does a bit but it was a batting pitch after that, there was something in it for everyone."

"We'll take a lot out of this tour and improve our performance in Australia, big challenge for us and we need to improve our game."

"That's Test cricket. As a player it's tough and it gets tougher as a captain. I enjoyed it but obviously things didn't go to plan."

 

[Dr_Bassim]

Azhar Ali speaking after the 2nd Test:

"The plan was to go and get a big opening partnership."

You executed the plan well.

"We couldn't bat well in the last few overs."

That's because you decided to go for a suicidal chase that WAS NEVER ON.

"We wanted to win the game but we didn't want it to end like this."

If you wanted to win the game, why did you bat 1.5 per over in the entire match.

Accept that you wanted to draw the game first, and when you thought draw was on, you tried to commit suicide by going for a dumb win that wasn't on.

"Test match wins mean a lot, specially when you're 1-0 down and you want to give yourself the full opportunity to win."

Yes, they do, but you also ensure, that YOU DON'T LOSE at the cost of CHASING IMPOSSIBLE WIN.

If you want to give yourself the full opportunity bat at faster than 1.5

"We couldn't get going in the manner we wanted, the run rate was probably not where we wanted at Tea. We left too much for the last session."

And whose fault was that? Surely not the fault of remaining batsmen.

"We tried but later on the new ball was also in our mind but we lost quick wickets close together."

So you mean to say , you KNEW THE NEW BALL WAS GONNA COME, but you STILL WENT FOR IT?

"I think we're better prepared for Australia. The conditions weren't as difficult as they looked. There was grass on the pitch but it was good to bat on."

Hardly ideal preparations, losing 2-0 against NZ.

If the conditions were SO EASY, why were you batting at 1.5 per over?

"In the first innings the ball does a bit but it was a batting pitch after that, there was something in it for everyone."

A batting pitch where you scored at 1.5 per over. Wonder what you do on a BOWLING PITCH!

"We'll take a lot out of this tour and improve our performance in Australia, big challenge for us and we need to improve our game."

I hope you learn HOW NOT TO COMMIT SUICIDE.

"That's Test cricket. As a player it's tough and it gets tougher as a captain. I enjoyed it but obviously things didn't go to plan."

Because the plan was not good enough. Infact, at the danger of sounding rude, it was idiotic.

 

[DRsohail]

very very disapointed with this loss...not because we lost but because of bad strategy...no cricket sense....what a shame to collapse after going for an impossible target....i have given up hopes on this stuppid coach and timid team,

 

[Amjid Javed]

Big opening partnership was fine in theory but batting like snails and then trying to score at 6 an over in final session was never going to work! We cant bat at that pace in ODIS! Pakistan need to be scoring at 3 an over at least for 1st two sessions then the target would have been way more realistic. Poor leadership and brainless batting plans!

 

[Major]

It was a do or die situation which needed to happen. We were losing the series anyways, so made sense going after the target.

I believe the cause of the loss also lies on the opening partnership it self. THe partnership had gone too slow

but good approach, and no had feelings, this tour was made to get us ready for the real tour which is against Australia

 

[Major]

ANyone who calls going for the win dumb should remember that this very team has done it twice.

The upper order were well in their rights to go for it as they had set the game up, its Younis Khan and the lower order who failed us. Rizwan stood at the end didn't he? SO what was shafiq and Younis problem?

 

[Cricketfan no 1]

ANyone who calls going for the win dumb should remember that this very team has done it twice.

The upper order were well in their rights to go for it as they had set the game up, its Younis Khan and the lower order who failed us. Rizwan stood at the end didn't he? SO what was shafiq and Younis problem?

You don't achieve such totap by 1.5 run an over

 

[JibranAnsari]

We wanted to go for a win but played with a run rate of 1.5 for first 50 overs. Total tactical failure , either play for a draw or play for a win , you played first 60 overs for a draw then decided we should go for it.

 

[lahoriyah1234]

We lost the series, lets move on Pakistan on green mambas even if its flat out, Pakistan will lose series until we get out of UAE and stop this winning formula in dead wickets, where our batsmen score bulk of runs but when it comes to play in testing conditions they have no clue, even great like younis khan are edging the deliveries while driving the bowl.

Its time to move your self from UAE, that is the only we are going to become a competitive side. NZL played good cricket at home conditions suits them and they have won fair and square, i am surprised ppl are saying why we didnt draw the match, i knew we wont save this match, because once the nee bowl comes on this pitch will help seamer and we will lose.

So i SAY MASH ON..... Forget about this series i think Australia series is more important as we have never won there, so let's concentrate on that now, we can always come back and win in NZL next time, out record there have always been good. Let NZL enjoy this win they deserve it, as soon as i saw green i knew we wont win.

 

[CricketBuff]

Losing 9 wickets in one session is a disgrace. The run out of Sarfaraz is beyond belief.

 

[Justcrazy]

Pakistan lost similar game against England , learned no lesson.

Even in UAE , they will soon be exposed, they are even afraid to play on rank turners.

 

[Nothing matters]

The problem was the opening partnership i could understand batting defensively for 10 15 overs but they tried our old strategy of keeping wickets in hand and hitting big at the end.Had they played normally at 3 rpo we might have won it.

 

[The_Odd_One]

How can you chase 360+ on the final day when you play more than half of the overs at under 2 RPO?

 

[Hamza78]

We have misbah before now this guy Rest In Peace Pakistan cricket team

 

[Sadevdesai]

Could any other Team have chased down this target ??? I doubt it. May be the Australians or even the Indians, but each of these Team would not have batted the way we did !!! From the word go we were in the Tuk Tuk mode, and when the asking RRR was about 6.0, we pressed he padle. Absolute suicide .... bad thinking. Got what we deserved.... and then blame it on NO warm up matches !!! They think fans are fools !!!

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

As I had predicted and told my fellow PP-ers countless times: it's impossible to chase 230 runs in 30 overs against good bowlers on a good wicket. Pakistan commited suicide by tuk tuking for nearly 60 overs.

It's extremely unfair to expect a T20 style rescue from Asad, Younus, Rizwan or even Sarfraz. Most of these guys hardly score over a strike rate of 50 let alone batting at a T20 rate.

I also can not believe that Mickey Arthur allowed the team to play this negative being 1-0 behind. This would have been a perfect ploy had we been 0-1 ahead but in this situation tuk tuking and the pressure to go for victory was always going to result into a mega collapse.

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

Could any other Team have chased down this target ??? I doubt it. May be the Australians or even the Indians, but each of these Team would not have batted the way we did !!! From the word go we were in the Tuk Tuk mode, and when the asking RRR was about 6.0, we pressed he padle. Absolute suicide .... bad thinking. Got what we deserved.... and then blame it on NO warm up matches !!! They think fans are fools !!!

It's a crime to bat at the RR of 1,0 -1,5 when your intention is to go for the win. I still can not believe these experienced people gifted this match by making this blunder.

 

[Jin Chacha]

The intention was to save the match first and then take a shot at winning in the middle session if possible. The opening was slow but it is really harsh to blame the openers because the middle order should have been able to block out the last twenty overs after Babar and Sarfaraz got out. The openers brought us in a position where a loss was almost impossible and gave Babar and Sarfaraz a chance to accelerate and the late order a chance to block if things didn't work. The plan was not bad but if Younis, Shafiq, Rizwan and the tailenders together can't play out 20 overs then no plan is good enough.

 

[Screopho]

Its evident from the interview that what Pakistan lacks most is cricketing intelligence. If the captain himself sounds so confused, not sure what can be expected from the rest of the team.

 

[Buffet]

It's a crime to bat at the RR of 1,0 -1,5 when your intention is to go for the win. I still can not believe these experienced people gifted this match by making this blunder.

Remember in match thread, we were talking about 220 being too much in the last session and NZ grabbing wickets due to slog if you attempt to get 220 in one session. It happened exactly that way except we didn't think that Pakistan will get bowled out.

 

[Buffet]

Could any other Team have chased down this target ??? I doubt it. May be the Australians or even the Indians, but each of these Team would not have batted the way we did !!! From the word go we were in the Tuk Tuk mode, and when the asking RRR was about 6.0, we pressed he padle. Absolute suicide .... bad thinking. Got what we deserved.... and then blame it on NO warm up matches !!! They think fans are fools !!!

Run rate of 6 is fine for 80-90 runs. With 230-240 runs, it's very hard to do it in the test match. Anyway, not many teams would have played the way Pakistan played. You can't score 50 runs in 50 overs and then hope to score 200 runs in the next 50 overs. That's a dumb way to go about it if you want to get to 250 runs.

 

[Buffet]

ANyone who calls going for the win dumb

Going for win is not an issue here. Problem was expecting to score 220 runs in one session and scoring very little in the first 2 sessions.

 

[srh]

Azhar Ali speaking after the 2nd Test:

"The plan was to go and get a big opening partnership."

"We couldn't bat well in the last few overs."

"We wanted to win the game but we didn't want it to end like this."

"Test match wins mean a lot, specially when you're 1-0 down and you want to give yourself the full opportunity to win."

"We couldn't get going in the manner we wanted, the run rate was probably not where we wanted at Tea. We left too much for the last session."

"We tried but later on the new ball was also in our mind but we lost quick wickets close together."

"I think we're better prepared for Australia. The conditions weren't as difficult as they looked. There was grass on the pitch but it was good to bat on."

"In the first innings the ball does a bit but it was a batting pitch after that, there was something in it for everyone."

"We'll take a lot out of this tour and improve our performance in Australia, big challenge for us and we need to improve our game."

"That's Test cricket. As a player it's tough and it gets tougher as a captain. I enjoyed it but obviously things didn't go to plan."

why you and Sami played so selfishly at the start?

 

[srh]

Big opening partnership was fine in theory but batting like snails and then trying to score at 6 an over in final session was never going to work! We cant bat at that pace in ODIS! Pakistan need to be scoring at 3 an over at least for 1st two sessions then the target would have been way more realistic. Poor leadership and brainless batting plans!

exactly. Azhar and Sami were the chief architect of this test defeat by batting so selfishly slow; each of them were probably thinking about improving their stats and leave the winning to other batsmen; extremely selfish

 

[Boi]

lol not sure how you can blame Azhar and Sami for the loss. Yes, their approach might have not been ideal for us to win the game but they definitely aren't the main reasons for us losing the game. The way YK, Shafiq and our tail are batting even if the openers showed more intent earlier and got out in the process, we just would've lost the game a lot sooner. Unbelievable collapse really. The middle and lower order should hang their heads in shame if they can't bat out 20 odd overs.

 

[PakLFC]

We needed a fast start giving us the required momentum when chasing a high score. Not getting that meant we were never really in the hunt. The run rate was always to slow that is to be expected with Azhar's negative approach.

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

Remember in match thread, we were talking about 220 being too much in the last session and NZ grabbing wickets due to slog if you attempt to get 220 in one session. It happened exactly that way except we didn't think that Pakistan will get bowled out.

I still can not believe that we lost in this amateurish way. It was a total kamikaze to tuk tuk for 60 overs and then expect others to play T20 cricket in the final session as if we had Razzaq, Afridi, Kami waiting to bat.

I also can not believe that our fans thought that we would be able to smash Southee, Wagner in the last few overs. Unfortunately most Pakistani fans and Pakistan cricket it self are still stuck in the 90's playing old fashioned cricket.

 

[Sadevdesai]

The only Team to loose NINE wickets in session !!!! Hmmmmm ......

 

[Chief Destroyer]

Na idhar kay na udhar kay.

 

[Zaz]

It was crazy to even think the chase was on
Pakistan still had 200 odd to get when the decision was made which is a lot of runs in tests on a 5th day wicket Never mind there werent enough overs

And the way pakistans batting had been performing in this series surely the only sensible suggestion was to play out the draw

Really really puzzled at the thinking

 

[coy0607]

if he wanted to win the game, maybe he should've scored more than 2 run an over for the first 50 overs

you don't go from RPO 2 to 7- this isn't book cricket

 

[Nil Dhumrojal]

@;

The only Team to loose NINE wickets in session !!!! Hmmmmm ......

You forgot England. It was 10 wkt for them vs bd