Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

saieen · October 10, 2007, 7:06pm

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

pak…tsk tsk tsk…:halo:

saieen · October 10, 2007, 7:09pm

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

dancing on the old tune…

teaser · October 10, 2007, 8:45pm

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

Chalo koi baat nahi....inshAllah next time...ab to haar gay.

GoldenAsif · October 10, 2007, 9:09pm

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

I get your point but we have been preparing lifeless, dull, dusty, spin-friendly pitches for donkey's years and this is not the first time that we have gone for such slow tracks. The fact is our past seamers incl. Imran Khan, the two W's and Akhtar were able to extract life from these same dead tracks at their peak. Imran took 40 wickets in 6 tests against a much more formidable Indian batting line-up in 1983 and in most of those tests he only bowled for an innings and a bit! Waqar completely destroyed NZ with 29 wickets in only three tests in 1990 (which was a record for a three-test series until Murali broke it with 30 wickets against Zimbabwe in 2001/2) and we won against England in 2005/6 mainly because of Akhtar.

Those seamers had that something extra (sheer pace, bounce, ability to swing more in the air etc.) which both Asif and Gul (pretty decent seamers) clearly lack and herein lies a difference in class....

Furthermore Kaneria as a spinner is not in the same league as Abdul Qadir, Iqbal Qasim, Saqlain Mushtaq (who will be eligible to play for England in 2008) and Mushtaq Ahmed.

GoldenAsif · October 10, 2007, 9:11pm

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

W.A. Yes pawwa is definitely a factor but I was expecting better from Sallu not least because everyone keeps going on about how fair-minded he is and so on.

Rock_Express · October 10, 2007, 9:17pm

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

Not following the current series on television or neither have really fancied watching tests series being played in Pakistan.

Will the ‘tallay baaz’ save the test series?

legbreakgoogly · October 10, 2007, 9:46pm

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

The difference between those seamers and now is pace. Speed defeats reactions as someone so beautifully put it.

And I dont see the Muisbah hang up, 20/20 is joke cricket and no indication of test ability. 13 dig (?), ave 17....the guy wont make it. 13 digs is a lot....there has been no show of class from him.

a1kashur · October 10, 2007, 10:42pm

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

Oh well, so Pakistan will lose the series 2-0. They way our batsmen played they don't deserve to win. Out of 8 days of test matches Pakistan have fielded for about 5 days.
Our batsmen have made yet another zero a hero-Paul Harris. This guy doesn't even turn the ball, doesn't have much variety but he is troubling all batsmen. kaneria on the other hand turns the ball like crazy but no wickets.

the_game · October 10, 2007, 11:21pm

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

All I will say is that PACE MATTERS. Whether you like it or not, Asif with his off-spinning and leg-spinning cutters will not cause any problems on patta wickets of Pakistan.

legbreakgoogly · October 10, 2007, 11:24pm

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

we are just not that good.

legbreakgoogly · October 10, 2007, 11:29pm

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

yes. Asif's limitations have been exposed. People compare him w/ McGrath, but in his pomp McG was around the 140k mark. Much quicker.

Rock_Express · October 10, 2007, 11:48pm

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

Now you are talking.................:biggthumb

GoldenAsif · October 11, 2007, 12:07am

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

point noted but our openers apart from Saeed Anwar have always been fringe players i.e. nothing special. I mean Mudassar Nazar, Mohsin Khan, Rameez Raja and Aamir Sohail were decent rather than great players. If your fringe players don't perform it puts immense pressure on your middle-order and as much talent and experience the latter may have they are always more likely to crumble if the openers fail repeatedly. I know this test was an exception. Malik and Misbah are not test class batsmen and are there in the team by default. MY and Inzi perhaps struggled because they have not played any serious cricket recently.

GoldenAsif · October 11, 2007, 1:41am

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

And this performance clearly shows that we need to play more test matches. That's the only way we can improve in this real form of cricket. 7-8 tests per year is not nearly enough when we have teams like Australia, England and India playing 12-15 tests in a calendar year.

GoldenAsif · October 11, 2007, 8:39am

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

Well a wicket atlast after nearly 3 hour's of play on day 4!

SA lead by 424 runs with 7 second innings wkts remaining

Kallis 94 nearing another test century. To him our bowling is like 'help yourself to another century'

What a depressing bowling performance by all

Kaneria 39-10-84-1 and he's our best spinner! Well atleast he's keeping it tight :)

The South African RR of 2.72 is a bit disappointing given the commanding position they are in.

cadet018 · October 11, 2007, 9:01am

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

Abdur Rehman 38-6-97-1 ....... yeah kaneria is best :D

cadet018 · October 11, 2007, 9:38am

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

And Smith declares. He has to wave really hard to get the batsmen’s attention. I** think it was a tired Pakistani fielder who drew de Villier’s attention to the call.** Off they go. SA lead by 456 runs. Huge lead.

Aalsi · October 11, 2007, 10:01am

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

What a great player this Jacques Kallis is.

GoldenAsif · October 11, 2007, 10:03am

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

These pundits or jerks at cricinfo seem worried about an upset Pakistan win. As much as I whole-heartedly wish that we do, this game in all likelihood will finish by lunch or between lunch and tea tomorrow. Did n't they see how we batted in the first innings?

cricinfo
Pakistan need to create a world record to win this. And Mark, from South Africa, pings us with this: "Knowing Pakistan, they'll try and chase this." Ah!

Joe: "This proves the point we should have declared at least 4 overs ago, de Villiers and Boucher are far better in keeping the scorecard rolling. Prince should have been dropped down."

Jose: "Bad decision by Smith in my opinion. Should have batted on and totally killed off the game. Why risk a series win at all? Steve Waugh or Kepler Wessels would never have declared."

zafar2002 · October 11, 2007, 10:06am

Re: Pakistan Vs South Africa: 2ND TEST MATCH (Oct 8-12) @ Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore

Is it only me or any of you believes that Pak can still win the match and at least they will try?

What you think would they try to draw or win?