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Following the first Test against Australia, Pakistani
coach and team director Mohammad Hafeez was in a critical mood during the news
conference. It was probably for the best that his team was still recovering
from a 360-run loss that was sealed with a 30-over batting performance that saw
them dismissed for 89 with two days remaining. There were many reasons to be
dissatisfied.
The batting strategy of Pakistan, especially in the
opening innings, was the target of his most pointed criticism, which was that
the players did not practice hard enough or adhere to their pre-game plans.
“Well, we couldn’t execute our skills well,”
Hafeez said. “We made plans for the team, but unfortunately we couldn’t
execute them well. That’s not an excuse. The guys wanted to, but they never
applied themselves, to be very honest. As a team there were a couple of
tactical errors we made during this Test match. There were certain situations
where we could have dominated, and as a team, the plans were there and we
prepared ourselves for that. But the execution wasn’t great.”
The ground that Pakistan faced in Canberra for their
first-class match against the Prime Minister’s XI was described by Hafeez as
the “slowest pitch a visiting team could have faced in Australia”
during last week’s WACA training sessions. Additionally, he pledged to play
cricket in a way that would allow Pakistan to attack Australia, especially
Nathan Lyon. Ultimately, though, no bowler from Australia claimed more wickets
than Lyon, who claimed five in 32 overs at an economy rate of 2.50%.
It seems to be a consensus among Pakistan’s leadership
group. At the post-match news conference, captain Shan Masood also referred to
the team’s slow scoring rate, pointing out that they had batted almost twice as
many overs in the first innings (101.5 versus 113.2) as Australia.
Although Pakistan’s scoring rate isn’t especially
noteworthy in and of itself—no team will ever find it simple to defeat
Australia on their home soil—the difference between what Pakistan had promised
prior to the game and what they actually produced significant. Despite Hafeez
and Masood’s commitment to playing an exciting brand of cricket, Pakistan was
unable to maintain momentum early on, hardly scoring more than two runs per
over during their opening partnership.
t is time Pakistan may not have, at least not in this
series. In a little over a week’s time, Pakistan play a Boxing Day Test at the
MCG, their losing streak in Australia now stretching to 15 Tests. It will
require little short of a miracle or a freak weather event not to see that
stretch to 17 in about three weeks’ time.