Re: Pakistan V Australia - 2nd ODI
I agree Catches win Matches and Pakistani team is very weak in this department as well. When they show some terrific fielding then Pakistan also win that match.
If you give this fielding side to any country they will give additional amount of runs and surely lose the match. I couldn't see the match but can you tell me what happened in the field ?
Chances was that Pakistan would have won this match ... but .., they lost the match. Please read my earlier posts and you will see when I myself lost all hopes that Pakistan would win.
Actually, first catch was dropped at slip by Umar Akmal. He could have taken the catch, and in reality he did, but was challenged, and on replay it showed that ball fell just short of his fingers. I think, if Umar Akmal had been careful and tried to properly take the catch moving forward, catch was not that difficult.
Next was a very hard try by Fawad, who jumped towards his side and high too, to catch but just managed to touch the ball. It was very difficult catch that if Fawad had taken then would have been a wonder catch. Anyhow, catch did not happened.
But worse was still to come. Australia was 3 down after 15 overs with 75 on board.
Then a 'very easy catch' of Maxwell (who only played 7 balls and was at '2 runs') came to Umar Akmal at slip. I think, even a 10 year old school boy could have taken that catch easily. It was just like anyone tossing the ball to someone. Umar Akmal dropped that catch ... and to me, it was end of the game.
Before that catch, Australia was 75 for 3. If that catch was taken than Australia would have been 75 for 4 with 15 overs gone. That means, Pakistan needed 6 lower order batsmen in 35 overs defending 141 runs. Not a difficult thing to do when most players were finding hard to get runs, Actually, it was Maxwell in the end who made fast runs to give Australia victory ... he made 76 runs in 81 balls (made 74 runs off 74 balls after the dropped catch) ... or more than half of the remaining target if he would have got out.
We should know that international cricket is competitive. Apart from lot of luck, cricket teams that avail all chances win, and those who do not avail chances lose. Even one crucial chance, especially when it comes to dropping catches of crucial players, is enough to lose a match. Even in first ODI (7th Oct) against Australia Pakistan dropped many crucial catches and lost.
One could not expect that opponent teams would keep giving chances for Pakistan to win. No team is sitting duck, especially Australia. If Pakistan or any team drop catches, they deserve to lose. Pakistan dropped the chance in this game when Umer Akmal dropped the catch of Maxwell, and thus if they lost, no one could blame anyone except that dropped catch, or say that Pakistan did not get chance to win.
I think, biggest reason Pakistan lost the match was that dropped catch. If it was up to me, I would have given 'Umar Akmal' man of the match award as it was he who made Australia win the match.
