5th ODI: Pakistan vs New Zealand at Hamilton - Feb 03, 2011

[Antumul_alona]

Re: 5th ODI: Pakistan vs New Zealand at Hamilton - Feb 03, 2011

@GoldenAsif

While we must savour this series win, we must not forget that NZ (who have lost 13 of their last 14 ODIs)
are not even among the top 5 teams in the world - Australia, India, England, SLA and South Africa (not in any particular order). Pakistan have only played against England and South Africa recently and narrowly lost both series 2-3, so it is hard to know where we currently stand in world cricket

It is ODI though and I believe that any of the top 6 teams can beat each other on their day. There are no clear favourites in this WC but Australia are looking dangerous again

On the positive side, of the last 15 ODIs that Pakistan have played against England, South Africa and NZ, we won 7 games, lost 7 and one match was abandoned. We played all those games in foreign conditions, and mostly without the services of our first choice bowling attack.

The one-day series win just about settles who should lead Pakistan in the world cup. Just heard on GEO that Afridi will lead the team in the World Cup. PCB will make official announcement upon the team’s return from New Zealand

@waleedhbk

I was talking about his captaincy that how well he captained the team he is improving day by day which is good for the team

@Captain1

I was talking about his captaincy too, we shouldn’t read too much into this series victory as NZ is not a strong side, they are even weaker than us and we didn’t win against them convincingly.

Yes we can’t read much into this win however we shouldn’t compare to the England tour at all. That tour was of extreme turmoil and outside pressures on the team. Also if we compare to the UAE ODI series against SA, then again, we may have won the final ODI based on the way the team was gaining upward momentum, however, haider created a frenzy by his sudden departure. As much as we want to think that this series win should prove to be the positive STATs we need, it is more like a 1 off win.
Still at the very end it is a very good sign. We have to wait and see if Pakis can take the momentum and remain united to fight it out in the WC matches in India, SL and Bangladesh…