Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
43 days to be precise…thanks for the correction, but that doesnt ease the anxiety, still need my daily dose of fibre to keep the free flow of bowels…kambakhth cricket…
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
^ 
Long live the fibre.
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
I don't want to make too much of Gul's absence because I regard him as a good support bowler (not a strike bowler) only but we might not have lost the last test if Akhtar had been playing
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
Very well fought Pakistan 
khassi PCB needs to groom U19 batsman on green or cement strips so they can learn the bounce and swing early on. No batsmen without these abilities can be filtered to the A team. WE need to work on this now, to see results in next 3 years.
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
Talking about U19, remember those 2 bowlers Jamshed and Anwar Ali? the 2 guys who won us the U19 world cup with balls swining yards? whatever happened to those 2? why haven't they been taken under the wings and atleast sent with the team to get a feel for international cricket? The way I look at it, it would have been more beneficial than sending Mushtaq Ahmed.
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
:k:
However,
INZI, Woolmer and Nasim Chacha should note and understand:
- Why did you not play Asim from 2nd Test when Hameed was failing? He is a “test” player by your own views.
- Why did you not try Zulqy instead of Akmal after the 2nd test dropped catches and missed stumpings?
- Why did you not drop farhat and atleast move up Hameed in the order?
Bad decisions do come to surface when chance/luck fails and life’s losses are as clear as day!
With the flop in batting and no pace replacement, winning the ODI series is a tough task ahead!
Anyhow, we will still be wishing our team success
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
Three series that really mattered under Bob Woolmer
Australia white-washed 0-3 in 2004 England **lost 0-3 (technically 0-2) in 2006 **South Africa lost 1-2 in 2007 in a close series
Can't honestly say that our fielding has improved under Woolmer plus the all-important opening dilemma remains There is no reason to believe that Pakistan would not have achieved what Woolmer has 'achieved' under Miandad or any other coach for that matter
^exactly.Woolmer has been getting a lot of credit for a lot of things in the past for nothing.The fact is that Inzimam does'nt even listen to everything woolmer has to say.Inzimam is the real boss in Pakistan's cricket team he calls all the shots,woolmer is just there to sit quietly and make some easy money, 80k pounds a year to be exact,.It was Inzimam's brainless decision to bat Hameed at no 3 and he has made some pretty stupid decisions like that before like keeping Salman Butt out of the team who has scored so many centuries in so many important matches for pakistan and was being compared to saeed anwar.inzimam has got something personal against butt..may be he cant stand the fact thats hes more educated than him and can speak english very well.
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
and what would be your brainful decision to play Hameed at?
Do you know how brilliantly Salman was playing in last few series? If a player doesn't perform your knives are out, if a player is out due to performance your knives are out and accuse Inzi for issues unseen/unheard of. Start using your head and leave emotions out.
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
One of them is playing domestic and not helping his own cause.
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
Good fight by Pakistan. Had we had Akhtar and/or Gul we would have won this game.
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
This is Cricket where things happen differently, where a team really does not need a good season to be in the Semi-final of World Cup, where a management or a domestic infrastructure can not ensure a solid team.
Pakistan lost to a better team and they were better in two senses; first their players played more maturely than us, they were composed when the match was in balance as compared to our players who basically kept giving away their wickets. We lost to England just because our openers did not change their habit of understanding and than strategizing their inngs accordingly. We could have won the game if Kallis had been impatient, he had every reason to take the bait of Mohammad Asif and Danish Kaneria, who are the real heroes from Pakistan, but he did not, waited when he was comfortable than executed his game plan. With our openers and first down that was not the case. They were mostly playing their high flying strokes, even when the fact was veterans are having trouble adapting to the wicket. Second are injuries, if Shoaib was present, outcome would have been different.
When the England tour ended, we let goes Salman Butt thinking that the new players will make the difference, Hafeez had promised but still has lot of growing up to do. Here is the situation, Aamir and Saeed are known to be the best openers to our memories and between them Saeed was the only one who deserve the credit for having a solid run of opening stand. It was his maturity that made the difference not strokes, so among Butt, Hafeez, Hameed, Farhat and Nazir whoever becomes mature, we will have a solid opening stand otherwise, and it is like playing Russian roulette thinking that this time it will hit the number.
We have dropped players before because we think they are incompetent, than they make a comeback after months to years thinking they have changed but they do remain the same. It is not the players rather simple fact that this is cricket, domestic plan does not ensure that you will win, look at England, have we be loosing like them it would have been a mayhem, but the funny thing is come World Cup, they will be a relevant threat. Most of our major players are either picked by eye or they have over-performed to get the place. Yousuf did not learn his shots playing domestic cricket and also Inzamam. It was maturity, patience and consistent hard work made them what they are today and this rule applies to every Cricket player in the world.
In the end, just like any series lost, we look for scapegoat and incompetent players to drop but over and over again the situation never changes, what makes anyone think that Afridi during his break spoke with Miandad about how to play lion-hearted inngs with patients and Nazir who sat down with Saeed about how to play in opening slot. It is again a gamble, just like in Cricket any thing can happen.
I am proud of my team and the players, despite their mistakes and inconsistent effort they played their heart out. Although Hameed and Faisal disappointed me and Imran Farhat has not show any effort in learning. We got here from aftermath of WC’03 as one and from start there was a core team. Unless a talent like Asif is introduced, changes will not make any difference.
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
True. Given the circumstances - I don’t think it was a bad series for Pakistan.
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
This is one loss where I dont have feelings of regret or anger :k:
Pakistan played good fighting cricket - even when the odds were against them
Its not the win / loss that matters - Its how you play the game 
Hats off to Asif 
- the new upcomming superstar for Pakistan
This kid really won my heart 
And I think its about time we said gubbiey to Shoaib Akhtar
I have had enuff of his tantrums and weak pathay and ham 
strings
ONWARDS TO THE WORLD CUP
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
yar atleast put some effort your insults. inshallah you say when something hasnt happened.
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
^U got the point, didnt you. I knew its going to happen. I dont want to rub it in. I have better things to do in my life than fighting it out in an internet message board. I couldnt resist this time. ur one liners were too arrogent, as if nothing is going to touch you. With your reply I know you have read it. I am satisfied. Thats more than enough for me. The technicalities we can talk it about later.
**Well played south africa. Asif is an excellent bowler, only if one more bowler was there to tie up at the other end, Pakistan could have won it 3-0. It could have been really terrible to have lost Asif for drugs.
**Having said that I dont understand why all of you should blame Akmal so much. Without Akmal, the second game was almost in SA hand. And results would have been 0-3 to SA. Do people not notice his wicketkeeping skills before. I think the major problem for pakistan,India and SA was the opener slots. There was no decent opening partner ship in the series. SA had two good players in Kallis and Prince to steady their innings in the middle order. But unfortunately for pakistan only yusuf and to some extent inzamam did something of that sort, but not simultaneously. i think the game was lost in the middle order. Both the games where SA won, kallis and prince were the men who take them through.
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
I agree with vineshvk. Akmal should not be blamed for anything. Pakistan was playing two specialist bowlers instead of four. And only three top order batsmen instead of six. The whole Pak team has itself and its management to blame for it.
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
Awesome series regardless of the results.
We fought hard, that’s what matters in the end. Period.
Kami needs to be rested so he can refocus. I don’t blame him, but he needs some refocusing on his game. And also so we can have a good backup in Zulqurnain, and it can only happen if we try him.
Shoaib actor is just ugh .. God help him. And also Sami.
Anyhow, well played boys!
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
:k: pretty sure for Gul based on his strides shown against WI.
Good fight from the team. They did not crumble.
Re: South Africa vs. Pakistan - 3rd Test - Jan Fri 26 - Tue 30 at Cape Town
Also, it shows that SA are at par with Pakistan.
Batsmen from Pakistan need to play in SA and Australia and NZ more. PCB needs to change its touring season.
As a team Pakistan is showing new grit and commitment.
SA had the obvious edge, they were at home and easily drafted new players in as they needed int he 3rd test.
Our key pacers were injured and very hard to draft a maybe fit pacer into the attack with the distance involved. If we were at home we could have tried Shabbir and if he failed or got injured the criticism would be limited.
Pakistan should take confidence from this tour even though they lost the test series. They can fight it out in the ODI series and who knows we might win it! :insha:
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