Monday, January 25, 2010

2nd match, Sydney and 127 all out!

Well it is at present needless to be said regarding the 140 run crushing defeat that Pakistan was handed in the second one dayer of the first phase of the Commonwealth bank series 2010 by Australia. However, one aspect to be noted from the match is that Pakistan was bundled out for 127, the total which a couple of weeks back was Australia's at the same venue in the first innings of the second test. However, unlike in the second test match, the winners were not the ones who were bundled out for 127. In the 2nd test, it was Australia who were first bundled out for 127 and finally went on to win the match by 36 runs.

But, this time in the second one day international, it was Pakistan who were bundled out for 127 but the only difference being that they had to end up on the losing side. Perhaps! There was no second innings like in a test match for the Pakistanis to make a comeback. However, one has to wonder as to what on earth made the Pakistani captain Mohammed Yousuf to opt to bowl on a surface that would deteriorate gradually as the match progressed? Another tragedy that was personally invited by Mohammed Yousuf was the timing when he declared the bowling powerplay.

Yousuf went in for the bowling power play as soon as the first powerplay, that is mandatory during the first 10 overs, when he introduced the bowling powerplay in the 11th over itself. That was the time when the Aussie openers were in full bloom without losing a single wicket. This was the favor that Mohammed Yousuf did to his opposition which paved the way for 100 run 1st wicket partnership. The partnership lasted for exactly 100 runs, after which Watson got out. From then onwards, batting was difficult indeed, which was evident from the way the rest of the Aussie batsmen played.

One point that Yousuf has found to have learnt from the first ODI is that, this time he made use of all the bowlers that were available to him. Meaning six bowlers were used, out of which Shoaib Malik (who had not bowled in the first ODI) was made to bowl 4 overs. Otherwise, the Pakistani approach was hardly any different from the first ODI. However, the pitch never seemed to trouble the batsmen in the initial stages of the Aussie innings, when there was a 100 run 1st wicket partnership as mentioned above. And even afterwards, there was Cameron White who scored yet another half century (55 from 58 balls).

Added to that was the superb catches taken by Ponting & White in the slips to get rid of Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik respectively. But, with just 3 out of the 11 Pakistani players scoring above 10, their defeat can be no exception. Rather than playing slowly and steadily, someone like Naved-Ul-Hasan going to smash every ball during his 22 ball 27 that included 2 sixes can never be justified whatsoever. When a defeat was already on the cards, a face saving innings from Naced would have helped matters.

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