Malik, Akhtar, Tanvir criticise Afridi's captaincy

Omar · May 17, 2010

This appeared in Nation today:

Afridi criticised for poor captaincy

LAHORE – Shahid Afridi’s captaincy came in for criticism from current and former players after Pakistan squandered a chance to enter their third successive Twenty20 World Cup final by losing a last-over thriller to Australia.

After millions of fans were left disappointed and stunned at their team’s defeat, former Test players felt poor tactics on the field in the final few overs cost Pakistan the match on Friday.
Australia scored an incredible 34 runs in the last two overs to stun Pakistan who seemed to be cruising to victory after setting a target of 191 for Michael Clarke’s men.

Left-arm pacer Muhammad Aamir went for 16 in the penultimate over while off-spinner Saeed Ajmal was hit for three sixes and a four in the final over by Michael Hussey.

“I have played a lot with Saeed and he is a sort of bowler who struggles against the left handers and in pressure situations, it was not a good idea to give him the final over when they were two left-handers at the crease,” all-rounder Sohail Tanvir said.

Tanvir and Saeed both play for KRL and Rawalpindi in domestic cricket and Tanvir, who was ruled out of the World Cup due to a knee operation, said Pakistan paid the price for relaxing a bit in the final few overs.

“I wouldn’t say they were overconfident but they should have remained alert throughout the Australian innings and I would have preferred giving the final over to someone else to make Hussey think his strategy,” Tanvir said.

Former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik said he would have definitely given the final over to Abdul Razzaq as Saeed was not a confident bowler against left-handers.

“Yes, Saeed does struggle against left-handers and I would have tried the experienced Razzaq in such a tight situation. But it would be unfair to blame anyone for the defeat because all credit to the Australians for proving why they are a champion team once again,” he said.

Malik showered praise on Hussey and said his innings of 60 from 24 balls was perhaps the greatest limited overs innings he had seen in his career.
“It was a brilliant innings and he took the match away and we also made tactical mistakes in the final overs,” Malik said.

Fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar also felt that something was lacking in the team in the final few overs.

“I thought maybe the captain should have got the players together in a huddle or at least consulted with his senior players after the penultimate over when Aamir went for runs on who should bowl the final over or when first ball in the final over, Hussey hit Saeed for a six,” Shoaib said.
“In such situations it is always good for the captain to talk to his players and take decisions. In hindsight, I would have looked at other options to bowl the final over,” he added.

But he said that the Pakistan team deserved credit for putting up a great performance in the semi-final which many people expected to be a cakewalk win for Australia.

“We lost the match but we fought well and there is no shame in losing such a close match,” he said.

Former captain Moin Khan said Pakistan dominated the entire match except the final three overs and it cost them dearly.

“Cameron White and Hussey were outstanding under pressure while our bowlers were cracked. That was the difference between the two sides in the final overs,” Moin said.

Former captain Rashid Latif said it was sheer bad luck that Pakistan lost as Hussey played like a champion batsman. “I thought Kamran and Umar Akmal were brilliant,” he said.

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Omar · May 17, 2010

Everyone seems to start lashing out once something like this happens!

BALOCH_786 · May 17, 2010

Omar said: ↑

Everyone seems to start lashing out once something like this happens!

Everyone has a valid point I agree. But Afridi needs more time being captain, he needs to have few series under his belt and then assess from thereone forward from his mistakes and successes. It takes experience. I remember in the 90's Wasim Akram was made captain of Pak team and a horrible time first. Then he moved out of captaincy and after couple years became more mature and turned out to be a REALLY GOOD CAPTAIN.

So we have to be fair to Afridi. Team performed EXCELLENT in semi-final against aussies.

Good job Afridi! Keep it up.

Also afridi needs to do few tours before captaining at major tournament like the t2o world cup. so unfortunately he didnt have opportunity.

But future is bright. This is only the rise of Paki cricket!

HuskerFan · May 18, 2010

Malik criticizing Afridi's captaincy when he HIMSELF lost a final on T20 WC in the last over. If Afridi is to blame for Ajmal's bowling then Malik should be blamed for Misbah's stupid shot in 2007 T20 WC final!

Feather · May 18, 2010

Good logic Huskerfan!

0)(0 · May 18, 2010

There is absolutely no doubt, that the last over should have been bowled by none other than Saeed Ajmal … easily the best and the most consistent bowler in limited over cricket for the last two years … he actually bowled a very good last over against S. Africa in a crunch situation when Morkal (another lefty) was on strike … he bowled a gem of a delivery to Mitcheal Johnson as well, but lost his length after being belted for a huge six on the very next delivery … a couple of bad balls after that and it was all over …

It’s so cheap to downgrade a bowler who is probably the most consistent player in the playing eleven right now. Why do they even take Malik on air as an expert? The guy is banned from all formats of cricket by PCB and hasn’t been cleared as yet … he is himself, easily the most overrated, second class cricketer I have seen.

Rizzy · May 18, 2010

The only thing I would criticise about Afridi's captaincy for now is that he allowed Aussies to take too many singles during the match and allowed the aussies to rotate strike freely. The Aussies got singles even when they hit the ball towards the fielders that were meant to stop singles. But this has been a problem for a long time so i wouldnt really blame him for it.

Just give the guy a chance. Pakistani cricket is never gonna move forward if we change the captain every other day. If the players know they have one dedicated captain for a fixed period they wont cause infighting to overthrow the captain.

We have tried Younis, Malik, Yousuf and due to the captaincy being up for grabs after every match we have now lost these 3 players. The same thing has happened with Wasim, Waqar and others.

Pakistan have probably had more captaincy and management changes in the last decade than Australia have probably had since they started playing cricket. the most consistent teams have been those with a dedicated and strong captain.

Rizzy · May 18, 2010

If you look at it this way Afridi was given a team without being allowed to pick players. Yet he still took us to the semis which we lost by the last over. The PCB also decided to ban some key players. Latif and Hafeez wouldnt have made it if Malik and Rana were available and other players would have also been picked ahead of some of the passengers in the team.

Saeed Ajmal has been our most consistent player in the 3 T20 world cups. He has single handedly won us many matches and helped us win the title last year. He was bound to have a bad day even players like Wasim did, he bowled brilliantly through the whole match apart from his last over and had Hussey not been playing the innings of his life I dont think Ajmal would have been hit for so many.

shahrukh619 · May 18, 2010

man this shoaib akhtar . he always say teh rite thing if he can play for the whole england series witha good record i hope h becomes the captain because he knows all teh stuf ataht a captain should do.

Gulli-boy · May 18, 2010

Fair points only from Akthar and Latif, don't know what Tanvir is chatting about, our two best bowlers leaked alot of runs from the last two overs, Hussey just played an excellent innings, Ajmal was bowling brilliantly before to cameron white in his previous overs. Afridi just had limited resources at his disposal so it had to be either Ajmal or Aamer.

Rizzy · May 19, 2010

Ajmal's economy rate for the 1st 3 overs he bowled was just over 5, brilliant considering the asking rate was 10. He was the best bowler and was rightly given the last over, like Ajmal said he attempted 6 yorkers in the last over but due to wind he ended up bowling short. Its the only time ive seen him get hit for alot of runs, give the guy a break, without him we wouldnt have had much chance of even reaching the semis or winning last year