We wanted Afridi to do more, says Hafeez
Wisden India staff · Dec 28, 2012 ·
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Mohammad Hafeez felt results did not justify Shahid Afridi’s effort. © BCCI
When the Pakistan selectors announced the squads for the limited-overs series against India, the principal talking point was the omission of Shahid Afridi from the One-Day International squad.
Further grist to the mill was added when Afridi scored well in practice matches ahead of the tour and Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan ODI captain, said that if Afridi did well in the Twenty20 International series, he could be added to the ODI squad.
**What happened in the T20Is though must have been as much of a let-down for Afridi as it was for his teammates and fans. Afridi ended the series with 14 runs in two innings, and if the excuse can be made that he came in towards the end of the innings, he was the most expensive bowler for his team as well, going for 59 runs in six overs and picking up a solitary wicket.
**
Mohammad Hafeez couldn’t hide the disappointment Afridi’s performances had caused, admitting that he was expected to do “more”. “To be very honest, he’s not bowling well,” said Hafeez. “It’s the same with his batting. We really want him to do a little bit more. Unfortunately he’s not getting the best results, though he’s trying hard.”
Hafeez did add that the team “still believed” in Afridi and that he would emerge from his bad patch.
Afridi’s performance aside, Hafeez was happy with the team’s overall showing in the T20I series that ended with an 11-run loss for Pakistan at Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad on Friday (December 28), leaving the series tied 1-1.
“Credit to the team for the way they have performed in the series,” said Hafeez. “We have several positives, like Mohammad Irfan’s bowling and Shoaib Malik’s return to form.”
“We played good cricket overall, but in this match, we didn’t do well in the middle part,” pointed out Hafeez. “After ten overs we didn’t stick to the basics and leaked too many runs. Yuvi [Yuvraj Singh] was of course exceptional. His partnership with MS Dhoni was the turning point of the match, they took the total further than we expected.”
Hafeez was referring to the 97-run stand between Yuvraj and Dhoni that came off just 44 balls. He also said that Pakistan’s innings had faltered between the sixth and tenth overs. That was the time R Ashwin was introduced into the attack, and he bowled three overs for just 13 runs, pulling Pakistan’s run-rate back at a crucial time.
“I felt we got a good start, but we couldn’t score runs in that period even though we had wickets in hand,” said Hafeez.
Hafeez also praised Ashok Dinda’s bowling at the death, when Pakistan still had a chance, but lost a rush of wickets to eventually slump to defeat. “Dinda bowled really well at the death, where we had to go for it. He did the basics right and got his yorkers in place, bowling well under pressure,” said Hafeez.
Overall, there was enough to be happy about for Pakistan, according to Hafeez, who himself was given the Man of the Series award for his knocks of 61 in 44 balls and 55 in 26 balls in the two games.
“I always try to get something out of my nets session and I want to continue this form in the ODI series as well,” he said. “We’re very happy with our approach and the way we have finished the series.”
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