Why Pakistan has lost so many knock out matches from 2009-10 period ?

[Sarwar89]

After summer of 2009, Younus Khan’s captaincy was at peak, although unexpectedly his team lost away Test series in Sri lanka but still in 2009 ICC Champions Trophy, Pakistan was favorite after beating India in Group stages. However team completely choked against New zealand in Semi finals & got knocked out.

Fast forward, Under Shahid Afridi, Pakistan lost 2 winnable world cup matches. Hussey’s blitz curtesy of bad captaincy & Ajmal’s over in 2010 T20 WC Semi final. Lost Mohali semi final in 2011 when at one stage Pakistan were 70/1 in 15 overs. Slow batting & negative Misbah-Younus batting partnership + 3/4 catch drops sealed our day.

T20 World cup 2012 was another disappointment where Team failed to chase 140 odd on turning track but 140 was still chaseable against Sri lanka in Semi Finals. They did win Asia cup in 12, infact Bangladesh choked in final.

Team did fine in 2017, however back to back chokes in 2021 in WC T20 & Asia cup Final 2022 brings us back to so many lost opportunities where Pakistan could have won a few more trophies. In last year Semi final, Babar’s captaincy came into question as he & rizwan played slow from 5th to 9th over & we could post 176 which should have been 190+ and obviously No plan B despite reducing Aussies to 95/5. In yesterday’s final Asia cup letting them win from 58/5 reminds me little bit of Kolkata test, where India lost despite reducing Pak to 26/6 on day one first hour.

I think over the past 13 years, our 2 generation of players have lost nerves somewhere at crucial moment.

 

[Sarwar89]

Just to add

Over the past 12 months Babar’s team has crumbled in every crucial encounter

1) Semi final T20
2) 5th Day 3rd Test Gaddafi stadium which costed home test series
3) 2nd Test (5th day) v Sri lanka which has knocked Pak out of ICC Test championship.
4) Asia cup final

 

[Mamoon]

Leadership impact.

The captains on all those occasions were bottlers under pressure, this had a knockdown effect on the team itself.

Younis Khan - serial bottlers in white ball cricket.

Afridi - serial bottler. The WT20 2009 semifinal and final were the two exceptions in his career. Apart from that, he has always failed under pressure in ICC knockouts.

Hafeez - serial bottler.

Babar - on his way to becoming a serial bottler.

 

[mrtaim3]

Well its all to do with the defensive mentality of our team. That is the only reason why we choke everytime in a pressure game.

On all the occasions that you mentioned, we lost because we were not fearless.

1) 2010 T20 Semi, Hussey played a blinder. If we were in the same position, we would have choked.
2) 2011 WC semi, we lost because of Misbah-Younis's defensive tactics
3) 2021 T20 Semi and 2022 Asia Cup final, we didn't go for the kill when we had the chance. Plus we played too many dots.

A prime example of playing fearless cricket is India's batting against us in the Super 4. They were just hitting us out of the park from the ball go. And none of those shots they hit were risky. Even though India were losing wickets, they were still hitting boundries every over and managed to put a decent score. It was Nawaz's once in lifetime cameo that won us that game.

Unless and until Pakistan comes out of that defensive mentality, we will never be able to compete against the modern cricketing nation. We might win games here and there but we will never be a champion team. We were about to lose to Afghanistan because of our Tuk Tuk.

We need a serious mental overhaul.

 

[MenInG]

After summer of 2009, Younus Khan’s captaincy was at peak, although unexpectedly his team lost away Test series in Sri lanka but still in 2009 ICC Champions Trophy, Pakistan was favorite after beating India in Group stages. However team completely choked against New zealand in Semi finals & got knocked out.

Fast forward, Under Shahid Afridi, Pakistan lost 2 winnable world cup matches. Hussey’s blitz curtesy of bad captaincy & Ajmal’s over in 2010 T20 WC Semi final. Lost Mohali semi final in 2011 when at one stage Pakistan were 70/1 in 15 overs. Slow batting & negative Misbah-Younus batting partnership + 3/4 catch drops sealed our day.

T20 World cup 2012 was another disappointment where Team failed to chase 140 odd on turning track but 140 was still chaseable against Sri lanka in Semi Finals. They did win Asia cup in 12, infact Bangladesh choked in final.

Team did fine in 2017, however back to back chokes in 2021 in WC T20 & Asia cup Final 2022 brings us back to so many lost opportunities where Pakistan could have won a few more trophies. In last year Semi final, Babar’s captaincy came into question as he & rizwan played slow from 5th to 9th over & we could post 176 which should have been 190+ and obviously No plan B despite reducing Aussies to 95/5. In yesterday’s final Asia cup letting them win from 58/5 reminds me little bit of Kolkata test, where India lost despite reducing Pak to 26/6 on day one first hour.

I think over the past 13 years, our 2 generation of players have lost nerves somewhere at crucial moment.

You need to have players who can win games. We dont any more.

 

[Mp812]

Nawaz once in blue moon cameo vs India and Nasims unexpected sixes vs Afghanistan were the reason super 4s was won and Pakistan reached final. Imagine the results if those 2 games had been lost

 

[ali_ed2006]

Well its all to do with the defensive mentality of our team. That is the only reason why we choke everytime in a pressure game.

On all the occasions that you mentioned, we lost because we were not fearless.

1) 2010 T20 Semi, Hussey played a blinder. If we were in the same position, we would have choked.
2) 2011 WC semi, we lost because of Misbah-Younis's defensive tactics
3) 2021 T20 Semi and 2022 Asia Cup final, we didn't go for the kill when we had the chance. Plus we played too many dots.

A prime example of playing fearless cricket is India's batting against us in the Super 4. They were just hitting us out of the park from the ball go. And none of those shots they hit were risky. Even though India were losing wickets, they were still hitting boundries every over and managed to put a decent score. It was Nawaz's once in lifetime cameo that won us that game.

Unless and until Pakistan comes out of that defensive mentality, we will never be able to compete against the modern cricketing nation. We might win games here and there but we will never be a champion team. We were about to lose to Afghanistan because of our Tuk Tuk.

We need a serious mental overhaul.

Even the final, Sri Lanka were losing wickets but kept on scoring, and even after 58/5 they kept on attacking. Honestly we would have probably been 100 all out in that position.