Pakistan captain Misbahul Haq cautioned against a drastic overhaul in personnel after his team crashed to a sensational five-run loss in the third and final Twenty20 against England, which gave the tourists a 2-1 victory in the series.
That followed England’s 4-0 drubbing of Pakistan in the One-Day International series after the national team had beaten the same opponents 3-0 in the Test series. The limited-overs defeats, however, have left question-marks on Misbah’s handling of the team, who said he understood fans’ frustrations but the losses needed to be assessed dispassionately by the Pakistan Cricket Board.
“I think we need to take this decision only after assessing our resources and if you have those resources then do that,” said Misbah. “But if you don’t have quality cricketers, the changes will harm the team. If you change for the sake of change, it will not help.”
Drama in the death overs
Chasing a modest 130, Pakistan were cruising at one stage, needing 23 off the last three overs with Misbah (28) and Umar Akmal (22) adding 37 for the fourth wicket but England pulled back with remarkable determination.
With 13 needed off the final over Shahid Afridi took a couple before he was run out while taking a second off the next. The next three balls produced singles and a wide and with six needed off the final ball, Misbah was bowled to leave Pakistan agonisingly short.
Losing the match from a winning position left the captain disheartened.
“We tried our best but England came back strongly in the last three overs. Credit must be given to them. We should’ve finished the match but we had no answer to their bowling. Stuart Broad gave just four runs in the penultimate over, while Jade Dernbach successfully defended 13 in the last. We were in the game until the last three overs and we had wickets in hand. But we couldn’t finish it. That hurts.”
Meanwhile, England captain Broad was full of praise for his bowlers.
“It was a very good win,” said Broad. “Kevin Pietersen played a good knock and then bowlers showed a lot of character to pull off the win, it was remarkable.”
Earlier, off-spinner Saeed Ajmal finished with four for 23 to restrict England to a modest 129 for six.
Opener Pietersen top-scored with 62, keeping one end intact during his 52-ball knock for his seventh Twenty20 fifty. Pakistan won the first match of the series by eight runs, while England had come out victorious in the second one by 38 runs.
Zaheer Abbas
“It is not only about an individual’s performance as all Pakistan batsmen failed, which is to be blamed for the defeat. England’s bowling, on the other hand, was superb and deserves all the praise.”
Ramiz Raja
“The team now requires whole-sale changes in the limited-overs formats. A complete but not abrupt overhaul is required. I think we need aggressive batsmen as all current Pakistan batsmen play at a similar pace.”
Jalaluddin
“Our batsmen struggled to play according to the situation. They should’ve taken chances at the start of the innings in the decisive match but they waited for the death overs. Our fielding wasn’t good either.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 29th, 2012.
COMMENTS (15)
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The main and the only reason Pakistn lost limited overs matches was due to to Misbah, the captain. He is totally unsuited to play in these matches and also he needs his eye site tested, as he missed half the balls he faced. We do not want Afridi in the side either. The new players are fit to play and there we should rest.
Losses in ODI and T20. What did you expect?. Test, ODI, T20 each one requires slightly different skills to play, coach and win. Each of these cricket series should have different strategy, some or all different players, different captain and coaches. This will also help raise the bar of competition between the three and help improve the game. The cricket fans in Pakistan with the help of mass media must help force this change. There is nothing wrong in loosing. It is actually good to loose if you make mistakes. It always leads to getting better if seen as an opportunity.
i think ODI and T20 captaincy should be given to Afridi. he led us well in the world cup no thanks to kamran akmal and those stupid drop catches including Pakistan team's drop catches in the semi final!
give way to youngsters, specially for T20 bring these players back in the team.
Ahmad Shezad, Rana Naveed, Sami, Kamran Akmal (if he learned his lessons). Drop Imran Farhat, Shoaib Malik, Misbah and Aizaz Cheema.
Promote Hammad Azam to number 5 so that he gets a chance to bat a little.
@MAD: He is only good against spinners; has difficulty sigthing the new ball.
Please do something n explain to Misbah that now you r old,pls quit one day n twenty twenty,Misbah playing from England team!
BPL showed that all out T20 specialists like Ahmed Shehzad, Shahzeb, Imran Nazir, Sami and Fawad Alam are out of the team. We need quality batsmen, bowlers and above all athletic fielders. The brilliant catch of Fawad Alam in BPL showed how good a fielder can be to win matches. We now need separate teams for each format a successful experience by England. This will also satisfy captaincy urge of number of players.
okay T-20 is all about big hitting. Shahid Afridi can still hit it high and long. you want my opinion the best position fopr him to bat in T20 is as an opener wheere he could take advantage of field restrictions and go past the infield.
@usman: that may have been his reward.
What an idiot! I hope his head is first on the chopping block.
Misbah should retire from T-20and quit captaincy of ODIs in the interest of Pakistani cricket team
Misbah Misbah Misbah U deserve an oscar for your dramatic performance :P Well done. Keep it up :)
Strange!! ... 38 year old man is our T20 captain, that was 2007 when he can play aggressively ,now 5 years gone...!!!!!
After his shocking performance in the world cup semifinals, he was elevated to the position of captaincy. This is quite in line with government policy to promote the inept to higher positions and punish the upright (like afridi) for their principal stand.