PAK VS. AUS T20: WHAT WENT WRONG FOR PAKISTANI TEAM?
Pakistan and Australia played t20 match last night in Gaddafi stadium, Lahore. It was the last match of Australia’s tour to Pakistan, and Aussies wrap this tour with the win. There was only one t20 match in this series and before that they played 3 ODI matches and 3 test matches. Australia won the test series by securing a win in 3rd test and first 2 test matches were drawn. Pakistan won the ODI series of 3 matches by securing win in 2 ODIs. This was the historic series as Australia visit Pakistan after 24 long years, and this will definitely revitalize cricket coming back to Pakistan over the matter of time.
Match Summary:
Australia won the toss and elected to bowl first, Pakistani Opener Muhammad Rizwan and Babar Azam started the innings and went after Australian’s bowlers, and they scored 56 runs in the power play (first 6 overs). Green picked the wicket of Rizwan, and the very next bowl Fakhar Zaman got caught at mid-on and all went down the hill from there for Pakistan. Babar and Khushdil Shah tried to push the scores, but Babar got out for 66 runs while Khushdil loses his wicket for 24 runs. Usman Qadir put the valiant effort in the end; he scored 18 runs in just 6 balls and help Pakistan to reach the target of 163 runs on board. The Australian bowler Nathan Ellis got 4 wickets, while Cameron Green gets wickets in the innings.
Australian opener started the innings by smashing boundaries to bowlers, there were on a mission to chase the target as quickly as possible. Finch a Travis Head were cruising when Head lost his wicket, after that Finch build small partnerships with all the upcoming batsmen. Australia was losing wickets but their score was rising at a very high rate, Finch scored 55 runs and got out but he already did the damage at that point. After that Australia chased the target in the last over, despite the stout efforts of the Pakistani bowlers in the death overs. Pakistani Bowlers Shaheen Afridi, Usman Qadir and Muhammad Wasim Jr. got 2 wickets each.
Overview
Australia won this match with gritty effort, smart mid game strategy, and a good game plan, they restricted Pakistani batsmen to 162 runs only, despite the good start from Babar and Rizwan. Australian bowlers were consistently getting wickets in the middle and death overs that put a lot of pressure on the Pakistani Batting line up. Australian batting was also smart, they were scoring runs with the rapid pace despite losing wickets. Pakistani team made a lot of mistakes in batting and bowling as well, some of the mistakes are listed below:
Poor Team Selection:
The biggest mistake Pakistani skipper made is the selection of poor playing 11, Pakistan went with 5 specialist bowlers and 2 all-rounders which was not a good strategy at all. Even though if the skipper was worried that the pitch will help batsman, Shahnawaz Dhani could have been the better option that Hasan Ali who is not in form recently. Pakistan team should have picked Haider Ali or Muhammad Haris instead of Iftikhar Ahmed, who was playing as a batsman (he didn’t bowl at all) and doesn’t have the sound batting technique.
Middle Order Collapse:
Even though Pakistan had a great start in batting, but after the first wicket Pakistan Batting line up crippled once again and this raises a lot of questions regarding lack of specialist middle order batsmen in the team. Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah and Asif Ali all are a big hitter, but the Pakistani team can’t rely on that to adjust mid-game and hold the wicket and rotate the strike efficiently.
Average bowling at times:
Pakistani Bowlers were giving all their efforts last night despite defending the low target. Shaheen Afridi, Muhammad Wasim and Usman Qadir bowled brilliantly at times, but they were delivering bad balls repeatedly throughout the innings. Every Pakistani Bowler was missing their line and the ball was going to leg stump of batsman repetitively which were easy for the batsman to hit on the leg side and get boundaries: that might be because of dew falling on the ground which makes it difficult for the bowlers to grip the ball. Pakistani bowlers didn’t go for Yorker length as much as they could have which ultimately help Australian batsmen to score runs all over the ground. These were some of the issues that Pakistani bowlers need to address and fix.
