Our plan was that if we could reach 150 safely, we would promote Sarfraz : Misbah-ul-Haq Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq spoke to the press after the 2nd Test match ended in a draw We could have done much better in this game but I think we missed a few chances in the first innings which had a big impact on the whole game. When you play in Dubai, the first innings is really important for both teams and if you can take lead in it, you get a major advantage in the game. We let them score more than 400 runs in the first innings due to missed chances and fielding proved to be the major difference between the two teams. When we were chasing, three quick wickets fell and that really had an impact on our game plan. If we could reach 150 runs with six or seven wickets in hand we could have gone for it but I think those three wickets - mine, Shans and Azhars - really put us on the backfoot for a while. It was important for us to take up to 50 overs with as many wickets in hand as possible. Once you lose two or three quick wickets, its really difficult to survive. It was a day five pitch and the ball was turning which made things really difficult. Im pretty pleased with the performance of our bowling and batting units and despite batting in the second and fourth innings we played really well. The conditions were testing but still, even on the last day, the way all the batsman handled the turning ball was very heartening. We were just looking at the score and considered sending Sarfraz around the 40th to 45th overs if we were in a good position at the time. We could have promoted him if there were only 100 to 110 runs required and he could play his natural game since run rate wasnt an issue but once we lost three wickets, we couldnt risk it. The spinners had rough areas to exploit which was dangerous, especially for the left handers if they were playing the ball coming into them. There was a big rough and all the left handers were troubled. I think we need to improve a little bit on our fielding. Im pretty pleased with the bowling and batting effort where everyone delivered. Its all up to how he goes from now on. He needs to learn quickly which areas of his game he needs to improve. Coaches are working with him and he has really good temperament. The way he performed early in his career is wonderful. He is one of the leading openers for Pakistan. He played after a long time and its now up to him, how he handles it. He has got the potential Wicketkeeper is always the main man, especially in Test cricket. The standard of his performance with the bat at number seven could really lift the team and could play a major role in future victories for the team. He could be the main man for Pakistan in the future. We were quite positive with our approach, to get them all out quickly so that we could play as many overs as possible and chase a small target. If we could have gotten them out in the first hour for 200 or fewer runs, it would have been easy for us to chase. When chasing a target of 260 runs, our plan was to play normal cricket for 50 overs and have six to seven wickets in hand and then in the last 22 overs we could have tried to chase even 6 runs per over. Five wickets had fallen and we had our last batting pair playing so we decided against going for it. We had the idea in mind that the fielding team controls the conditions after 5 pm since its gets dark and fielding teams can let fast bowlers bowl to kill time so we had in mind that if we went for the chase we would have to play seven or eight overs less because of bad light. Keeping this in mind, we went to secure the match first Our plan was that if we could reach 150 safely, we would promote Sarfraz but three quick wickets fell and led to a change of plans.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 20:03:33 +0000
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