Test defeat a rout or one player's brilliant performance?

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1

We have lost the test match by 201 runs. We can look at it in two ways:

  1. It was a rout by the Sri Lankans against our team.

  2. We were caught in the brilliance of one player Jayasuriya who in the second innings made a brilliant 253 runs.

Lets look at the first scenario. Was it a rout? Did the SL players dominate so much that we were totally outplayed? The answer to that is no.

SL scored 243 in the first innings and we replied by scoring 264.

SL scored 438 in the second innings and we were all out for 216, thereby losing the match by 201 runs.

On the face of it a rout. But was it. Take away the brilliance of Jayasuriya and Pakistan would have won the match.

The rest of the SL team did not perform any better than the Pakistani team. Imagine what the result would have been had jayasuriya catch on nought in the second innings was not on a no ball.

To me the second scenario applies that we got caught in the brilliance of Jayasuriya in the second innings and we could not recover from that. Taking that into account did we perform as badly as it is being made out to be?

Your views.

Yes we should have performed better but my question is did we perform as dismally as the result suggests or were we just a victim of Jayasuriya’s brilliance?

2

We did perform worse but that is not to undermine Jayasuriya’s brilliance. Look at these scores:

17, 53, 1, 3, 44, 59, 0, 1, 6, 12, 0

These don’t look like test match scores, and that to a reply to 438!!! Only two batsman barely crossing 50? Pathetic :nook:

3

Yes but look at SL second innings score:

253, 59, 57, 21, 0, 1, 4, 5, 1, 0.

Not much apart from Jayasuriya.

4

i think captain1 is right....
whatever jaysuria did, by chance or by brilliance, when our batsmen went out to bat they had a target of 400+....

how they started the chase (yasir and farhat) was the perfect way to proceed....
but then after that initial session, we just never knew what we were doing....
yasir went out for a ball that perhaps caught him by surprise due to the movement from the seam, but the others were simply careless....

inzi being bowled on e ball that kept low....
who wud take that as a valid excuse????
kids on the streets make such excuses when they r out "yaar ball uthee hee nahin thee".....
being such a senior player he shud have known better....
and then yoyo padding a delivery right in front of the stumps and razzaq!!!!
moin ko ta koyee haal hee nahin hai....
and when u have lost so many wickets, sami gets run out....
fernando stayed there facing just 20 something deliveries scoring just one run and helping a 100+ partnership....
sami cud have done something simila and let malik score....
but we had a run out....
and then shoiab akhtar caught jumping out of his crease as if it was the last ball of the innings and we needed 6 to win....

5

ehsan, as much as I respect your views I beg to differ on this one. You are saying that Pak lost because of one player, Jayasuria and we would have won had he been out on nought?.

I think we lost because our top batsmen Inzi and Yoyo gave away their wickets in the first innings. You know very well that we were in dire straits after gaining a meager lead of 21. SL needed to score 220 plus in the second to win the match. Scoring 440 plus was just an added cushioning.

We lost because of the way we batted in the first innings and NOT because of Jayasuria. Losing teams are better off by putting the blame on their OWN shoulders rather on brilliance of the opposition.

6

Jayasuria played a major part, but even without his brilliant innings, Pakistan could not have won this match as I see it. The 1st inning was the deciding point, as fungo mentioned. At the most it could have been a draw.

7

I think considering our brittle batting line up we played a batsman short. In the current test team only one all rounder should be included. Might look like a tough decision to leave out Razzaq or Malik but we have to do it. Asim Kamal should have come lower down the order. He plays the old ball a lot better then the new one. The senior batsman Inzimam or Youhana need to take the responsiblity of coming in at the crucial one down position. Opening still seems to be a problem spot for Pakistan. One opener scored a 50 in first innings and the other in second innings but almost at rate of a an ODI 50. Salman Butt performed well in the last ODI I think he should have played this match in place of Hameed who is either going through a lean patch or just not good enough for this level.

Jaysuria billiance was the major factor in our loss but not the only factor. Unfortunatley Sami got injured or we might have had a less daunting target (not that it would have made a difference) plus I think Srilanka had planned it much better then we had. After routing them out in the first innings we had a great chance to take a lead but yet again our batting failed. Plus we were missing one strike bowler. After Sami got inured Shoaib was the only one. We should have played another seamer either Shabbir if he was fit or Rana in place of Razzaq and Shoaib Malik. Both Malik and Razzaq are good enough ODI bowlers but at test level theyare not threatning. They take wickets in ODI's by stopping runs so batsman have to do something creative but in tests we need to go with regular strike bowlers who can take wickets with good balls and make batsman commit a blunder.

8

^Look whos back
This had nothing to do with individual brilliance. Our batting was pathethic. We scored less collectively in two innings then wen needed in the first one alone to win the match. If thats how we bat at home in a test, I don't want to imagine what will happen in OZ
The problem..... Same old story, no dicipline, no commitment, no dedication or courage. You look at a guy like Farhat, sure he scored 50 odd runs in the second innings, but he goes out there trying to hit every ball, hooking everything in site. This is a test match, you need to play a long innnings - our only chance at that stage was a draw, you don't try hitting the boundaries from the get go.
Anyways, what does it matter this one is done with. Till next time.

9

For a prescise and concise answer read Zero_one Bhais thread, No Determination.

He has eloquently covered all aspects.

10

imagine if we had afridi and younis (take moin out) in the team.

11

Here's my take :

Apart from Inzi & Youhana , nobody in the Pak team has the temperament to play very long innings (I am not talking scoring a quick 100 runs and considering the job done)..I am talking about batting all day and the next..if required. And even Inzi/Youhana failed in this test match.

Guys like Hameed/Farhat score some runs and get carried away. Malik, though appears to be a good prospect.

As for Jaisurya, had he been out cheaply, someone else could have made a decent score and given SL a respectable lead (not 400+, may be in the 300 range...enough to win). Like Samarweera did in the 1st innings. Dont assume that the scoring pattern of the batsmen who followed would have been the same, had Jaisurya been dismissed early.

Pak has a super One-day team but lacks level-headed batsmen for test matches. Inzi/Youhana are over the hill, so there is urgent need for youngsters like Kamal/Hameed to step up to the plate.

Abdul Razzaq is a one-day specialist. Not sure what he is doing in a test team. Also, Younis Khan may be a good bet for the next test match.

Unfortunately for Pak, Farhat scored a half-century thereby ensuring his place for the next 2 matches. Reminds me of Agarkar...everytime he is about to be shown the door...he comes up with a good performance.

12

Inzamam blames Pakistani batting](BBC SPORT | Cricket | Inzamam blames Pakistani batting)

Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq cited his team’s batting as the factor that led to a heavy loss to Sri Lanka in the first Test in Faisalabad.
“We should have taken a 200-run lead but our batsmen couldn’t grab the opportunity of playing long innings on a good batting wicket,” he said.

“Our batsmen have to give over 400 to our bowlers to give us a chance.”

After Sri Lanka fell for 243, Pakistan hit just 264 and were out of the game when Sri Lanka made a further 438.

Three Pakistani batsman reached 50, but the highest score was Shoaib Malik’s 59 in the second innings.

“None of the batsmen played like one should play in a Test match,” added an angry Inzamam.

“We all got out to irresponsible shots. We have very little time to shape up and take more responsibility in the second Test.”

Pakistan look likely to make changes for the final Test of the series, starting in Karachi on Thursday.

Mohammad Sami is almost certainly out injured and wicket-keeper Moin Khan faces the axe.

Inzamam made that much clear, when he said: “We gave [Moin] a chance in around 15 to 20 one-dayers and now after this Test I think it’s time we should try another 'keeper.”

Victorious Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu, dismissed twice without scoring, said the win was “fantastic.”

He added: "We fought back after our first innings collapse.

“Going by the statistics 280 was the average score at this ground and nobody has chased 250 in the fourth innings so we knew about it and we planned accordingly.”

13

Pakistan needs to play more test matches. Simple as that. Pakistan has played 4 test match so far in 2004.

Test Stats by year:
2002: Played 12, won 7, lost 5
2003: played 8, won 5, lost 1, draw 2
2004: played 4, won 1, lost 3

14

In my opinion, Pakistan had an outside chance when Sri Lankans were 314 ahead with 8 wickets down. But The 9th wicket stand in which Jayasuriya demolished the attack with inexplicably inept captaincy from Inzimam. If Pakistan were chasing around 330-340 they would have been a lot more positive and Lankans would be a lot more circumspect.