Another ODI Series Lost by Pakistan
(Arsalan Mujahid Ghouri, Karachi)
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.