Another ODI Series Lost by Pakistan

Pakistan registered their last ODI series win at November 2008 against West Indies, and amazingly, Pakistan never win an ODI series against South Africa. There was hopes arose when Pakistan leveled the series 2-2. But again series ends with sad notes for local fans of Asian team, as Pakistan lost another ODI series after beaten down in Twenty 20 series and Pakistan wicket keeper Zulqarnain Haider was found missing from team hotel at 5th ODI morning. This was the close series in term of winning margin but overall this series dominated by South African bowlers, batsmen and fielders.

Pakistan known as the slow starters and famous for Achilles heel batting, and that proved yet again in 1st ODI. Before the start of the play, S Afridi asked to G Smith in toss that ‘who Lonwabo Tsotsobe was’ although his team suffered against him in both Twenty 20s. And that happened again; LL Tsotsobe fired, took 4 wickets and got the Man of the Match award. Rampant A Razzaq played the inning of life time and hit game-stealing hundred in 2nd ODI and chased the almost impossible task single handedly. He smacked third ton of his career and secured the best player award. In 3rd ODI, 228 runs were enough for Pakistan to chase. S Akhtar’s effort vanished and M Morne and LL Tsotsobe were the main strikers of South African bowling army. 4th ODI was another nerve-jangling run chase, as Pakistan triumphed by 1 wicket as they steal the 2nd ODI. Zulqarnain and Wahab Riaz were the heroes of this meeting. In 5th ODI, better game plan and attacking strategy worked for South Africa. They set the record total to chase between two teams encounters. Pakistan failed in middle overs and cost the game, set and match.

H Amla was continuing his dream run, produced brilliance in this series too and received the Man of the Series award. Other stars from South Africa were AB De villiars, M Morkal, LL Tsotsobe and great JH Kallis. M Hafeez was the surprise package for Pakistan, he bowled well and bat brilliantly for Pakistan. W Riaz showed the glimmers of an allrounder of future. A Razzaq was superb but wasn’t used perfectly in this string of cricket series. There are many question marks on the captainship of S Afridi e.g. limited use of Razzaq in bowling, defensive strategy (rest one specialist bowler) in fifth ODI, use himself as a bowler (avail 10 over quota isn’t mandatory), promote himself in batting order in 3rd ODI and use A Shafiq as opener. Even though his performances aren’t satisfactory in batting as well as in bowling, he bowled more overs per match in ODIs from any other bowler of cricket world (qualification minimum 150 overs) in this year, but has not produce results which would expected from a 300+ matches or almost 14 years of ODI cricket experience. He can’t learn more but most probably will lead the team in World Cup 2011. Few games are remaining before start of World Cup, so Pakistan Cricket management has to think about it and define future strategy to get best out of selected players.