Future jobs for Pakistani cricketers...

Not sure who to give credit to for these images. Geo TV I guess? I got this forward from my dad this morning...

Postmortem: Pakistan vs West Indies - Blame the batting, not Rana

Depressing game for Pakistani fans but an exciting victory for the West Indians. Again, I wouldn't be so ticked off if Pakistan had played better. A good game means both sides go back feeling pleased at the performance. But we had the game, and threw it away. The glaring holes in our squad are really beginning to come through. I knew the warm up games over Canada and South Africa didn't mean much and seems like we changed our strategy once again. We are missing Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar like no other.

It's easy for everyone to blame Rana Naveed for the loss. But he was just a part of it, and several players were to blame. So lets not Rana bash excessively and exclusively. Lets also put our bowling aside for a moment, and talk about the selection for the moment.

Though selecting Kaneria might have seemed like a stroke of genius to some, I am not convinced that he should even be part of the squad. I made my reservations to his inclusion quite clear in the past, but have since, been resigned to the fact, that what is done, is done. He is in the squad, will probably play till Afridi is back, and that's the world cup for him. A useless selection.

Kamran Abassi touched upon the second point with regards to this squad. If any of the batsmen gets injured, who the hell will take their place? Yasir Arafat? So weak...

Now Pakistan tried something new today and they must be given credit for it. They chose 4 specialist bowlers, including a spinner, and put faith in their batsmen. It is a good strategy and a sound one. Agreed, 2 of the bowlers were pretty crappy today, but the fact of the matter is, 240 was not unreachable. The batsmen are the ones who should be the ones scoring the bloody runs. Regardless of the bowling, the pitch was still good enough for 240 and they screwed it up.

We ALREADY know our bowling is weak. Which is why we bowl first. Our batting is SUPPOSED to be our strong point. Who was truly shocked that Rana and Kaneria got whipped? Not me. However, I was surprised that the meager pressure of a mere 240 runs completely fingered Nazir, Hafeez and Younis. I can understand a good delivery bamboozling them, and some tight bowling frustrating them. But I have no sympathy for retarded shots. Which brings us to...

Batting

Imran Nazir's time is up. I have joked about the rotation policy in the past, but this dude is a fucking idiot. He is far worse than Imran Farhat, and that is pretty insulting. Someone needs to bumjack him in the dressing room, so he can get injured, so that we can complain and whine to the ICC and send for Salman Butt. We could even help him fake an injury. It's been done before and I am sure there is an SOP lying there somewhere with the manager.

I can't complain about Hafeez. He did as well as he could, but the bugger needs to calm down and take it easy. He needs to stay for 10 overs at least, get his usual 49 runs and then bloody get out. What is the point of having openers who don't even get a bit of the shine off the new ball? What is wrong with the openers? Are they all on crack? Can they only slash and swing?

Our great one-down batsmen, Younis Khan, gets the most blame. Even more than Rana actually. What in the world was he doing? Did you see that shot? What the fuck? Ahh! I was okay with him being in the squad for a while, but dude, after this world cup is over, omarlovescricket is continuing its campaign to get rid of YK from the ODI team.

Yousuf got out to a frigging good delivery. What can one do? Inzi was unlucky with the decision. I think it was going over the wicket. Fuck what Hawkeye says!

Akmal is a choot. I hope Billu.net writes something up about this. I was about to throw my coffee into the aquarium when I saw him get out first ball.

Bowling

Rana is just about as good (or bad) as anyone else who can replace him. My argument is as follows. Can Sami, or Arafat, or even Azhar do a better job than Rana? I think the only advantage is that Arafat and Azhar can bat. Replacing Rana is not going to do the trick. Rana is out of form, but his potential as a bowler is far greater than the rest of them. I think Sami is decent, but even he is very expensive. Apart from Umar Gul, our bowling is bloody toothless in this World Cup, and we must remain resigned to the fact that Rana may just be as good as any other clown on the squad. We have no other choice people!

One could pad up the batting by selecting Arafat or Azhar, but that doesn't improve the bowling at all. Plus it releases the pressure on the batting. The top 6 batsman need to know that one of them HAS to score a bloody 70 or higher. They need to know that after Akmal (arguably before), there is no one else who can bat. Having a batting lineup stretching up till Mars is not the way we will win our games. We have to develop our bowling, give our specialist bowlers a chance to get into their rhythm, and lay the responsibility of scoring runs on the top order.

This squad is pretty weak and the gaps in our strategy are becoming a lot more apparent. Don't be too surprised if we're upset in the next couple of games.

Can Rana Naveed save what he fucked up?

Can Rana Naveed stick around and partner Shoaib Malik for another 15 overs?

All he needs to do is rotate the strike for umm, 80 runs or so...

Will he be able to atone for his bullshit bowling earlier in the day?

Yeah, I doubt it myself...

Pakistan is 129/6 needing 113 off 77 balls at 8.8 rpo. Game over!

UPDATE 1

They don't show the score comparisons anymore. Remember the time when, every 5 or 10 overs, they would print out what the opposing team's score was, at that point in their innings...

Oh, I shouldn't blog. Every time I write something, somebody gets out and it makes me unhappy. Well. Rana is gone. Bowled Bravo.

On the brighter side, at least my update to this entry now has something to do with the title. In case, you don't follow. The answer is no. Rana did not save what he fucked up.

UPDATE 2

Pakistan is fighting till the last wicket. Shoaib Malik just made his 50. That's pretty respectable no matter how you look at it. Some key questions arise.

Why does Iftikhar Anjum look more comfortable on the crease than Younis Khan?
Does Kamran Akmal not look at the field placings before he plays his shots?
Does anyone else get immensely ticked off at Inzamam getting LBW so often? Can't he get bowled a few more times?

170/7 after 44 overs.

UPDATE 3

Now we need about 58 runs of 24 balls. 'Impossible isn't it' you ask? Well, we're reaching that gray area of uncertainty. I've accomplished this score many a time in Stick Cricket, and once or twice at ICC Cricket Captain 2005. But never at Brian Lara Cricket 2005.

What's my point?

It's simple. Video games suck because they present a skewed view of reality.

Ah - the curse of the blogger. Bravo gets another one. Anjum is out. Caught by Lara. I promise I won't blog again till the end of the this match! The hopes of Pakistan rest on my typing fingers.