*Official* Pakistan in Sri Lanka

[Mahindinho]

Much rather Dilshan keeping and batting at six, then Mathews batting at six and bowling a large number of overs.

Of course, the best solution would be for the top order to actually do some batting and give Angelo a proper rest...

 

[Kensashi]

I agree with Chaminda, at the moment with the kind of form our batting seems to be in we're better off not sacrificing a batsmen for Prasanna.

I'd give Warnapura another chance but replace Thushara with Prasad.

 

[AaronK]

I personally think SL didn't deserve to win this one.. at any point in this match they weren't in control.. Pakistan was dominating the past 3 days of this match.. one bad session and a bad collapse.. changed the whole match..it has to be a heart breaking moment for Pakistani fans.. and my heart goes out to them..

well pakistan stil has to work on their opening department..Salman Butt is way to inconsistant to be batting there.. and Khuram manzoor not good enough..maybe giving Nasir jamshid a chance and probably bringing back Imran farhat..

as far as the match goes.. it is good to see a test match with a result..personally i am tired of seeing test matches dominated by batsmans.. this match had something for bowlers and that made it interesting for me..

 

[funnygirl]

I personally think SL didn't deserve to win this one.. at any point in this match they weren't in control.. Pakistan was dominating the past 3 days of this match.. one bad session and a bad collapse.. changed the whole match..it has to be a heart breaking moment for Pakistani fans.. and my heart goes out to them..

well pakistan stil has to work on their opening department..Salman Butt is way to inconsistant to be batting there.. and Khuram manzoor not good enough..maybe giving Nasir jamshid a chance and probably bringing back Imran farhat..

as far as the match goes.. it is good to see a test match with a result..personally i am tired of seeing test matches dominated by batsmans.. this match had something for bowlers and that made it interesting for me..

Thats the beauty of Test cricket,one session can change the whole match.Team which does well in crucial sessions will win.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Interesting question:

Pakistani fans, would you prefer to win this series, or have won the T20 World Cup.

Same with any Sri Lankan fans.

Not a Pakistani or SL fan obviously, but I'd take the T20 win. I know there's the general thumb of rule of Tests>anything that people tend to adhere to, but 20 years down the road, no one's going to wonder if Pakistan won this particular series in SL or not. A WC win on the other hand will certainly be remembered, unless the ICC dilute the significance by holding it annually like they seem to be.

Anyway, same boat as Uppercut, didn't even bother to check the scores on this one since I figured Pakistan had it all wrapped up. Turn-around result of the year AFAIAC.

 

[Xuhaib]

I personally think SL didn't deserve to win this one.. at any point in this match they weren't in control.. Pakistan was dominating the past 3 days of this match.. one bad session and a bad collapse.. changed the whole match..it has to be a heart breaking moment for Pakistani fans.. and my heart goes out to them..

well pakistan stil has to work on their opening department..Salman Butt is way to inconsistant to be batting there.. and Khuram manzoor not good enough..maybe giving Nasir jamshid a chance and probably bringing back Imran farhat..

as far as the match goes.. it is good to see a test match with a result..personally i am tired of seeing test matches dominated by batsmans.. this match had something for bowlers and that made it interesting for me..

DAWTA.

Througout they were chasing the game but kept on hanging somehow through good feilding or irritationg partnerships from the lower order and the moment they went infront they kept their feet on the accelarator and reached the finish line comfortably.The brain fart from Pakistan was partly induced through pressure cricket from Lanks, will not be surprised to see a 3-0 from here on.

 

[Reegan]

Congratz

All credit goes to the Lankan cricketers, because they have been the heroes on the 4th day of the match. At the same time Pakistan players were also confident of winning but, some thing went wrong for them, a bit of a shocker...

 

[chaminda_00]

I'd give Warnapura another chance but replace Thushara with Prasad.

Thushara bowled a brillant spell at the other end for Herath that won us the match. Probably the best spell of seam bowling we have had since Dilhara took a 4/5 fer against England, back in 2007. And you want to drop him? I know Prasad got that bit of extra pace our attack needs until Malinga is fit to play five day matches or wants to play Tests. But reckon we should be looking at Thushara opening partner, if someone is going to go out.

 

[nightprowler10]

Interesting question:

Pakistani fans, would you prefer to win this series, or have won the T20 World Cup.

Same with any Sri Lankan fans.

Personally, I could have cared less if we didn't win the T20 WC, but this makes me want to give up on cricket.

 

[AaronK]

i was reading this on Pakistani openers..

Pakistan's trouble at the top | Cricket Features | Sri Lanka v Pakistan 2009 | Cricinfo.com

brought back alot of memories of anwar and sohail..

Really surprised taufeeq omar and imran farhat's partnership.. averages 50..in 15 innings.. one of the highest of them all.. and against decent teams as well

http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine...7;template=results;type=batting;view=fow_list

maybe it is time to give them a chance..

 

[aussie]

Pakistan lack of test cricket and over focus on odi's have meant Malik has been able to slip through in to the test team based on his ODI record. Whenever he has scored runs in tests it has been on flat patta tracks it was only a matter of time before he got exposed. I am sure Younis is a smart enough captaim who will realise this and push him on his bike.

Malik is a decent honest player but after 20 games one thing we have to realise he will never average 40+. In today's cricket if a batsman cannot average 40+ he should not be persisted with. So its high time we replace him with other youngsters, there is a cap on everyone's ability and this is his maximum ability which is just not good enough for test cricket.

All true. But based on what i've seen of him in tests i think he is capable of being a decent number 6. Obviously their was a period in 2005/06 when Woolmer tested him out as an opener which didn't help.

But i dont think PAK have anything better than him ATM,who can bat behind Younis/MoYo/Misbah. Unless their is someone in the A-Team you think should get a go.

 

[nightprowler10]

Would've mentioned Asim Kamal a few years ago, but he's another wasted talent as things stand.

 

[TT Boy]

All true. But based on what i've seen of him in tests i think he is capable of being a decent number 6. Obviously their was a period in 2005/06 when Woolmer tested him out as an opener which didn't help.

But i dont think PAK have anything better than him ATM,who can bat behind Younis/MoYo/Misbah. Unless their is someone in the A-Team you think should get a go.

The thing with Malik is that unlike Alam, Akmal's younger brother et cetera, he doesn't have a record domestically of any note. Which is of no surprise as he is an offie who learnt to bat, gave up bowling because he chucked and somehow, somewhere, someone had a thought he good cut it as an international batsman. Woolmer only got him to open because no one else could and he wanted his bowling.

 

[Xuhaib]

All true. But based on what i've seen of him in tests i think he is capable of being a decent number 6. Obviously their was a period in 2005/06 when Woolmer tested him out as an opener which didn't help.

But i dont think PAK have anything better than him ATM,who can bat behind Younis/MoYo/Misbah. Unless their is someone in the A-Team you think should get a go.

There are 4-5 guys who have better FC records and technique then Malik but keep getting ignored for Malik. Umer Akmal has now smashed hindreds in 5 games against Aus A in Australia then there are other guys like Alam, Sheryar Ghani, Umer Amin , Saeed bin Nasir who all are better batsman then Malik.

 

[nightprowler10]

There are 4-5 guys who have better FC records and technique then Malik but keep getting ignored for Malik. Umer Akmal has now smashed hindreds in 5 games against Aus A in Australia then there are other guys like Alam, Sheryar Ghani, Umer Amin , Saeed bin Nasir who all are better batsman then Malik.

.....sounds less like a batsman and more like a remnant of Muhammad bin Qasim's army.

 

[Xuhaib]

Umer Akmal isa strange case when I first saw him i went 'WOW" for a 17 yo he had all the strokes in the world in fact he smashed 100o+ in his first season at an average and SR of 90+ then came U-19 WC and he looked horribly out of depth this was followed by a pretty mediocre 2nd season when he averaged 30ish now he has followed up with this. Not sure what to make out of him yet.

 

[SJS]

i was reading this on Pakistani openers..

Pakistan's trouble at the top | Cricket Features | Sri Lanka v Pakistan 2009 | Cricinfo.com
.

There is nothing new about the problem Pakistani (and even Indian) batsmen have with short pitched bowling is well known, One has talked about it often on CC and I remember writing this piece almost three years ago.

Short Pitched Bowling

Except for some of our super super stars (read Sachin, Dravid and Laxman from India and players like Inzi from Pakistan) our young 'heroes' are absolute cyphers in the face of fast short stuff on even slightly helpful conditions.

No one seems to notice since they get enough games on dead tracks against modest bowling to hide their warts from the short sighted selectors and the game goes on . . .

 

[Bouncer]

^^ their in ability ( at least with pakistanis) is NOT, not being able to attempt pull/hook, but is the fact that they over do it and can not let go a shot pitched ball...(eventually it leads to their down fall)........which comes from fact that pakistani since early 90's have been playing far more ODIs than test matches and batsman have forgotten to let the shot pitched balls go.

That lack of test matches in 90's was due to in ability of several PCB officals who were not able to sell Pakistani teams the way they should have in 90's to get more test matches and post 9/11, reluctance of team touring pak.

 

[Migara]

I thought Pakistani players were good hookers and pullers in the past. These are the guys who did not lose a series to mighty West Indies. Few of them in that team should have been tremendous players of short bowling to succed against such a team. Pakistani batsman have lot of practice in hitting fast short stuff as they are served with bowlers who are lot quicker than Indian or Lankan ones. The current problems may be due to lack of a genuinely fast bowler. in current squad it is Aamer, who rarely goes beyond 90+ mph. Shoaib bowling to them short would be a good exercise.

The same happened for SL as well. The quickest SL had in 80s and 90s were Rumesh Ratnayake and Ravindra Pushpakumara respectively. they were more slingers than classical bowlers. Barring Aravinda de Silva and Romesh Kaluwitharana there were no Sri Lankan who could in still fear in a fast bowler to drop it short (de Silva WAS intimidating every fast bowler in his generation not to bowl short at him, and few daring ones like Huges tried it and disappeared to all parts of Brisbane). Then came Fernado, Nissanka, Malinga, Amerasinghe, Prasad and Thushara who generally kept it 140+ kmph. Amerasinghe, Malinga, Prasad and Ferando in their pomp were nearing 150k or going over (cf Malinga). As a result of that, now the SL palyers are good at handling shorter stuff, may it be in attacking nature (Mahela Jayawardane, Sangakkara, Mathews, Vandort, Dilshan, Vaas) or in defensive manner (Samarweera, Paranavithana). Hooking and pulling depennds on whom you are practicing against. If they tend to be quick, there will be more shorter stuff, more you'll be a good hooker / puller

 

[Fusion]

Interesting that neither Malik or Akmal was called upon to open the batting. Instead Alam gets the call. I can only hope that in my lifetime Pakistan would hit upon a good opening combo.