Pakistan

Pakistan’s butterfingers let England slip

Ahmed Waheed/bilal Memon May 06, 2010

KARACHI: Kevin Pietersen hit sloppy Pakistan where it hurt as England won their opening Super Eight by six wickets courtesy dropped catches and strange on-field decisions by Shahid Afridi yet again.

Pakistan, who were restricted to a modest 147, were let down by poor catching as Saeed Ajmal dropped three chances at the start of the England innings and were made to pay. Pietersen hit an unbeaten 73 off just 52 balls as he added 60 runs with captain Paul Collingwood to end Pakistan’s hopes despite being reduced to 65 for two.

South Africa-born Pietersen, who was dropped by Abdul Razzaq off his own bowling as well, fittingly finished the match with a boundary as England reached home in the final over. Ajmal finished with figures of two for 15 in a match he would rather forget after the dropped catches.

Sluggish Pakistan restricted

Earlier, Kamran Akmal hit a six off the first ball of the match, a Ryan Sidebottom short ball, to give an ideal start to his team. But the continuous search for the big hits and failing to rotate the strike spoiled the start. Akmal (15) and Salman Butt (34) added 31 runs for the first wicket off 30 deliveries before the right-handed wicket-keeper was caught pulling at a short delivery. Mohammad Hafeez tried to stabilise the innings with Butt trying to move away from the stumps almost every ball for a heave.

Three boundaries to go with a six and Butt went on to make 34 before Graeme Swann induced a false shot to end his innings - caught at short extra-cover. Six runs later, Hafeez charged down the track and scooped a catch to short thirdman as Micheal Yardy got his first wicket.

Afridi fails yet again

At 77 for three and a bit of bother, captain Shahid Afridi decided to promote himself up the order. He blocked the first delivery and set off for a suicidal run. The ball rolled towards Luke Wright who threw it to the wicket-keeper with Afridi having given up already. Pakistan crawled towards the 100-run mark as Misbahul Haq and Umar Akmal consolidated.

Misbah (18) was dismissed and Umar followed suit 16 runs later as Pakistan collapsed to 118 for six. Fawad Alam did not last long either while Abdul Razzaq - who looked out of his element except for a solitary six - was caught out as well. Mohammad Aamer was next man out as Pakistan headed for an early finish, 132 for nine. However, Ajmal hit a brief cameo as Pakistan finished with 147 for nine which failed to be enough for the hard-hitting Pietersen.

Making a difference:

Pietersen

World Twenty20’s second highest scorer has 435 runs under his belt from 12 matches, right behind Mahela Jayawerdene. He led England to victory with an unbeaten 52-ball 73, hitting two sixes and eight fours but was dropped by Fawad Alam when on 34.

Razzaq

With pre-tournament predictions of all-rounders being key, Abdul Razzaq has fallen short of expectations, scoring one run against Australia and 10 against England. With the ball, Razzaq has only taken one wicket in the tournament and was thrashed around by Pietersen.

Ajmal

Pakistan’s instrumental spinner was again the leading wicket-taker, with two and even scored 13 of five balls to give Pakistan’s dismal batting a little boost. However, Ajmal was poor in the field, dropping Kieswetter twice at mid-on and Lumb once at mid-off.

COMMENTS (8)

Ali Shahzad | 13 years ago | Reply Afridi - the hero of 2009, is now zero of 2010.. poor captaincy by him, he was never fit to take the captain's seat.. plus with shoaib malik out of the team its not much of a squad anywayz.. world cup for us was already over before it even started..

Muhammad Hassan | 13 years ago | Reply its great to see everyone blaming afridi's tactics and his cricketing mind.....showing what pakistani's have been doing since the birth. blaming the wrong person in order to safeguard their interests everywhere. BE IT POLITICS, ANY SPORTS, EDUCATION. WHY DO WE DO THIS?? IS IT IN OUR BLOOD OR WHT? i do remember when younis khan lost against england and in the press conference he said tht t20 is a fun game. And by our own countrymen he was made a laughing stock. Many questioned his tactics at tht time too but he proved that we PAkistani's need to change the attitude, the way we see things surrounding us.

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Sumair Khemani | 13 years ago | Reply Thats just the result of bad captainship.. Ajmal should've been replaced with Fawad Alam or someplace else in the field.. seems to me that Afridi's has no clue what crisis management is.. he just sticks to the same strategy he made before the game.. He should've been some what flexible with his plan, if there was any, cause even with Australia he constantly let Hafeez bowl and Razzaq wasn't even given a single over.. I pretty much think with the attitude like this, they're coming back home this week..

Umar Hashmi | 13 years ago | Reply We were consistent with the inconsistency of our batting, failing yet again the pressure. Lacking any strategy in batting order yielded waste of Razzaq and Fawad. Afridi, out of form, should have come lower down the order. Fielding has never been our core competency, in fact not even a competency. We fell below the already lowered expectations. A pathetic display of fielding all round. I am surprized that experts rank our team as best bowling attack. Watching the matches against Australia and England, it looks like the most fragile attack of the tournament. Above all, we have no plan, no strategy and we loose direction as soon as we come under pressure. Its a pity. How many bad judgements and bad experiences we need to become mature and sane strategists??

Saad Ahmed | 13 years ago | Reply I totally blame Afridi's decision for this miserable performance as when Ajmal has dropped 2 ctches in the same position he still made him field in the same position. One more thing that I really dont understand is that when Pieterson was on fire you kept your best two bowlers out of the scene and let Pieterson hit the ball easily out of the ground. After seeing yesterdays match there is still a long way to go for Afridi as a captain

ratee | 13 years ago | Reply Now who are the PCB going to ban so they are not blamed again and still stay in power- the same incompetent people heading the PCB?? They are shameless they will never resign ever!!!

anwaarahmad | 13 years ago | Reply Our cricket and hockey teams should be given credit that they are educating our masses that we are not the best in this world.

Umar Farooq Kalson | 13 years ago | Reply No planning, no hunger for victory but the only thing on high was big ego - pondering from Afridi's attitude. I know, the guy with big swelled-head having a grudge somewhere in his mind that the 14-man chosen by whoever are not according to what he want. But the kind information and facts says these 14 man are the best we have so far.

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