S.Africa vs Pak 4th odi

[Ram]

I agree to an extent. He has really fallen off lately. But he has shown that he has the ability to come through' date=' therefore I'm not that worried (compared to say...the openers)[/quote'] Some rare quick-fire 20's and 30's dont count.You need Akmal to win matches for you, which is something he did before. And its a bit surprising Pakistan hasnt replaced him at all , considering he had a horrendous patch with the gloves in the middle. Arent there no alternatives at all ? Surely you cant hope forever for Akmal to rediscover his form.

.Over reliance on Gul is probably a good point, but the bowling attack will look so much different than what it is now that I don't think it's something to worry about. As long as things don't get out of hand in the opening overs, we have bowlers who can bowl the middle overs effectively and tip the scales i our favour.

I am with you on that. An attack consisting of Gul, Asif , Afridi , maybe Shoaib , with Rao Ifthikar and Malik as support cast is quite decent but Pakistan relies heavily on its pacemen getting early wickets, which can be a problem sometimes.

The fielding is suspect. Always has been. The fact that they put in such a horrible performance in ODI 2, but put in such an awesome performane in ODI 3 is proof that they have the ability to be very good in the field, but they don't put enough emphasis on it. And I'm not talking about fielding drills and what have you. I'm talking about the fact that no player believes fielding good or bad has any effect on their selection (as long as it's not totally hopeless ie. Kaneria)

And that is a bit strange because compared to many sides Including India , Pakistan is a very young team. You would think they are better athletes than the past oldies. Doesnt seem to be the case though.

And yes, Asif in ODIs is the biggest concern going in. I just wish that if he isn't clicking in the first couple of ODIs, they have the guts to drop him because we actually do have capable replacements.

Asif seems to have fallen off quite dramatically off late. Big concern area for you guys. And as long as you guys keep going back to the tried, tested and falied trio of Nazir-Hameed-Butt , i say your woes with the top order batting will continue.

Lastly, it's not about taking comments about Pakistan to heart. Do you honestly believe I'm naive enough to come to ICF and not expect animosity towards Pakistan? My post earlier in this topic was made because I have made sure to comment in the match threads for the ODIs we won, so it wouldn't really be fair for me to skip this just because we lost. But even then, if i haven't seen the match, I'm not going to make judgments on the performance.

As i said , it isnt worth our effort to actually debate why any comment was made at all. Most times , a lot is said just for fun. They are best left that way.

[kablooee87]

I'll won't respond to the points we agree on

Some rare quick-fire 20's and 30's dont count.You need Akmal to win matches for you' date=' which is something he did before. And its a bit surprising Pakistan hasnt replaced him at all , considering he had a horrendous patch with the gloves in the middle. Arent there no alternatives at all ? Surely you cant hope forever for Akmal to rediscover his form. [/quote'] I'm not going to argue that he's in a rough patch. In fact, it's more than a patch. But I think the form he was on for that one year was so good, that's it's justified to keep him. Like you said, he's won us matches before. And although the concern is there, that fact provides some solace. I am with you on that. An attack consisting of Gul, Asif , Afridi , maybe Shoaib , with Rao Ifthikar and Malik as support cast is quite decent but Pakistan relies heavily on its pacemen getting early wickets, which can be a problem sometimes.

And that is a bit strange because compared to many sides Including India , Pakistan is a very young team. You would think they are better athletes than the past oldies. Doesnt seem to be the case though.

They are more athletic that the previous team. The point I'm making is that they don't see fielding as something they need to be good at. Therefore, you see good performance sometimes and horrible performance other times