Re: 1st Test :Pakistan v Sri Lanka 18th-22Oct 2011
Mohsin Khan: "We Only Have Ourselves to Blame for the Draw"
We played some good cricket and it’s disappointing not to be coming away from the first test match in Abu Dhabi with a victory under our belts. We were particularly good with both bat and ball in the first three days of the match, but our fielding let us down in the end. Catches are not dropped on purpose but we dropped some crucial catches at crucial times in the match and we suffered in the end due to those dropped catches.”
Khan who has been appointed as interim coach for the series versus Sri Lanka explained the reasoning behind the changing of personnel in the slip region, where a number of the chances were spilled.
**“We have 5 or 6 fielders who can field in the slip region, but some of these boys had minor injuries to their fingers and were unable to field in the slips for long periods, so we opted for a rotation policy in the slips. Taufeeq (Umar) was particularly troubled with a finger injury which ruled him out of fielding in the slip cordon. Sometimes even the easiest of catches are dropped, that is cricket, but there is no excuse for dropping some of the catches we dropped during this test match. Put simply, we only have ourselves to blame for the Abu Dhabi test match ending in a draw.”
**Khan was very complimentary of the resilience shown by former Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara and wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene who added 201 for the sixth wicket in Sri Lanka’s second innings.
**“Despite Pakistan dropping so many chances, let’s not take anything away from the Sri Lankan duo of Sangakkara and Jayawardene. They showed a lot of guts and determination, hat’s off to them. They played superb innings and Sangakkara showed once again that he is one of the world’s best batsmen **and both he and Jayawardene fully capitalised on the opportunities that were presented to them and saved Sri Lanka from a certain defeat.”
Going into the final day Pakistan’s hopes were largely pinned on off spinner Saeed Ajmal being able to dismantle the Sri Lankan batting line up, but that failed to materialise on a wicket that was true through out the test match. Khan felt that the lack of pace and bounce in the pitch meant that Ajmal was not as effective as what he would have hoped.
“There was only a little bit in it for the bowlers, but largely it was a flat pitch ideal for batting. The turn that Saeed extracted was slow and the bounce was low which unfortunately didn’t help Saeed. If there had been a bit more pace and bounce in the pitch then Saeed would have been more effective. Ajmal bowled very well, he bowled his heart out, he gave his all but in the end the pitch negated his efforts. However once again credit to the duo of Sangakkara and Jayawardene.”
Pakistan can take quite a few positives from the drawn match in Abu Dhabi with them to Dubai where the second test match commences on Wednesday and the form and efforts of the inexperienced pace duo of Aizaz Cheema and Junaid Khan particularly pleased Khan.
**“I have a lot of admiration for the efforts of young pace bowler Junaid Khan and for Aizaz Cheema. In the immense and at times unbearable heat, both of them bowled with great heart and effort in conditions that were very tough for quick bowlers.”
**Umar Gul was the least utilised of the Pakistan seam bowlers in Abu Dhabi bowling 36 overs in total, compared with 47 overs for Cheema and 45 for Junaid Khan. Mohsin explained that as Gul had not been playing a lot of cricket of late, his workload was being managed carefully.
“Umar has a few minor niggles but it’s nothing serious. We feel that Gul is most effective bowling short spells when in good rhythm and it was his first international game back. His efforts in Abu Dhabi will give him a lot of confidence ahead of the remaining matches in the UAE against Sri Lanka.”
Pakistan received criticism from some quarters regarding their reluctance to chase the target of 170 from 21 overs, but Khan confirmed that the negative field set by the Sri Lankans meant that the tough run chase was one that the Pakistanis were not going to attempt and mess up.
“We decided during the innings break that we would see what the approach from the opposition was. We wanted to see what sort of bowling and fielding tactics they were going to employ. Straight away from the first ball the Sri Lankans set a very defensive field, with men placed on the boundary right around the ground. The field set was within their rights of course, but this meant that we felt we didn’t want to make a mess of things and go for the run chase. 170 in 21 overs was a tough chase in any case, especially against Sri Lanka who are a good fielding side and have a steady bowling unit and we decided that given the field placings we would opt to bat out time.”
Pakistan and Sri Lanka square off in the second test match on Wednesday at the DSC in Dubai, with the final match in the series scheduled in Sharjah on 3rd November.
but overall its okay that after dropping so much catches how you can win the match 
