10.50pm A shoddy batting display from Pakistan, to say the least, save Sharjeel Khan. A blistering start from Sharjeel but Pakistan have ended in a disastrous whimper. New Zealand weren't sensational with the ball, frequent and regular loose deliveries, but were good in the field and field placements and stuck to the basics. Pakistan failed to find the boundary in the last 5.1 overs, symbolic of their struggles. Akmal and Shehzad just tightened up in the middle
Shehzad is not a T20 player but UA should stay. He can be dangerous on his day but he's someone who likes pace on the ball. He was just not allowed to hit boundaries by NZ today as they took pace off the ball. As I said in another thread UA struggles against spin, or struggles to hit boundaries off the slower bowlers, an area of his batting that he needs to improve.
Can we please lose to Aus and head home instead of more humiliation if they manage to go further in this tournament. As they say in England "This lot could not organise a piss up in a brewery". That is how pathetic, leaderless and rudderless they are.
**Shahzad and Akmal **pathetic batting caused us this match.
Seriously we need a big time cleanup in the team after the World Cup (i.e. get rid of Shahzad, Akmal, Malik, Hafeez, Wahab, Irfan, Waqar Younis and may be few others too)
Again bad decisions, Sarfaraz should have been sent one down, followed by Shoaib Malik, then Akmal and then Afridi...
He used everything upside down and ruined the good start.
Anyway these akmal brothers are curse to Pakistan cricket, he need to be sacked, so is Ahmef Shehzad ad Sharjeel Khan...only players to be retained are Aamir, Nawaz, Imad, Sarfaraz as Captain and rest of the team to be selected from young talented guys...at worst that young team will loose...we are not winning anyway either...
First Shehzad destroyed the start provided by Sharjeel and then Akmal wasted the much needed momentum provided by Afridi
Both Shehzad and Akmal were sacked by Misbah and Waqar right after worldcup, but it was Afridi who brought them back in T20s, and today they bit him...
I see a ray of hope though. We were not absolutely pathetic today. bowled well in the latter half then the blistering batting by Sharjeel.
A bit of fine tuning (esp. in batting) is needed for sure
but what this team desperately lacks is self-belief. The killer instinct, the desire to win is just not there. Afridi simply doesn't come across as a motivational leader, someone who can really make the players fight as a team like an Imran Khan or a Younis Khan (he did well during his brief spell as skipper, intelligent and innovative field settings & bowling changes etc.)
U akmal can do anything bad if he want. Remember his first series in aus where he deliberately shown him injured to cover his brother.
Akmal malik afridi need to go.
Let me be the devils's advocate. For some reason Umar Akmal's heart was not in it. Was it deliberate? (reported rift between Afridi and UA).
I didnt see the last overs but looking at the score card I'm seeing its Shoaib Malik/Sarfraz parternship who literally took 1-2 hardly when they were supposed to hit boundaries? So was it a deliberate lackluster? I dont know but seems like its Malik whose heart wasnt into it.
Thats utterly shameful and disappointing. After a blistering start there is no excuse of letting the match go away