"We were thinking of restricting SA to 290-300, once target was 266 we were confident" : M Hafeez

[Abdullah719]

"We were thinking of restricting SA to 290-300, once target was 266 we were confident" : M Hafeez

Mohammad Hafeez at a press conference:

"It wasnt a par score on this track so we were really confident that we will chase this out and everyone just responded very well"

"It was very important to have a the first win of the series as a first win always gives a momentum to your dressing room"

"As I said before, everyone is looking forward to the challenge and very happy to have this win for the team"

"To be very honest as we restricted them to 266 we were very sure as a team that we could chase this one"

"We were very confident and had prepared ourselves really well and the start that Fakhar and Imam gave was brilliant, and then Babar's good knock gave us the momentum and then it was a team effort to win the game"

"The bowlers did the job for us, we were thinking of restricting them to 290-300 but our bowlers did well, once it was 266 we were confident and we knew one good partnership would do the job for us. It was a complete, comprehensive victory for us which is what we were looking for"

"There is always pressure to win the game, we lost some wickets which gave momentum to SA, but really did a great job as a team in the field, we bowled well and it was a total we were confident of chasing"

"We are all really happy and we were looking to start the series on a high, everyone was ready for the challenge and this is a complete team effort"

 

[Rana]

Malik and Sarfaraz bottled it as usual, well played everyone else!

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

You're always much more confident when you bat till 10. It makes a huge difference when chasing.

I think that's what Mickey is trying to achieve for the upcoming World Cup.

 

[MenInG]

Well played Prof!

 

[MMHS]

Well played Hafeez.

I do think, regardless of condition, PAK is best operating team between 250-275 range games. This was my point in the WC potential squad as well - don't think batting depth works for PAK, because unlike SENA countries, they don't press hard early to take advantage of batting depth. Instead of batting depth, PAK's target should be to confirm 50 solid overs. Yesterday, Amla went a bit too far even for his standard, hence SAF was caught off-guard, but it won't be the case next time - teams having wickets at hand won't play like this, but that 266 was a perfect target for PAK; strategy should to to make sure target should always remain similar, be it 2 down or 9 down.

 

[Kohli The King of Chase]

Well played Hafeez.

I do think, regardless of condition, PAK is best operating team between 250-275 range games. This was my point in the WC potential squad as well - don't think batting depth works for PAK, because unlike SENA countries, they don't press hard early to take advantage of batting depth. Instead of batting depth, PAK's target should be to confirm 50 solid overs. Yesterday, Amla went a bit too far even for his standard, hence SAF was caught off-guard, but it won't be the case next time - teams having wickets at hand won't play like this, but that 266 was a perfect target for PAK; strategy should to to make sure target should always remain similar, be it 2 down or 9 down.

Totally agree with you. Eng go hard from beginning and they will need their #10 to be a good batsman. They also compromise with their bowling for this.

Pak batsmen go at a str.rate of about 80 and they don't take unnecessary(or even necessary sometimes) risks. Which means there is no use of having a #10 to bat well(He should be able to stay at the crease tho).

Pak's only way to reach the semis at the WC is to have a solid minimum 40+ overs of attacking bowling. That's the way they won the CT too.


Pak should play this line up at the WC.


Fakhar
Imam / Shan
Babar
Haris
Hafeez (Malik should be dropped as Hafeez can atleast hit on a flat deck, and his bowling is a bonus)
Sarfraz + * (Just like Dhoni, he's not going anywhere)
Faheem / Imad (Depending on the pitch and the opposition)
Shadab
Amir
Hassan
Shaheen / Junaid / Shinwari


Even this lineup has a batting depth with all in the top 10 having an international fifty, but without compromising on the bowling.

Amir, Shaheen, Hassan and Shadab make up for the 40 overs of attacking bowling.

Imad (or Faheem) & Hafeez to be the 5th bowler.

 

[Markhor]

I don't think we bowled particularly well with the exceptions of Shadab Khan and Hasan Ali. If anything Amla's approach combined with a slow pitch limited SA's score.

However it's very unlikely Fahim and Shinwari will open the bowling for us in the WC. I agree with the lineup mentioned by [MENTION=145950]Kohli, The King of Chase[/MENTION].

 

[Pete Rose]

Totally agree with you. Eng go hard from beginning and they will need their #10 to be a good batsman. They also compromise with their bowling for this.

Pak batsmen go at a str.rate of about 80 and they don't take unnecessary(or even necessary sometimes) risks. Which means there is no use of having a #10 to bat well(He should be able to stay at the crease tho).

Pak's only way to reach the semis at the WC is to have a solid minimum 40+ overs of attacking bowling. That's the way they won the CT too.


Pak should play this line up at the WC.


Fakhar
Imam / Shan
Babar
Haris
Hafeez (Malik should be dropped as Hafeez can atleast hit on a flat deck, and his bowling is a bonus)
Sarfraz + * (Just like Dhoni, he's not going anywhere)
Faheem / Imad (Depending on the pitch and the opposition)
Shadab
Amir
Hassan
Shaheen / Junaid / Shinwari


Even this lineup has a batting depth with all in the top 10 having an international fifty, but without compromising on the bowling.

Amir, Shaheen, Hassan and Shadab make up for the 40 overs of attacking bowling.

Imad (or Faheem) & Hafeez to be the 5th bowler.

This is a good post .

 

[Hasan123]

We can chase down these type of scores. In the WC we should look to attack with the ball if we ball 1st. This bowling line up had too many all rounders. Hopefully we don't play this bowling line up at the WC.

 

[MenInG]

Well hope Hafeez can repeat his performance again tomorrow.

 

[UP]

Well hope Hafeez can repeat his performance again tomorrow.

Hafeez’s work is done for the series. Dont expect another good performance from him.

 

[YousafTheBeast]

All this talk about SA batting after the first game of the series from our players is surely going to backfire on us.

Expect a record total from SA in the next game.

 

[lahoriyah1234]

All this talk about SA batting after the first game of the series from our players is surely going to backfire on us.

Expect a record total from SA in the next game.

Hmm we will see. I expect pak to bowl even better now.

 

[lahoriyah1234]

This is a good post .

Dont compare Sarfraz with Dhoni. Dhoni is a legend of the game, sarfraz is nowhere near him.

 

[MenInG]

Work to do for Prof today - needs to do his thing in a different context now - Can he help Pakistan build a defendable total?