Pakistan has won the 3rd test match of current cricket series versus England by 4 wickets at the Oval, London.
When Pakistan seems to be surrounded in a recent spate of bad news like Sialkot lynchings, historic floods, a plane crash and rioting cities, today’s cricket victory comes as the much needed respite for a nation looking for any good news.
I also want to make a statement here- and I will take opposing views from our readers on it – the bowlers seem to be winning the matches for Pakistan while batsmen are doing their worst. The last test match that Pakistan won against Australia, Pakistan lost 7 wickets in reaching the target of 180 and today they lost 6 wickets in reaching 148. This has brought lots of nervous moments and high blood pressure to the team’s fans.
Today’s victory brings Salman Butt‘s win percentage as a captain to 50%. Pakistan has now won 2 tests and lost two in 4 matches played under his captaincy. Salman’s batting however, has clearly suffered under the burden of captaincy. As a captain he has managed to score only 134 runs in the last 8 innings (Ave 16.75) while his overall average is 30.62. Today’s 48 runs innings is his highest score as a captain so far. But I’ll also say this. If Salman can keep the team united then he may have done his job right. It probably takes lots of leadership qualities to keep Yousuf, Shoaib (who didn’t play this match) and Akmals in the same team and make them play as a united front. Clearly the previous three captains failed here while Salman has produced 50% win result.
Another good point from the current test match was Wahab Riaz‘s bowling performance (63/5 and 40/1). It now gives Pakistan a depth of choosing from 4 medium pacers in near future: Aamir, Asif, Wahab and Gul (currently injured). Saeed Ajmal‘s bowling performance (32/1 and 71/4) has been consistent to very good. He may now have replaced Danish Kaneria for good.
Azhar Ali‘s 92 not out in the first innings deserves special praise too. My personal view is that new comers in the team seem to play with more ‘jazba’ as compared to seniors – who become relaxed due to their seniority or because of guaranteed place in the team. Zulqarnain Haider‘s performance as a fighting wicket keeper batsman in the 2nd test match (88 runs on debut) is also a point I want to make in support of my statement.
And Now Some Statistics:
The over-all test match record between Pakistan and England now stands as such. Total test matches played between the countries is 70. Pakistan has now won 13 (18.6%) matches and England has won 21 (30%) matches. In the latest ICC test rankings, Pakistan still lingers at a distant number 6 slot, which by the way is one below England.
Overall this was Pakistan’s 106th test match victory in 351 matches which gives an overall win percentage of 30.2%. Pakistas has lost 98 matches and drew 147.
Full score card of the match can be viewed here.
This victory may be small on statistics but lingers large on national psychology and pride. All in all a welcome win from Pakistan’s point of view.
A win is a WIN…
but loosing 6 wickets under 148 is a not very satisfying in anyway. Pak Team must and should address this betting problem quickly because betting is undoing the EXCELLENT work of bowlers in a blink of eye.
In last three test matches,Pak team has given a clear message that we are still a very strong team,as we used to be , our bowling as lethal as it used to be when Greats like Fazal Mahmood ,Imran Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz,Wasim Akram,Waqar Younus were spearheaded our bowling attack and Abdul Qadir was mesmerizing opponents with his googlees.
Credit for this must go to bowling coach,Great Waqar Younus-the Toe Breaker of his hey days, but batting woes are still the same,we just manged a victory after routine batting collapse which we see in each innings.
We urgently need a batting coach of high caliber like Miandad.
Would Ijaz Butt,a dud himself , care for this chronic problem , he must now stop picking players on Sifarish and personal likings
Owais:
An excellent and succinct analysis.
You are correct in drawing the distinction between the performance of the Bowlers compared to the Batsmen.
There is also another feature influencing this outcome That is the showing of a number of new youthful names in the team and their performances with Bat and Ball.
In Cricket (and other sports) there is no such thing as Seniority which is Yesterday! It is Performance which is Today!
Thrilling match–almost needlessly so :-).
However, I was disappointed that Salman Butt and the team did not use the podium to bring additional attention to the victims of the flood. The cricketers have a lot of influence among expats, especially when they pull of big wins, and they should utilize it to help the flood-affected people.
Finally some good news. The nation needed this.