my stomach was cramping at every ball afridi faced.
i heard wasim akrams comments and its obvious that he doesn't like afridi.
the point is, afridi is there for a reason. he is a nig hitter, who can bowl. that why he was sent so low in the order. if anyone expects this guy to get 1s and 2s, they'll wait a long time.
in my opnion, he helped the pakistani cause. 25 of 12 balls, was a big shot in the arm for pakistan. he scored more runs then the openers and the 1st down guy combined.
so direct your anger/hate for afridi somewhere else. he did his job. sure it would have been nice to have him stay till the end, but he didn't. just like 6 guys before him. he was the third or the fourth highest scorer in the team.
I was most nervous/tense when afridi was on. that just added to the excitement in my opnion. i'm not a afridi fa, nor am i against him. if in the next match he scores a big 0, i'll be pissed of at him. but in this match, he doesn't deserve the anger thats being directed towards him.
It’s not about liking or disliking Aridi. It is about being professional at this level of cricket. It isn’t gali mohala cricket and there should be some accountability for your actions.
He is great for the cricket fans around the world but whether he is good for his team or not is debatable. Australians would never have this guy in their 11... no matter how many wins he gets for you.
I think of it this way. When Moin got out, Pakistan and India were basically tied and the match was 50-50. The Required RR was higher than our RR, and thats typically a bad sign if you don't have enough wickets left. All the talk was that there are still 3 overs from Pathan left, and this is going to be a nail-biter etc. Yoyo was still standing tall, but he was stealing singles and doubles.
By the time Afridi left, the required RR was a joke. And in the process he demoralized the Indian team, and put Irfan Pathan in his place (he didn't even bowl his 10th over). Even the tuk-tuk of Naved at that stage didn't look like suicidal because the asking rate was nothing. This was all the Afridi difference.
Without Afridi, even if we had Yoyo stay till the end, and it would still be dicey if we would have won or not. And I think that is what Bob Woolmer told Afridi. The common wisdom here with our arm-chair critics is that Afridi should use more head and stick around and play a long productive innings. Woolmer's thinking is that Afridi can not be curbed, so might as well turn the lemon into lemonade. He probably asked Afridi to go out there and blast the bowlers all over and get the NRR to below 3.5. This is a hit or miss strategy, and in this case it worked.
Probably the only change I would have suggested was to send Afridi before Moin. That way you have one tuk-tuk batsman still left after Afridi's blitz. I thought Naved is an all-rounder, but the guy was literally at sea. Although in the end he survived (there was one particularly dangerous yorker that he dug out).
well, the selectors and everyone knows that already. if he is int he team now, after being left out, there must be a reason.
afridi is in because he can bowl spin and is handy with the bat. his lower order position confirms this (atleast for that last match). he shouldn't be expected to score runs like the batsmen. i think thats the only way to look at this guy. if you think this guy is a batsmen, you're in for a whole lotta grief :)
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*Originally posted by nomaan: *
afridi is in because he can bowl spin and is handy with the bat. his lower order position confirms this (atleast for that last match). he shouldn't be expected to score runs like the batsmen. i think thats the only way to look at this guy. if you think this guy is a batsmen, you're in for a whole lotta grief :)
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I agree with what Nomaan and Faisal have said...
I used to be an Afridi critic myself, but believe we've found a place for him in the team that suits him well - both Ramiz Raja and Wasim Akram commented on how he is "designed" for hitting the ball... Wasim at various instances proclaimed his team spirit but commented on his weakness (or I like to think of it as a strength now) to slog.
Like Faisal said, his 25 off 12 balls was a respite for Youhanna and the lower order... they could now manage to win by just staying on the crease and taking 1s' and 2s'. I say we shouldn't peg Afridi at any particular spot. The skipper should send him in when we need to improve the run-rate and demoralize the opposition! :)
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by knightofhearts: *
well guys, i think that afridi played the most irresponsible innings of his life...
i know, u mught argue that what he did was great, but before saying that, just answer one question...."what if afridi got out earlier...and pakistan lost the match"....then, still u would admire him for his blunt hitting???
and we need to do a lot of work on our opening.....malik on no. 3 has started to fail...i would rather see inzi or yoyo on the no. 3 position than malik...malik is a good talented batesman, who can come in at no. 5 and do some serious damage along with razzaq and moin...and please move afridi to the opening spot, coz thats the only place his blunt shots can be accounted for...
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Seems like you are seldom impressed with anything. When Australians attack even till the end, we call them genius or what not but when Afridi does that (with his limited abilities) we call him moron and mindless etc? I suggest you seriuosly need to consider your thoughts on the question you presented yourself. Malik failed in one or two games and you are suggesting hasty decisions. Remember, Youhana spent a good one year or two at number three slot before he moved again down the order. Inzimam never fancied it and finally Shoaib Malik scored some good runs for us at this position and after his two failures, you suggest a tried change again.
I dont like the way Afridi slogs all the time or plays premediated strokes but i am a huge admirer of the aggressive spirit he plays the game with, bowling batting or fielding.
i think Afridi was greatly responsible for Pak winning this match, I am not a fan of Afridi, but we should give the credit where it is due, if it wasn’t for his 2 sixes we might have lost the match :k:
Afridi is like an employee that you hire and justify that your company’s strategical moves are based on his moods. How often do companies do that? :)
Like I said, professionalism is important!
Our goal is not to beat micky mouse teams like India. The goal is to beat Australia..not once but again and again…at least that is how I see it. I would like to compare Afridi and Symonds but I just can’t ..Both are aggressive players but one is a professional who takes his team home and the other is a retard who can’t think outside the box.
Afridi is a victim of his own hype. Had the bugger not scored the fastest century, we would have little expectations from him. He would be a regular leg spinner and a good fielder, and we would all be happy. He would come in at #8, and if he gets out, no big deal, if he scores, "balay balay". Just like Sami and Shoaib. No one really expects them to lift the tail, but if they score a few big blows, every one is happy.
Now, that Afridi scored the century and is often moved up the batting order, people have higher expectation. For crying out loud, the guy's career average is in the 20's. Why would you expect anything better from a #8 batsman. The only reason is, people think he has the talent but he "wastes" it. Well, surprise surprise.. his talent is not to put his head down and play a long innings. His talent, on the other hand, is to do body damage to the opponents. Some times it works. Most times it doesn't. Live with it. :)
[QUOTE] Originally posted by Fayz: *
I would like to compare Afridi and Symonds but **I just can’t*
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You Shouldn't
Whereas Symonds is a poweful bastman and a handy bowler, Afridi is the opposite - at least that was the intent when he was recruited... his stint at opening for Pakistan has disillusioned some to believe that he's a batsman.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Umar Talib: *
You Shouldn't
Whereas Symonds is a poweful bastman and a handy bowler, Afridi is the opposite - at least that was the intent when he was recruited... his stint at opening for Pakistan has disillusioned some to believe that he's a batsman.
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Afridi was brought in as a bowler? I thought he was a batsman to be utilised as "sixth" bowler.... a batsman-allrounder.
Faisal and Umar, you guys are justifying Afridi’s existence as a leg spinner. Tell that to Shane Warne or Abdul Qadir (both decent batsmen) and I’m sure they would disagree. (If Kumble was a little decent batsmen, you could have matched Afridi to him but that is besides the point)
Like you said..”live with it” so I am living with it but its painful I tell ya
Afridi was brought in as a bowler? I thought he was a batsman to be utilised as "sixth" bowler.... a batsman-allrounder.
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yep... he was an allrounder who was brought into international cricket as a legspinner... specialty being the Leg Break Googly. He just managed to surprise everyone by scoring the fastest one-day hundred in his maiden innings, and that's when things changed for him (for better or for worse).
Fayz yaar.. you can’t be so lucky to have Warne or Qadir in your team all the time. Think of Afridi as Danesh Kaneria and live a long happy and peaceful life.
Umar Talib: ^ that was very long time ago. He has been dropped and included many times after that, and that was mostly for his batting skills and not bowling as there were spinners in Saqlain and Mushtaq. May be in his recent inclusion again he was a "bowler-allrounder" again.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Umar Talib: *
^ Captain, that's what I had said in my earlier post... the "original intent" behind recruiting him was to use him as a spinner.
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