Re: Pak vs India 1st ODI Feb 6th Peshawar
Good thing is that Pakistan won this game. Full credit to our batsmen and our bowlers (especially the way they bowled at the fag end of Indian innings). Excellent excellent gamesmanship.
When Pakistan started their innings, they were looking at a score of 329 to win, which is a huge total under any circumstances. You need a few good innings and good partnerships. The depth and the versatility (CricInfo's new pet word) of the current Pakistan line-up is a huge factor these days.
I will also give full marks to whoever in the Pakistan camp, who was keeping an eye on the D/L method and the scoring rate. Fantastic work. This kind of far-sightedness and mastery of math was not common in Pakistan team a few years ago. Then again, our batsmen must be appreciated for making sure our run rate stays ahead.
Even though we won, there are a few major glitches in our performance.
Inzi's captaincy: When you have a pinch hitter blasting away uppishly and making merry of field restrictions, then why the heck will you take the second and the third power play right after over number 10? There is a reason, why the rules allow the fielding captain to decide when to take the power plays. This was just an indication of Inzi not using his brains to adapt to the game situation. I think Indian decision to send Pathan and then Dhoni were brilliant strategic decisions. Both of them did very well. Unfortunately, Inzi is either hesitant or incapable of adapting the game plan in the middle of the innings.
Use of Supersub: Pakistan won the toss and elected to field. So far so good. Then who the heck decided to have Arshad Khan as a super-sub? It was almost as if Pakistan had hoped to lose the toss and being asked to bat first. If you know that after winning the toss, you will field first, then simple use of brain cells will dictate that you should have an extra batsman as a super-sub. I chalk it up to either a temporary brain lapse by Woolmer or that Arshad's paawa is very strong.
Inzi's lack of understanding of the rules: Inzi's Obstruction the Field out was more hilarious cz Inzi is (probably still) clueless about rules of cricket. To be fair to him, after the moronic decision given against him in the series with England, he probably felt ok to stop the ball with his bat. That Rahul Dravid should have shown sportsmanship rather than sticking to the rules is a separate discussion. I bet if Rahul had recalled Inzi, it would create far more problems for Rahul in the politically charged cricket set up in India. Point of the matter is that umpires incompetence (as displayed so gloriously in English series) can't be helped by Inzi. However, being such a senior player, Inzi should have a better grasp of cricketing rules himself.
On the good side, Pakistan bowlers bowled magnificently in the last ten overs. At the end of 30 overs, India was 190-2. As Holding said, the rule of thumb is to double the score, but Pakistan held India back and robbed them of about 50 runs by some fantastic bowling (Asif and Rana). That Pakistan (especially Asif) lately seemed to have tamed Sehwag is a huge plus.
For India, there are many pluses from this game. Tendulkar is back in his groove. Yuvraj is fluent. Dravid's captaincy in the field, keeping a slip and having fielders in catching positions pretty much throughout, was probably due to having the cushion of a huge score, but was interesting and courageous nevertheless.
Some people have criticized Pakistan of not going for a "fair and square" win and instead opting for the sneaky D/L win. I don't agree with that at all. I think rules of cricket are there for every one, and if a rule favors you, you take it. Dravid and the Indian team were perfectly ok to get Inzi out on obstruction rule. Pakistan did fine by maintaining a higher run rate and opted to take the light offered to them as soon as the umpires offered it to them. At the end of the day, both teams were trying to win the game by using the rules of the game. Good stuff.
All in all, it was a great game. Many teams have chased 300+ in ODI's lately, and scored 300+ themselves. But very few actually managed to win by chasing 300+. Pakistan is showing how it can chase 300+ targets in ODI's, and that is an awesome feeling. There were already whispers of WC '07 and being favorites and all that, but I think that is very pre-mature. The team is good, but unless we can demonstrate that we can play well in foreign soils, especially how quickly we adapt to West Indian conditions, there is no sense in drumming up hype.
Congratulations to all Pakistan supporters for a fantastic win. Commiserations to Indian supporters for a well-played and well-fought out game. Hope the next four games are similar in close competitions, but devoid of some of the stupid mistakes being made in this game.