After drawing second test match of the series against New Zealand, Pakistan has won their first Test Cricket series after a gap of 11 Test Series spanned over a period of 4 years and 2 months. Bari der ki mehraan aate aate!
But I have a comment on today’s match. Can you imagine Pakistan going for a draw under Imran Khan from a position where 66 runs were needed off 11 overs (NZ actually end up bowling 14 overs) and 6 wickets were in hand.
Imran would have gone for a match result in such situations whereas Misbah chose the safe result of a draw today. Pakistan scored only 18 runs in the last 14 overs. It will definitely look good on Misbah’s resume’ and he may even get World Cup captaincy over from Shahid Afridi tomorrow.
Now I do want to give credit where its due. Misbah is still commendable to have scored 6 fifites in his last 6 innings (70*, 99, 62, 58*, 77 and 76*). Misbah and Younis Khan held the whole batting line together in this test match.
Pakistan’s last Test series win was against West Indies in December of 2006. Following is the summary of Test series results since Pakistan won it the last time.
(1) 2010-11 Pakistan v New Zealand in NZ (1-0) (Jan 19, 2011)
(2) 2010-11 Pakistan v South Africa in UAE (0-0)
(3) 2010 Pakistan v England in England (1-3)
(4) 2010 Pakistan v Australia in England (1-1)
(5) 2009-10 Pakistan v Australia in Australia (0-3)
(6) 2009-10 Pakistan v New Zealand in NZ (1-1)
(7) 2009 Pakistan v Sri Lanka in SL (0-2)
(8) 2008 Pakistan v Sri Lanka in Pakistan (0-0)
(9) 2007-08 Pakistan v India in India (0-1)
(10) 2007-08 Pakistan v South Africa in Pakistan (0-1)
(11) 2006-07 Pakistan v South Africa in South Africa (1-2)
(12) 2006-07 Pakistan v West Indies in Pakistan (2-0) (Dec 1, 2006)
an additional pressure on pakistan is now the danger of the “fixed” label. Taking risk is now out of question. Imagine misbah had gone for a win and we had lost this match, it wouldnt just have been a match lost – a guaranteed declaration of match fixing should have poured in from all over the place.
On the other hand in recent joke of match between australia and india no one has even suggested fixing…
Well, you have missed a test series:
Pakistan vs Australia in England 2010
:)
Well, I believe in current scenario, Misbah opted with correct option of playing safe. Even Imran Khan has played for safer options on many occassions. We all remember series in India in 1987 where first 4 tests were draw. Making 270+ on last day of test match is not easy option. We know that there were hardly batsmen after Misbah.
This is not how Pakistani’s play their cricket . It was quite painful to see Pakistan not going for victroy . I think Misbah today lost his chance of captaining the team for the World Cup. We want a gutsy captain not some one who will happily settle for the draw when victroy was so near.
Come on Misbah BE BRAVE, BE A PAKISTANI CRICKETER you can do it even though I have not gotten over your last over scoop in the first T 20 WC yet .
I think Misbah follows Safety First Rule.
Also Empire decisions against Pakistan in first innings change the match result.
Khalid