Is Misbah a anti-Dhoni?

[skindia]

Dhoni believes in his running between the wickets...Misbah is poor in running.

[akshayxyz]

Another classic case of judging an individual based on team result. Going by recent evidences, even Dhoni is not very good in rotating strike. However, he does run hard, and many times converting 1s into 2s. And (going by results) he wont be half as good in finishing games, if not supported by likes of Raina, UV... and many times solid top order performances.

[ganeshran]

Don't remind me of that ame or even that tourney. We lost the game and tourney by batting Jaddu up the order. Jaddu couldn't hit anything off the square and the opponents were more than happy for Jaddu to stay at the wkt with guys like Yuvraj, Dhoni and Patha n in the dressing room :facepalm: That was more poor captaincy than poor finishing skills from Dhoni.

Exactly, this is what Misbah faces in the close games. when you dont have a proper foundation set, no batsmen no matter how good he plays cant finish the game for you. no reflection on his personal ability.

[Magneto]

Yes Misbah is. Dhoni got whitewashed by England but Misbah whitewashed England. He's clearly an anti-Dhoni. B->

[Old guy]

Not really. The two T20I matches where Misbah didnt get Pakistan over the line were very different from the matches that Dhoni finishes in the ODIs. They were late surges where people had written off Pakistan and Misbah was slogging at everything. When you play like that you are bound to get out sooner or later. IIRC Dhoni too lost in a T20 match against England by a small margin too where he wasnt able to finish it off. Regarding the ODIs, there is no contest and comparing finishers with Dhoni is setting the bar really high. But Misbah is a pretty decent player and doesnt crack/choke under pressure like is often made out to be. He has his limitations as a player though which are further accentuated by the brainlessness of the batsmen he has to bat with. The only two instances of Misbah unable to finish matches that I can recall are Mohali and today.

+1 u dont expect dhoni to finish without contributions by gambhir in last 2 matches he scored with strike rate over 80 and others chipped in too against australia raina played well for pakistan no one did these jobs all was left on misbah in this match in mohali i still dont know wht they were thinking.. i remeb 3-4 years ago pakistan used similar strategy wait for last 10 overs with 8 wicketsi n hand and then go all out on that day it just didn't work.

[Asim]

Misbah is bound to fail as long as he have company of brainless people at other end like:

[mishra]

Why blame Lala ?. I thought Lala is there as a bowler. At most bowling allrounder

[CSK Fan]

Why blame Lala ?. I thought Lala is there as a bowler. At most bowling allrounder

Dude if even Vinay Kumar or Ashwin had played that shot he would have most prbably been disciplined by the team. Lala has over 300 matches of experience

[Prakat]

Misbah is bound to fail as long as he have company of brainless people at other end like:

This is the Afridi equivalent of the Tendulkar on-drive. :hatsoff:

[mishra]

Dude if even Vinay Kumar or Ashwin had played that shot he would have most prbably been disciplined by the team. Lala has over 300 matches of experience

I thought you are forced to play that kind of shot when well set batsman ends up 47/59 while RR was 5+. All Paki batrmen score at SR of 60 Lala scored 18/18

[Ultimate_Game]

Exactly' date=' this is what Misbah faces in the close games. when you dont have a proper foundation set, no batsmen no matter how good he plays cant finish the game for you. no reflection on his personal ability.[/quote'] Nope, different scenarios. Dhoni was never in a position where he could win the game for his team. But the scenarios we are discusssing here are where Misbah's team was in an imminently winning position and Misbah imploded. E.g., in the two T20 examples, he had to score 1 off 2 balls, in the final he had to score 4 off 3 (or 6 off 4), and in yesterday's game Pak had to score 60 odd in 11 or 12 overs with 5-6 wkts in hand and Misbah failed in alll 3. In the WC semi-final Misbah's innings has to be one of the great mysteries where he simply kept on blocking till the match was beyond Pakis. In case Dhoni is slow off the blocks he knows when to step on the gas and how to finish off games. The example you cited regarding Dhoni was more bad captaincy in his bull-headedness in sending Jaddu in with the likes of Yuvi, Pathan and himself in the dressing room, which is not exactly bad finishing or choke from Dhoni but poor captaincy. The point I'm trying to make is that Misbah somehow always throws it away when his team is in a position to win and he somehow chokes or doesn't know what to do when his team are favorites. Dhoni, on the other hand hardly misses the chance if he gets into a winning position. In that respect Dhoni is opposite of Misbah and that was the main point of the OP.

[CSK Fan]

I thought you are forced to play that kind of shot when well set batsman ends up 47/59 while RR was 5+. All Paki batrmen score at SR of 60 Lala scored 18/18

Lol at 5+ run-rate. As usual Pakistan would have won if they have kept wickets in hand

[mahesh_g]

The only differene: Dhoni get better assistance from other end... Misbah have always to do it single handedly...

I cant agree more with you.

[Asim]

I thought you are forced to play that kind of shot when well set batsman ends up 47/59 while RR was 5+. All Paki batrmen score at SR of 60 Lala scored 18/18

Why blame Lala ?. I thought Lala is there as a bowler. At most bowling allrounder

For that shot, I wud blame even a debut no. 11, let alone a so-called all rounder with 325+ ODIs... That is acceptable when RR is 15+ but man you only need 7.33 there and you just hit a six and four... Had afridi not played such brainless shot, Misbah wudv done that with 1s and 2s only... Just 44 was req in 36 balls... When it comes to batting Afridi is worst cricketing brain I ever seen...

[Ultimate_Game]

For that shot, I wud blame even a debut no. 11, let alone a so-called all rounder with 325+ ODIs... That is acceptable when RR is 15+ but man you only need 7.33 there and you just hit a six and four... Had afridi not played such brainless shot, Misbah wudv done that with 1s and 2s only... Just 44 was req in 36 balls... When it comes to batting Afridi is worst cricketing brain I ever seen...

Maybe there was a trade-off between his brain and heart :winky:

[TalhaSyed]

Misbah has been a phnomenal captain and player but he still needs to improve. Sad part is im not sure how long he has left in the game even if he makes these improvements . First of all he needs to learn to finish the job as highlighted by the opening post (Mohali, T202 2007, Yesterday), secondly he needs t sort out some of hs selections. Having Malik & Farhat in the team just looks stupid! Now the sad part is Im not sure ho much influence he actually has when it comes to team selection.

[Swing_n_Speed]

Maybe there was a trade-off between his brain and heart :winky:

:hysterical::hysterical: if only, if only!!! :hysterical:

[mishra]

For that shot, I wud blame even a debut no. 11, let alone a so-called all rounder with 325+ ODIs... That is acceptable when RR is 15+ but man you only need 7.33 there and you just hit a six and four... Had afridi not played such brainless shot, Misbah wudv done that with 1s and 2s only... Just 44 was req in 36 balls... When it comes to batting Afridi is worst cricketing brain I ever seen...

Lol at 5+ run-rate. As usual Pakistan would have won if they have kept wickets in hand

MTC shouldnt Misbah and rest of batmen take responsibility of keeping wickets till end. I am using a example here. To me, Misbah is actually half of Trott. With Trott there are Cook Bopara Bell Patel Peterson. Yet England is unable to win the games whenever Trotts bats well. NMow think about 50% of Trott without (Cook,Bopara,Bell,Patel,Peterson) trying to win a odi. Blame purely lies with Paki Batsmen for not scoring runs at decent rate. Also, I am not sure at any stage any team in that particular game, any team scored over 7 runs for five consecutive overs. In odi and T20 it is Misbah and rest of Paki batsmen are :fail: and Blame lies in with them and not Lala. Finally, Its laughable to blame bowlers for failing a run chase.

[CSK Fan]

MTC shouldnt Misbah and rest of batmen take responsibility of keeping wickets till end. I am using a example here. To me, Misbah is actually half of Trott. With Trott there are Cook Bopara Bell Patel Peterson. Yet England is unable to win the games whenever Trotts bats well. NMow think about 50% of Trott without (Cook,Bopara,Bell,Patel,Peterson) trying to win a odi. Blame purely lies with Paki Batsmen for not scoring runs at decent rate. Also, I am not sure at any stage any team in that particular game, any team scored over 7 runs for five consecutive overs. In odi and T20 it is Misbah and rest of Paki batsmen are :fail: and Blame lies in with them and not Lala. Finally, Its laughable to blame bowlers for failing a run chase.

There are so many instances when India was top in chasing both in ODIs and in tests that some of the wins were because of the likes of Ishan Sharma and Zaheer keepign their cool. From Laxman's innings to Sachin's there were so many crucial partnership. If Pakistan had kept wickets in hands, they would have won easily in all of the matches you mentioned. and the senior most player Afridi percipitated the collapse most of the time

[Asim]

... ... In odi and T20 it is Misbah and rest of Paki batsmen are :fail: and Blame lies in with them and not Lala. Finally, Its laughable to blame bowlers for failing a run chase.

Yar Afridi is to be blamed heavily cz he never values his wicket FOR TEAM, never had any sense of responsibility, never regret mistakes he made and simply don't have any ability (or may be dont want) to modify his batting and adopt himself according to game situation, ab har time har situation maar dhaar ki thori na hoti hey. Just imagine if that day Afridi only had stayed at wicket and scored run a ball when 7.33 was ReqR, game was in our pocket but he just gifted his wicket+match to eng...Yeah we cant blame much to Rehman but who let him to come in? Afridi!... I agree you can loose ur wicket anytime getting a genuine wicket taking delivery, an unlucky run out or anything can happen but your attitude and the way you loose your wicket is very important and does matter a lot. In Afridi's case 90% of the times they don't Take his wicket, he just himself Gives it to opposition.