atharsays

I have been hearing that T20 is all about slogging,But thats not the case. You cannot hit 4s and 6s on every single ball.You also need to build the partnerships like Odi and Test.T20 is shortest game of all 3 formats.

Coming back to First T20 match. Pakistan lost the Odi series so i thought they are nr 2 in the T20 ranking and they have good chance to win this T20 series, alongside Test series. England won the toss and elected to bat. Whenever Pakistan have to chase, it gives me not so good feeling.Because Pakistan is a side that is much strong for batting first and they mostly rely on their bowlers. Having a pretty good batting line up,i still was positive about Pakistan that they are going to chase whatever the total England will give.

Pakistan bowled well first 15 overs although James Vince who was on debut batted really well for his 41 runs in 36 balls.

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – NOVEMBER 26: James Vince of England is presented with his T20 international cap by David Lloyd ahead of the 1st International T20 match between Pakistan and England at Dubai Cricket Stadium on November 26, 2015 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Cricbuzz)

At 15 overs England could only made 101/4 and i thought this is good chance for Pakistan bowlers to tighten things up for a good chase for later. After that Sam Billings came, who batted really brilliantly smashed Wahab and Tanvir and end up making 53 runs in 25 balls. He had a 65 runs partnership With Eion Morgan who made 45 runs in 38 balls. So England end up making 160 runs. I thought we gave 30 runs many.

(Cricbuzz)

Pakistan chase started with Rafatullah Mohmand, who was on debut for Pakistan. Alongside him was keeper Sarfaraz Ahmed. I thought why would you drop your regular opener Ahmed Shehzad, who is averaging 26.59 with SR of 116.2. Pakistan started slow with Rafatullah, who was trying to play every shot. I thought he came on crease with no game plan at all.

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – NOVEMBER 26: Rafatullah Mohmand of Pakistan bats during the 1st International T20 match between Pakistan and England at Dubai Cricket Stadium on November 26, 2015 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Cricbuzz)

He went early with a score of 16 runs off 20 balls. Sarfaraz went cheaply with only 1 run. After the openers no one really could going with the runs. What was Sohaib Maqsood doing in T20 Squad? He should be playing Odi’s. Again the same problem with middleorders. No one could really made big runs. And Afridi too went for a duck while driving towards midoff. I thought Afridi was only player who could win for us by playing till the end. I guess we are still relying on Afridi, who will bowl and bat well for us. After that Anwar Ali, Sohail Tanvir, Wahab Riaz added 66 runs between them but we still were short of 15 runs. How can you expect from tailenders if your openers and middelorder batsmen fail to score big runs. We gave many runs in last 5 overs. If we had a strong depth bowler like we used to have Umar Gull than things could have been different. Plus you expect runs from your openers. If your openers gets a good start than it become easy for middleorder batsmen

Jos Buttler was leading the England team as Eoin Morgan was rested.(Cricbuzz)

England were 1-0  down and Pakistan needed to win second T20. But Again England batted first and like First T20 first 15 overs were bowled well and again we gave too many runs in last 5 overs. Butler who was made captain for second T20, end up making 33 runs.

Afridi bowled well for his 4-15-3.While Wahab and Tanvir went costly. England end up making 12 runs more than first T20.

Pakistan brough back Ahmed Shehzad in this T20, which was a good move.Pakistan went on with flying start. They were cruising with 50 runs in 5 overs.

Unfortunately we lost Ahmed Shehzad in 4.6 overs when he was batting really beautifully. He end up making 28 runs in 18 balls. After Shehzad we got really slowed down with runs. Rafatullah who again was trying to play every ball, went on making 23 runs. After that we didnt had the momemtum like our openers gave. Hafeez and Malik made some runs. And Again what was Sohaib Maqsood doing there in second T20? Sarfaraz was playing well till he played useless shot. I was still relying on Afridi. If Afridi stays till the end, we have a good chance to level up in this series. Afridi played brilliantly with 3 sixes and 1 four. He was batting brilliantly till 24(8) than it came end with playing shot towards third man. After Afridi even Tanvir And Anwar ali couldnt save us. We lost the match by 3 runs. I was really hoping that we will win this T20 match but i was really disappointed with how we bowled last 5 overs and how we couldnt made 172 runs. England are 2-0 up with one more match left.

Pakistan need to find a strong depth bowling. And more solid T20 batsmen like Imad Wasim. I hope we can atleast win one match out of three.

While i was watching Pakistan batting, i was hoping against hope that Pakistan will show some consistency. But we saw a good opening partnership between Shehzad and Sarfaraz and in the middle order between Asad and Sohaib Maqsood. After that no one could really get going the score. I thought Afridi as a captain would take responsibility and bat till the end. Afridi did the same like he doing over the years, throwing the ball in the air to let himself down with a regret.

I really wonder why Pakistan became such a uncertain team, when it come to chasing. When i see other Team batting then the target looks much easier than Pakistan batting. Those were the days when you had batsmen like Ijaz Ahmed, Inzimam, Miandad in the middleorder. You could say that we have alot of batting line to come. Now a days after after openers you dont look like that way you used to be. We dont have even settled openers after Saeed Anwar and Aamir Sohail. We have changed so many openers,captains,coach etc. Instead of changing we must think of building.

Pakistan need to work on building partnership and carry on. If Pakistan gets a coach that can teach them how to play under pressue then we will become better team in chasing. We must have faith in ourselves. Some times it seems like players dont realize whether they are talented or not. We need to give young players to have go..because seniors players wont play forever for Pakistan. I guess we should more focus on talent than ” who should be captain”.

Like how things are going now, then Pakistan have less chances to qualify into second round. Pakistani players must show their responsibility. You are playing for the pride of Country and not for yourself. Players must trust themselves before going to the field.