- Advertisement -
By Muhammad Naeem Khan Niazi
LAHORE, Oct 14 (APP):Pakistan Head Coach Azhar Mahmood has been critical of Pakistan batters for playing unnecessarily aggressively and losing wickets when they needed to stay longer at the wicket and build partnerships for a bigger total during the second innings of the first test match at Gaddafi stadium.
Speaking during post-match press conference at the close of 3rd day’s play in the first test at Gaddafi stadium, he said Pakistan batters lost six wickets for 18 runs when Saud Shakeel got out at 150, adding that the batters went on to play the role Shaheen Shah Afridi was supposed to play.
“It would have given us 30 more runs in the innings and higher chances of winning the test matches. Looking at the condition of the pitch, we will still go out tomorrow morning and win the match”, he said, adding that the track was not difficult, it was slow in nature and application gave the batters big innings.
He further said Pakistani batters converted 30s into fifties in the first innings but did not convert fifties into hundreds. He said the batters who applied themselves were successful in scoring big runs but Pakistani batters did not do this during the second innings.
on playing two fast bowlers on a slow-turner wicket instead of adding extra batter, he said all fast bowlers bowled miserly in the match due to nature of the slow-turner pitch and since the spinners were getting wickets the team did not feel the need of long spells from fast bowlers, adding that Kagiso Rabada had to bowl longer spells and he got wickets.
He criticized Abdullah Shafique and Babar Azam for not converting 40s into fifties and losing the wicket. But Azhar Mahmood did not mention that Babar got a ball that nipped back from Rabada and umpire’s decision to give out although he mentioned that the Proteas fast bowler did get help from the surface. (Had the umpire given not out, South Africa would have lost the appeal on umpire’s call. Babar found himself on the wrong side.)
On the ongoing partnership between Tony de Zorzi and Ryan Rickelton and South Africa’s chances of winning the match, he said a team must check the flow of runs if a partnership is built, adding, “Checking run-flow will give you a wicket and this happened throughout the match.”
On losing cluster of wickets and advice to the batters, Azhar Mahmood said Pakistan batters did not lose wickets due to the pitch but poor selection as losing five wickets for 17 was unjustifiable, adding that the batters are told to build small partnership instead of playing unwanted big shots.