Pakistan missed the services of Fakhar Zaman at the start of their lofty pursuit because he had been off the field with an injury earlier
Danyal Rasool19-Feb-20252:31
Did Babar show enough intent?
Mitchell Santner gave the 140th ball of the Pakistan innings a little bit of extra air. He tends to do this more and more in ODI cricket, using the flight to make a batter think twice about sweeping him either side of the wicket. It tends to make the kind of spin the Karachi surface was offering more unpredictable, and when Salman Agha charged, and then checked himself, it struck him in the midriff. Dot ball. Non-event?Not quite. This was – just 23.2 overs in – the 100th dot ball Pakistan had played.Pakistan approached what would have needed to be their second-highest chase in ODI history with the insouciance an undergraduate reserves for a submission deadline, putting it off until it was no longer possible, and palming it off to someone else to pick up the slack. It wasn’t until the 198th ball of the New Zealand innings that Pakistan had been able to produce the 100th dot ball, and New Zealand didn’t know they would be chasing 321.”We need to rotate the strike better, because that builds an innings,” Salman admitted after the game. “We need consistency to be included among the best teams. We can’t play one good match and one bad match.Related
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“When you’re chasing 320, you need a big partnership at the start. But that never happened, and wickets continued to fall. We didn’t play a good powerplay. We had to produce momentum at some point, without which chasing this sort of score is very difficult.”A confluence of factors outside Pakistan’s control did come together to make things more complicated in that powerplay, which was a disaster of statistically historic proportions. They were set in motion when, off just the second ball of the game, Fakhar Zaman pulled up with a twinge chasing a Will Young drive to the boundary. Off the field for two hours, he was unable to come on to bat for Pakistan until the second wicket fell, which happened on exactly the 60th ball of the innings, meaning he wouldn’t face a single delivery while the fielding restrictions were in place.Even so, the approach Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan took to that first ten was more timid survival rather than the bravery a chase of this size against bowling of New Zealand’s quality required. Matt Henry and Will O’Rourke were near faultless and bowled right through, but never needed to vary their lengths or rethink their lines, allowed to plug away metronomically as Pakistan continued to cede ground. By the time the field spread out, they had scored 22; their lowest powerplay score in six years, and the lowest for any home team in ODI history.Salman Agha continued his good form•Associated Press”We were hampered by Fakhar’s absence at the start of the innings. In the last five or six years, no one utilises the powerplay better than him,” Salman said. “We didn’t even have 30 runs [they were 22 for 2] in the powerplay. We knew we’d have to attack from ball one and take risks. So I took those risks, but I still believe I should have taken the innings deeper.”It was night and day between this powerplay and that one [against South Africa in the triangular series]. We scored 91 in that powerplay. When you’re chasing 320, the powerplay is instrumental to it. But Fakhar Zaman, who uses that powerplay very well, couldn’t bat then because of his injury.”You could interpret that as a tribute to Fakhar, but equally as a damning indictment of the drop in quality in the event of his unavailability. Pakistan’s chances of gunning down a big total with their current line-up now appear to depend almost exclusively on a big or quick contribution, preferably both, from Fakhar. This was almost an experiment in demonstrating that, in a particular control group, when you remove Fakhar from those first ten overs, Pakistan are as helpless as lab mice deprived of sugary water.
“We need to convert 40s and 50s into bigger scores or we won’t be able to win matches”Salman Agha
“We didn’t bat or bowl well today; it was an off day for us. We didn’t perform the way we should have and of the level that is expected for us. But it’s a part of the game, we’ll try and forget it and move on to India. Every day is a new day, and we’ll try and execute better that day.”You know you’re in trouble when Salman is no longer in a talkative mood. One of Pakistan’s most charismatic players with an impish sense of humour, Salman never seems to run out of a droll comment, a playfully self-deprecating turn of phrase, or fresh insight to a topic that has otherwise run its course.But, in an agitated press conference, he fidgeted uncomfortably. He put his hands on his head a few times, rubbed his eye, ruffled his hair. He became the kind of cliché machine he is usually the antithesis of, repeating his desire to see consistency in the side, and how they would try and improve.0:47
Bond backs bowling captains after Santner’s show
Little of this is down to him. In fact, the first time Pakistan showed any kind of initiative arrived alongside Salman, who appeared to realise instantly that Pakistan were miles behind by that stage.Santner had been weaving his usual web around Pakistan, conceding ten in three before he was scythed away for a pair of boundaries. The following over, Salman helped himself to 15 off Glenn Phillips, whom Babar and the rest had allowed to operate with minimum interference for seven overs prior.But a high-risk profile against a high-quality attack can be used as a sharp injection of momentum, not the sustained rise Pakistan required. Salman would miscue one off Nathan Smith soon after, departing for 42 off 28, and then watching Pakistan’s meagre chances of an upset melt away.”We need to convert 40s and 50s into bigger scores or we won’t be able to win matches,” he said. “This was the sort of pitch you could chase 300 or so on if you start well. But we couldn’t start well or build momentum, and that’s why we never really got close to the final target.”
