i agree totally, some players continue to perish to hook or pull shots not knowing when or if to play them.Strauss was out sevaral times during the ashes, Sarwan was dropped recently because he didnt learn from his mistakes. Steve Waugh took the pull and hook out of his game and look were it got him and his team. its a shame because these types of shots are the most exciting and thrilling in the game. masters play the pull and hook very well, such as Richards,Greenidge and Bradman. But you just dont see it played very well in todays game.

Agreed. Aggression is good but it has to be calculated aggression. Had Inzi and the Y's been more selective Pakistan could have easily crossed 350. However I do believe Pakistan are well-placed. If Nazir and Naveed-ul-Hasan can find their radar and support Asif we have a great chance. I think as the ball gets older Nazir and Rana would come into their own.

sorry Kamran i know this is not related but i just stumbled on a fasinating piece of stats. With W Indies and India touring england this summer and Australia just in 2005 i was surprised to see that Lara, Tendulkar and Ponting have never made a 100 at Lords, the mecca of cricket. Lara has played 3 test matches-6 innings(another match this summer?)Tendulkar 3 matches -5 innings (another match this summer?)and Ponting 2 matches- 4 innings. ONE score of fifty in 15 innings from these giants,Lara's 54 in 1995. this would suggest that England have had the upper hand at Lords over the recent years....or does it? ; )

Learning from previous mistakes is not what the Pakistan team does very well. It was evident that they did not care too much as batsmen after batsmen perished to that stroke and Younis defended their tactics rather than admitting mistakes. Worst still day two we lost two more trying the same silly shot. We have let this match slip and coupled with poor bolwing except kaneria and asif, this match looks lost.

Kamran, its a very good point to open a thread and I was hoping that this 'pulling & hooking' business needs to be addressed at some time and at some level and this is the best time as the match is still in progress. I wonder whether the techno-savvy coach ever notices the repeated mistakes and their weakness in playing a pull and a half-hearted hook shot and getting out again and again in the same fashion.

Imran Farhat is one person who would never learn from his mistakes and he plays his risky shots very early but, what made Yasir, Younis and even Inzamam repeat the same mistake? As regards Inzamam, he has never been able to convert his overnight scores into a big innings.

From the South African players its not their opening batsmen that I am concerned, but, its the second 4, Prince, Gibbs, Boucher and Pollock who have been giving their team the batting boost from the middle order. Since Amla from the top 4 gave a good start, they are going to capitalize and build up a lead. Apart from Asif our fast bowlers are struggling. Kaneria is so far unlucky especially with that Steve Bucknor's blunder to call a third umpire for asking his help to determine whether the ball touched Gibbs's bat or not, that was a wrong call and as per the books he could have only referred it to the third umpire to ask whether Younis Khan took the catch neatly or grassed it?

If, SA takes first innings lead (even 60-80 runs) there is no way that Pakistan can win this match as the openers have done their job in the first innings and there is no hope to expect the same from them. Despite the fact that scoring in the fourth innings would be very difficult and playing Kaneria would be even more difficult. But, there has to be a total to defend and I don't think that Pakistan is going to score much in the second innings. They failed to capitalize a good start and cross 400 mark.

What I don't like about Inzamam's captaincy is, he has suddenly gone defensive after Gibbs onslaught on Shahid Nazir (4x4) and another four to Kaneria. You cannot get wickets with defensive field placements and SA players are not going to repeat the same mistakes as Pakistani players did i.e., playing half hearted hook and pull shots.

I don't think Rana is going to contribute anything with the ball, his 30 odd runs are a bonus but thats not what is expected from a front line bowler.

Still there is a lot of time left after the tea break and there are many a slip between the cup and the lip. Lets see what happens next, I would like to see Kaneria attacking, he is luckless so far.

OK, so here they are... the grand strategists. Woolmer, Inzi, Younus and company roll out their complex drawings, maps and tables and roll up their sleeves. Hmmmm... we're going to South Africa, what should we do? sweat, sweat... what should we do? perspire perspire, what should we do? Oh god what should we do? And, after many days and many nights the white smoke billows from the chimney. We have a strategy. Finally, we have a strategy. After endless hours of consultation and meditation we have come up with a very complex approach to South African pitches and their short-pitched bowling. We are not going to be intimidated by them. We are going to hook and pull anything short they throw to us. Wow, what a grand plan! what complexity of approach!!! What an anti-climax!!!

Over the last couple of days the strategy has been so obvious it's not even funny. Talk about a "paindoo" approach to mind games. If you've decided to dominate the short ball the worst that you can do is to get out off a short ball. There's a thing called shot-selection. The team plan should say: we will TRY and dominate the short ball. This is to say that you will execute the hook or pull if the merit of the ball demands it. The team plan cannot say: we will dominate EVERY short ball. That is downright stupid. But I think that is exactly what Imran Farhat and company thought of the strategy. This time he was dropped off a half-baked pull shot. Next test he should be dropped off the team for good.

The funny thing is that most of our batsmen fell due to their own stupidity rather than any great bowling from the South Africans!Just shows how much better we could be if we played controlled strokes.

what are shabbir ahmeds chances of playing in the wc?

The most negative thing about this for Pakistan is that the situation has become more apparent in the last couple of series which doesn't say much for Bob Woolmer, who should have ironed out such flaws before a series on bouncy wickets.
Also, it has to say Faisal Iqbal showed that he isn't test quality anywhere other than Pakistan, scoring 1 from 26 balls before perishing, clearly beaten by pace and bounce.
In comparison Yasir showed more resolve before he succumbed to the pull shot along with 6 other Pakistan batsmen.
The only way Pakistan will come back now is if Rana and Kaneria can come join the Mohammed Asif show or else South Africa look like they will get at least 400.

Absolutely right, I would also like to include Bob Woolmer being Coach to take partial responsibility of this hook/pull fever. The other aspect of the game i.e. Bowling also needs to be addressed. We have 4 potential match winners and only one is in the team right now. I am talking about Shoaib, Asif, Shabbir And Gul. Ok, Gul is injured but why not shoaib and Shabbir? Good that they have finally decided to sent Shoaib and if he is able to play in the second test then the world would see the difference. But still, why not Shabbir? He is a class Test bowler with 50 odd wickets in around 10 tests. I am sure, with all top 4 bowlers firing, and batsmen not trying to huck/pull every short piched ball, we can think of challenging even Australia.
Right now, with this team, I am not very hopeful.

To those who are blaming Bob Woolmer for the hook/pull shots gone wrong, please think before you start typing nonsense. Woolmer is the coach, not the batter. It's his job to tell the team how to play and form the strategy, but he cannot go out there and hold the bat for them. Younis, Inzamam, Iqbal, Akmal etc have all played enough cricket at this level to know how play in each situation and too put away the hook shot when they see someone else get out to it, for example. However, none of them did that. The fault lies with the players not the coach. Where Woolmer should share the blame is with his and Inzamam's selection of Rana Naveed and Faisal Iqbal. Rana has never looked like a test player in the test matches he has played before, and today was no exception. With Gul and Akhter not available for this test, Inzy and Bob should have gone with Mohammad Sami, who has bowled well recently and has an extra yard of pace as well. Naveed neither has pace not any control, and is like a lamb heading for slaughter. His ineffectiveness may end up being the difference between a win and a loss for the team. As for Faisal Iqbal, his 1 of 28 balls showed how ill-equipped he is at this level, he's there only because he's Miandad's nephew. He has no business being in the team, and if Malik was injured then Bob and Inzy should have gone with Asim Kamal.

What a shocking performance by Pakistan! Can't hook, can't bat, can't bowl, can't field!

Gutless! If only Kaneria could turn a cricket ball as much as his tongue. He talks a lot of nonsense!

What happened to the fiery bowling attack? The truth is we have a very weak team but high expectations as a public.

The nation expects, but the current lot cannot deliver! I say;

Shoaib for captain! Bring in Taufeeq Umer, Asim Kamal and Butt.

Get rid of Faisal Iqbal, Farhat, Hafeez, Sami, Rana, Kaneria. Complete waste of time!

Dear friends, Don't get disheartened yet,let me share with you, my assessment of the match so far.
Batting: I feel first test,first inning,Pakistan was hpoing to cross 200 mark, anything that came after it was a bonus for them, atleast that's how it appeared, if u remember back home in tests recently against a weaker opposition they showed more application with the bat.I think they still need to figure out meaning of AGGRESSION.
Imran Farhat is now becoming a Mansoor Akhtar of the past(who atleast was a far better performer in domestic cricket).He needs to be shown the door quickly not for his batting alone but for the glaring sense of immaturity and lack of responsibility.
Bowling: I feel Rana was not able to adjust his length on bouncy pitches(we always talk about batsmen needing to adjust on different conditions) with his round arm action he tends to be more skiddy, where on these pitches u need to bowl just back of length to extract that clever bounce,maybe Waqar could have some input for him if only he was there..LOL...
Kaneria bowled well, tried hard,BUT......... quality bowlers don't always need to blame their luck.........they take wickets,if lucky several in an innings.
I think the key here would be now to try to dry up the runs ,specially for likes of Gibbs and Boucher, that should bring hopefully some more wickets. I still believe any target ocer 200 in last inning would be challenging(If Pakistan can achieve that).

ThankYou,

Syed .......USA

The reason Australia is number one is because they never give up trying, they are focused on extracting that little bit of extra advantage, the few additional runs. Combined with a wealth of talent and experience, of course. Pakistani batsmen, on the other hand, more often than not, squander advantage gained through a good performance. The lack of self discipline and intelligence is disappointing. Although, I must say that the overall batting performance was better than I would have predicted. I am also struck by the fact that Pakistan has only one quality bowler in this team.

Pakistan cricket continues to be plagued by unprofessional practices and mysterious events. Players strangely become unfit, or regain fitness, selection of players remains fickle (selection of Rana Naved or Shahid Nazir over Shabbir Ahmad). Kaneria continues to disappoint, and his long term place in the team should be reconsidered given his continued mediocrity.

I am also struck by how little Pakistan cricket has changed since Woolmer became the coach. We were an unprofessional second tier team when he came on board, and it is hard to see much overall improvement. There are two important exceptions, though. Mohammad Yousuf’s improved batting and Asif’s emergence.

i spoke on another topic on this blog about this issue and some people apparently, did not agree with me. i made certain predictions:

1) that the openers would fail- i said farhat won't go past 20 but he made 26, well he exceeded my expectations but not by a long shot! the solution is to get a mature, 25+ non paindu batsman as an opener. imran farhat is not even close to the calibre of opening batsman pakistan have got who are desperately waiting for a chance.
2. that it would be south africa's middle and lower order that would cause pakistan problems, not their top order. i made special reference to prince, pollock and boucher. some people said that the pakistani bowling attack would bowl SA out because of their weak form. HELLO! prince, pollock and boucher are in the best form of their careers.
3. that the pakistani bolwing attack does not have the spine to penetrate SA. people refuted this saying that naved and shahid nazir have that class. the problem, gentlemen, is that naved and nazir have not played as much international cricket that we can make judgements on them. naved is inconsistent, ever since his debut, he seems to perform in one series and then ruin everything in another.

asif is like irfan pathan, he can get you the wickets only when the bowl is new and swinging. but i don't think more can be expected from him. i am absolutely disappointed with naved, after his performance today who can call him a good bowler? why does he have so many adaptability/fitness problems?

and now the main issue of today. hooking and pulling. i almost feel that someone is going to bring up a match-fixing allegation now, saying that the batters wanted to get out and playing those risky shots was the only option, as for once, it seemed that younis/yasir were competent to play a world class attack.

enough for now, but you shall hear more of my rantings soon, as inzi says, INSHALLAH (i wonder if in the pakistani team huddle inzi told his men....."inshallah" we should hook every short ball because it will go for six......we have to win this match boys and hooking short balls in the region of where fielders are standing is the way to do it!!!!)

Nice topic and I hope Bob Woolmer gets to read some of the posted comments, as it would only help building the Pakistani team.

As far as hook and pull shots are concerned, I remember Ramiz Raja's interview where he described preparations for the West Indian tour under Imran Khan's captaincy. Pakistan was up against the best in the fast bowling business and without the protective gear such as helmets. They practised short ball (wet tennis ball on cement pitches) for hooks and pulls and they had so much success against the bowlers at that time. Current batting line up seems to have no better technique to defend and the only option as a batsman is to try pulling it so that it's off your face. I think Muhammad Yousaf is the only batsman in current Pakistani line up who comes right behind the line of the short ball to defend it or guide it where appropriate. The rest are playing the shots out of defensive mechanism and not becuase there is any strategy for it.

Lets see if they include Shoaib in the next test match to avoid embarassing after effects of the S.A series.

Oh come on - people fall to different kinds of shots all the time. It happens - it is part and parcel of the game. Obviously we had higher expectations from the players who fell to those shots but this is what can happen! Already people start losing hope - it is so very easy to criticize and point fingers when you are not actually playing the game. These players are doing an excellent job, and give no indication of not trying their best. They will (hopefully) learn from their mistakes and thats that!
All we need is for other bowlers to find their grove and support Asif and Danish. It is well known that a bowler has more chances of improving since their mistakes at most cost them boundaries. For a batsman, one mistake can cost them their wicket. So, the bowlers have had enough practice and should try better.
Unconditional support!

Pulling and hooking long hops, fine. otherwise leave it out! the SA bowling was meek generally and the batsmen got themselves out. Whats going on with Rana. he should just bowl a tight line and length and mix up the slower balls and yorkers like he does in odi cricket. none over-trying trash.
In odi cricket rana is used as a strike bowler, theres small difference in his role at test level. just take asif as an example, he bowls similarly in both forms of cricket.

why are we playing Rana again. He's not a test blower and we cannot rely on Sami becasue he's wayward so how many wickets has he taken so far !!!

One of the reasons why MY was so great last year and will continue to be great is because he no longer hooks, and pulls the ball along the ground. This shot selection, or rather lack of, has helped him to convert his starts to big hundreds.

Our boys are not natural hookers; ducking the short ball will not give SA the impression they are intimidated of it.

I am simply amazed that Pakistan have chosen Faisal Iqbal again.Asim Kamal would be my choice if Yousuf is absent because Kamal is very cool under pressure and can keep one end shored up.As to Pak's hook happy attiude i wonder what has Bob Woolmer been doing out there?Agression is ok. but it must be measured;no one in this team has realy mastered the hook shot or play it well expect perhaps Inzimam but he is at the stage of his career where he has to cut it down.The match is not over yet if just Rana or Nazir can get going and help Asif an exciting match is on the bill.Lastly welcome back Asif and good luck!!

I think we have to be careful to blame bob woolmer. I have been watching pakistan for last 30 years. Bob woolmer is trying to make them prefessionals ways of playing cricket (e.g physical, mental strength) as he had successfully done with south africa and warwickshire. Without all that they will have no chance of competing with teams like Australia. Problem is as someone mentioned before, our players are too dumb, paindoos to learn. A coach can only coach, can't do it for them. Bob woolmer was our only hope to become consistant in world cricket but i am afraid our players would perform miracles once in every few years and live on it thereafter. The way Younis Khan being hothead resigned and took back captaincy showes their mental approach. Bob Woolmer trying to bind them together but I am afraid he would be disappointed. I hope I am forgiven to say that they are shining examples of our national attitudes. When we can burn our own shops, businesses and wreck everything in sight to protest against anything happening anywhere in the world. We as a nation are very good at pressing self distruct buttons and our team represent us. Some of our players need to change their attitudes. Our great nation ( i mean ordinary pakistanis) need something to be happy about. I hope our team use some cool heads and put smile on our faces. Good luck Pakistan

I just don't know why Shahid Nazir is in the team. Everyone says he'z performing well for the last 6 months and what not. I believe that is just a myth! He hasn't performed well and I really dont know what the selectors see in him. He has no aggression, no pace and is bowling far too short. Moreover, I still say that Kaneria is a very overrated bowler. He jsut takes way too long to take a wicket. This is the aspect of his game that I always hated. He's never going to take a wicket bowling around the wicket. He needs to get over that habit or else we need to look at some new leggies like Mansoor Amjad and co. Mansoor Amjad flights the ball very well and bowls many balls at the same spot. Something we really need..

Kamran Sahib, Indeed we have a possible stinker in the making here. Someone forgot to tell Inzi's heroes that they are playing a test match and not a 20/20. This is the reason I question Bob (fat paycheck)Woolmer's contributions. You would think, being a batsman during his playing days, and having coached South Africa, shortie might have some handy tips for the lads. South Africa is playing an aggressive game but it is controlled, channeled aggression based on a game plan. Prince and Amla played controlled innings and took South Africa out of a potentially disastrous situation. I hope that the morning session conditions will help derail this current partnership and also hope that Danish Kaneria offers some extra prayers to bhagvan, because as javed Khan pointed out the laddie has been unlucky.

Not to pick on anyone , but heck its more fun anyway. I loved this post; "what are shabbir ahmeds chances of playing in the wc?". Now I know we have been discussing "why Winston Churchill was a fat slob" right! AMF

AMF!

I watched the Pakistani batsmen play, get set and then get out. Even though it can be said that they got out to their folly of being drawn into pulling unneccessarily, I would still praise the South Africans. They played on an obvious weakness displayed by their opponents and cashed in on it.

I just can not believe the way Pakistan got out to the hook shot. 8 dismissals….reminded me of the Pak vs SA one off test Pakistan played in 1995 at the wanderes where all of them got out playing the hook shot except Inzi who got 95

But surely Inzi should have known better. What on earth did he think he was doing playing that shot and holing out. I thought Inzi’s captaincy today again was very negative to start off with settings defensive fields giving away singles to the new batsmen therefore pressure could not be applied and they were still able to hit boundaries.

Communication was also very poor…Having said that I thought the only positive aspect was the switch in ends for Kaneria where he got more bite and turn from round the wicket but was still unlucky not to have gotten gibb;s wicket. I would have licked to see the SNICKO on that one. Replays even showed Gibb’s bat change direction after the ball hit his toe and went to slip.

Like I have said in previous threads and the commentators too said that today that this series could be deicided on # 6, 7, and 8 and SA is way ahead with gibbs, pollock and boucher. This is where I feel Pakistan are missing someone like Afridi at least he would have provided some impetusto the batting and bowling . Azhar did this for them the last time.

Faisal Iqbal really needs to make way for Asim Kamal or anyone else. I think he's overstayed his welcome really and its high time the Pakistan management get someone reliable because Pakistan already has a long tail and faisal iqbal can only make things worse.

Shahid Nazir didnt look the bowler he was vs Windies...Rana was even worse with his line but I blame Inzi too..with his field placings.

Only hope I see is Asif doing some serious damage tomorrow morning to get pakistan back in to the game but from here on i'd say its 65-35 in favour of SA but really that’s asking too much from Asif after he’s already got the top 4? who knows? It’s a tough ask.
Even if SA get a 60-80 runs lead like “Javed” there is no way Pakistan are going to score that many to give SA a real total. They’d need a minimum of 250 to challenge SA and by the looks of things you’d expect SA to get 80-100 runs lead which will have its effects on pakistan’s batting mentally leading to them crumbing (typical Pakistan) because there simply isn’t enough support in their bowling right now and Pakistan were 90-100 runs short.

Seriously, I was not expecting that after the blemishes of day one, any of remaining batsmen will loose their wicket either hooking or pulling. Alas, I was wrong :( . Let's see what happens in 2nd innings. My assumption is, as the wicket is expected to grow in pace and bounce, most of them will get out either caught behind or in the slips. :S

I still think this is one of the weakest SA teams ever that pakistan is playing against. By now they should have had the game by the scruff of the neck but they havnt and only have themselves to blame.

Are we all talking about team Pakistan?? Did team Pakistan ever, ever learn from their mistake. The only reason we are considered among the top ehelons of cricketing nations is sheer abundance of talent, but no common sense.

Mr.Ghalib Taimur,
You want to say that Pakistan gave up themselves. Not at all its always a bowler's tactic to tease the batsman. Its also intelligent and calculated bowling strategy. Pak can flourish against any opponents in dusty, slow surfaces only.

Good article and good comments!
No the pull, hook, stink and sink is not working.
In SA we need a different strategy. We should drop this one and we should start by dropping Imran Farhat.

we ned Asim Kamal...the ..job Prince does for south africa...Asim is same kind of player...cant we learn from others?

It does sound bit foolish on part of our batsmen to fall for hook and bait trap by hooking. Given the situation, Pakistan might have made close to 400 if they had abstained from pulling and hooking. But at the same time this expresses the strategic intention of Pakistani team to face off South Africans with aggression and positive state of mind. And this has certainly helped them to cross 300 mark. If they were not as aggressive and positive in their appraoch, they might have gotten out at a score close to 250 by handing over catches in slip cordon at a much slower run rate of 2.4 or some thing. Therefore I just see it as a coincident that most of our front line batsmen went down while hooking and pulling. And it happened just beacuse they were being positive. And this is the only way to prevail in South Africa.

hi kamran
today was basically south africas day.firstly wid inzi on the crease he shd have been more responsible n shd have got pak to 350 plus.its a known fact tht the 2nd and 3rd days of a test match r best for batting n same is the case here.south africa are only 59 behind now wid 6 wickets in hand and if pak dont get early wickets tomm the game mite slip out of hand.so far in 2 days pak has already missed yousuf, shoaib and even gul.only asif impressed today n its quite evident today yy naveed n nazir have not been able to establish themselves as regulars in pak test team.these 2 seamers bowled well below par today n thts y pak finds itself on the back foot now wid boucher n pollock still to come.the only positive is tht the ball is turning but for danish to have an effect on the game pak has to give him something to bowl at in 4th innings.19 no balls in half an innings is also a testament to the blunder pcb has made by forcing waqar into resigning.As far as the hook shot is concerned i cant contemplate as to yy inzi played it at such a crucial stage.i say inzi caz he had seen it happen to 3 batsmen before him.its good to be agressive but nt at the cost of 6 top order batsmen is not the best of results.goodluck pak team but things dont look goodn this test match.

If a million dollar coach can not eradicate such problem, then it is pretty much clear he is not doing his job.
Every Pakistani batsman is a compulsive hooker, it has been known to every opposition team fast bowler & coach that Pakistani batsman don't know how to pick the right delivery to play a safe hook & pull.
I am appalled by the team performance, right now Pakistan can only win a test on home soil, Bowling heavily rely on Asif, rest is nothing but a party of "Qawal" just clapping hands.
Pakistan will loose this test and probably they will fall apart once the finger pointing and blame game will start.
What a bunch of disorganized out of control mob with no self respect.

It was heartening to see Asif stage a comeback to the international arena and he has done it in style. If Pakistani batsmen learn to avoid the hook and pull stroke then they will be the only team to challenge Australia in test cricket. Asif, Umar Gul and a disciplined Akhtar means that its the best pace attack and Kaneria is a very good leg spin bowler. Hafeez is a very good opener and Yaseer Hamid has done well to cement his spot and it would be unwise to drop him when Mohammad Yusuf returns. Only Faisal Iqbal is the weakest link
with a test average of 27, so we should keep Yasir Hameed regardless. As Imran Farhat can not be relied upon to score a 50, Yasir Hameed has to play virtually as our 3rd opener like Ian Bell had to do for England. Even Kamran Akmal has a better test average than faisal iqbal and Akmal is more orthodox stroke player and he is good enough to face the 2nd new ball and the best option at no. 7. I hope the team management wont drop yasir and thinking along the lines of dropping faisal iqbal when Mohammad Yusuf returns. Shahid Nazir and Rana Naveed has been pedestrian so Akhtar must play in the 2nd test. If Gul is absent, Sami can be given an opportunity. I am sure he will do a better job then Shahid Nazir. However Rana's 30 means that Pakistan needs to strenghen their tail and thus he should not overlooked ahead of Sami. Its an interesting problem to have. A full strength pakistan XI will be the ideal challenge Australia will be looking for as other teams dont seem to have the batting or bowling attack to outplay Australia.

Just wonder what does Asim Kamal has to do to be playing for pakistan again..the guy ave 37 compare to 27 by Faisal Iqbal and he is overall a better cricketer and offer more quality to the batting line up with coming in at number 6 and being a left hander...Mr Bari is keep saying that he is a test player and not odi...had he been given a chance in a odi yet?how does he know that he can't play test? and he is not even in our test 11 either...
back to the test match..i think Pak will do just fine ..DK will be huge in the 2nd innings..he is a much better bowler bowling in the 4th innings then in the 2nd of a test match..i just wish Asif had some support from the other end and things would have been a lot different. with new ball due in 5 overs tomorrow and Asif coming fresh i think we will get them out soon inshaallah ....i dont think their lead will be anymore then 50-60 runs....
also agree with a lot of you on Imran Farhat..i hope when MoYo is back he is dropped from the team and replace with Yasir Hameed at the top with Asim Kamal coming in at number 6...
GO Pak....

I think everyone is missing a very important point here..it is a tried and tested tactic against batsmen from the subcontinent when they go to places like South Africa, Australia or England..usually the host side pitches the ball up consistently to invite flashing cover drives that subcontinental batsman are so used to back home..the high bounce and extra seam movement more often than not takes the edge..i think we should give credit to the Pakistani batsmen that none of them got out by lunging the front foot forward and nicking the ball while attempting a cover drive..it has happened so many times in the past..I think their plan was to go after the short-pitched stuff..however, they got too much carried away with it..their plan was right but I guess they have to be more careful in choosing which balls to hook rather than going after anything thats short..

in all the hooking melodrama we forgot one thing..there were no edges..it is an accomplishment..

only one bowler cant prevent the lead ,it would be obvious that SA ll pass 350.Especially on the SA pithces fast bowlers are more useful, there is no piont of danish kaneria being in the side .About hook shot selection just we need to forget that because pakistani batsmen use to follow the mistakes ,anyway lets hope for the best .Danish kaneria ,rana naveed and faisal iqbal they must be replaced before the second test starts .

inzi is the man who resurrected pakistani cricket after the ashes of the world cup. i love the guy. but when hameed is mistiming hook after hook can he go have a chat. oh yeah can the coach who i also like tell the players that there is a fielder there waiting for the catch. why play the shot when there is a fielder there waiting. farhat and hafeez played a few but the fielder wasnt there making it safe.

Pakistanis are not good hookers. I think we need to get some hookers from England and Australia. Hookers from India are not good. They should pratice with hookers, to go out and try.

Unpardonable! how could all 7 be so fond of hooking suddenly in the first test? Abdul Qadir on PTV said they should all be packed home . Since they r professional cricketers, don't they know how shot pitch deliveries r played? I think Pakistan spoiled a chance to score beyond 500 runs in first innings. Only Asif is bowling well with no support from any other bowler. Rana Naved is not a test match stuff as proved by him. So is it a lame duck attack which Inzi selected for winning this test? Ahhhhhhhhhhhh how much i miss Shoeb in the team! And more i m missing Waqar Younis as bowling coach too after watching our bowlers sending so many no balls. I can simply say it is lack of desipline and net practice. Match visibly is going out of Inzi's hands at the end of second day with wicket easing more and more.

i agrre with u kamran youd think batsmen of such class like inzi and younis would be able to pull or hook the ball but the bounce on the wicket is quite good and and trying to hook or pull a ball to high could risk in ur wicket. inzi should have learnt from yasir and younis that the pull shot might not be a good weapon here.

khushal khan

I wish ppl would stop picking on farhat. He's been god as of late. Maybe he knows what he's doing when he plays risky shots. In his last 5 matches he averages 44.87. As for Faisal, i think he needs to go. Asim Kamal should play. Kamran also hasn't been lookin' great. We should give Zulqernain Haider a chance.

One can only say about our team's hooking/pulling ability - thank those awful home pitches that we make against world teams.

Its no secret about Pakistani batsmen inability to play short and fast balls. Repeatedly have we failed in Australia and SA. The lessons from world cup 2003 at SA should have been learned by now. Instead of going with this short term vision of wining home series, a focus should be on long term . I believe Majid Khan in his time tried to make bouncy wickets at home, but once he's gone its back to old tactics.

On the bowling front, Pakistan needs to step in. Its been unbelieve why Rana keeps struggling on away pitches. I guess the mistakes on letting go Waqar is already showing as Pakistan bowling seems to show cracks.

I believe, the current crop of Pakistani batsmen are the most ill equipped hookers in the game right now. Hook shot is simply not their cup of tea. Hook shot is a natural reflex shot that needs a very good eye. Unfortunately, except for Inzi in the current lot, no one can play a technically correct hook shot. They all can pull short balls, but hooking requires a better eye, correct body position and quick reflexes. To my mind, the only good hookers Pakistan ever produced were Majid Khan and Imran Khan. Even Inzi wasn't bad in his younger days and Aamir Sohail was also okay, though, not in the same league as Majid and Imran. Thus, the bottomline is forget hooking and try to duck. Sorry to say, i have seen a few Pak batsmen like Abdul Razzaq, closing their eyes at the shirt balls. If one can not play a hook shot, it is acceptable, but to be clueless at short balls is very childish.. Come on, batters, you are not going to get your favorite half volleys and longhops against good teams like Aussies and the Proteas, so be prepared to tackle the short stuff as well....

I think Pakistan started the bowling v good but asif was the man alone. Kaneria is used by Inzi as a defensive option which he is not, I felt that Kaneria lacked game plan.
If early heroics on day 3 can limit SA to a lead to lead of 60 - 80, Remember!! the pak batsmen were out by their own silly mistakes not by brilliance of SA bowlers, if they can dicipline themselves, still a positive result for pak is possible.

But some got to suppot asif,
Pak Missing shoaib & Gul badly.................

Well i think kaneria bowl stupidly. When a just a two day pitch in givin you soo much assistance. You must as the batsman to play against the spin while kaneria all together didn't know how to adjust to that pitch. Which may be a failure of captain or the thinkin of the bowler himself. Now after shane we all have eyes on our this talented bowler. He must act maturly now having played 4 years of international cricket. He must know how to adapt to the conditions quickly.Plus Hats of to Asif again he will be a legend soon.

I agree that our batsmen seemed to suffer from "hookitis". The main problem is that they all got starts and couldnt capitalize on them. I think the South African bowlers were persistent, and that is what got them wickets. However, only Asif from Pakistan has looked threatening .

However, one should keep in mind that 300+ in South Africa against their bowling line-up is not quite bad. I think we are still in the game , so there is no need to get overboard with criticism. Mistakes are what make us human , right?

I think idea of being aggressive is ok but the execution was not as good as the idea was. Pakistani need to realize that they cannot pull or hook SA out of the test match with this kind of selection of shorts.....Any ways best of luck and Faisal Iqbal should be replaced by Asim Kamal for sure. I dont know what is the mistake of that fine young batsman, why he is not in the slot. He deserves his place in the side in the presence of any greats in the team.....

shame for inzi and co the way they throw away their wickets buy hooking and pulling.not a single batsman was bowled or lbw.this shows that south african bowlers or pitch did nothing except planning.i think our batsman should learn a lesson from hashim, gibbs and prince batting and should play for county s pride and not for croud s clapping.

Firstly, credit should be given to the team when it's due, who would have expected Pakistan to reach a score of 300+ ? I mean, we were all probably expecting a 100 run collapse or something, right? However, our players should learn that after getting of a decent start and having plenty of runs, the hook shot isn't the only scoring option available. I just fail to understand the strategic plans of the team, there are like fielders covering the outskirts of the on-side boundary and yet they seem invisible to Pakistan. And Pakistani batsmen continue to take on the challenge of hitting every bouncer for a six...what is going on? It seems as if the whole team was all of a sudden influenced by Afridi's batting style.

On a side note, Pakistan should not have let Waqar Younis quit, our fast bowlers need assistance. Just look at yesterday, there were all of a sudden so many more no-balls bowled. I don't really think Mushtaq Ahmed will be of any help to the fast bowlers, after all common sense tells us that fast bowling is not his art.

Hook line and stinker is right! I can't believe seven batsmen fell to the pull shot. Apparently, common sense is in short supply. The pitch has uneven bounce, and there were enough mishits to indicate hooking would be a bad idea on this pitch. The first two hook dismissals were pathetic enough, but Iqbal, Inzi and Akmal apparently did'nt learn anything. Perhaps a case of Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest? They seem to have a combined intelligence of a three year old. Even Pavlov's dog was smarter!

Pakistan Should Bring Back Shahid Afridi In To Side He is Good All Rounder . He is Kind of player who can always be handy for the side with his attcking batting as well as is leg breaks

Here it is: Pakistan lost to England in England when Woolmer is well acquainted with English conditions. Pakistran is doing horrible in South africa, another place Woolmer is well acquainted with. First West Indies, then England, now S. Africa, all reasonable weaker teams, we haven't managed to beat them in last tours when we could have. Alas, golden lost opportunities.

The duo of inzamam and woolmer have got to be the most defensive combination out there in cricket. Shahid Nazir comes in to the team because he took 5 wickets in an irrelevant tour match. Rana is selected on the basis of his one dayy form. This is yet another case of uninspired selection. The team management needs to understand that sport requires inspired decisions..you need to have balls and select ppl who look like they can do the job..not on the basis of their stats...otherwise you are no better that wasim bari. For me the ony bowler worse than sami in test matches is rana...at least sami ends with a 4 - 120...rana is more like to be 0 - 120. For me inzamam will sully the legacy of imran khan..we are no cornered tigers anymore....what a shame, to have such attacking players and then to fill the team with defensive rubbish like hafeez, nazir, shoaib malik, and faisal iqbal (scared of short pitch bowling)
Oh btw why is taufiq not in the team..he had the highest runs aggregate last time pakistan toured south africa..when guys like inzi, yousuf, and younis wilted under the pace barrage.

There is nothing wrong with agression or deciding on a tactical approach to attack as a team. However in this instance, like most other games they play, Pakistan consistently show that the batsmen appear to lack for want of better words the intelligence or vision to assess the situation and adapt to it. There was a lemming like approach to their batting in this innings at least. One might hold of being scathing but the shots that caused the demise of so many was on more occasion then not poorly executed.
Overall very poor.

Muz

I think pak r going to loose this test but i am sure they will learn lesson and will be able bounce back.M.y is also going back for next match and if Akhtar is also in then pax r strong enough to get back in this series.
I wish them all the best.

3rd day pre-lunch session:

FINALLY, Kaneria had some luck for bowling persistently and beating the batsmen on several occasions and was rewarded with the prized wicket of Ashwell Prince. I was keeping my fingers crossed when the stumping decision was referred to the third umpire. I have a feeling that Kaneria can change the game in favour of Pakistan, but thats only my own "fishful" thinking. Shahid Nazir and Asif were not so lucky today, especially Nazir's two plumb LBW appeals and a straight forward caught and bowled appeal and one of Asif's LBW appeal turned down by the umpires.

For the second time in this match Steve Bucknor had to go to the second umpire to consult him for a catch appeal and then to the third umpire. I think for the BB's (Bucknor and Billy) of Caribbean, the SA heat is too much to make a decision on their own. Shahid Nazir took that catch and Prince knew he was out, despite being a good promising player, Prince was not showing any sporting spirit and behaved like, Gavaskar. He used to say, why should I walk? The umpire is there to decide and give a decision, so let him do the job.

Now, even with the new (inadequate) technology they were unable to make a conclusive decision for the catch that Shahid Nazir ,and using the old rule book the umpires gave the benefit of doubt decision, which goes in favour of the batsman.

Its a shame that when the latest technology is available, it is not being used in SA. There is no tracker, also there is no 'negative imaging' facility, the one that is being used in Australia which shows in black and white with a bright spot where the ball had hit. In yesterday's ODI at MCG, Darlrymple was given out by the umpire at the bowling of Glenn Mcgrath whereas the 'negative imaging' clearly showed that the ball had hit the batsman's helmet. Why is it not being used in South Africa? (that would have helped in judging the catch in Gibbs case, yesterday)

With so much cricket being played these days and so much money is made from it, it is ICC's job to ensure that the use of technology should be the same in all the ODI's and test matches. This is another issue that needs to be discussed separately.

However, it is very obvious from the current situation how helpless Inzamam is looking now without his main strike bowlers. It was either his own sinister motives to leave Shoaib Akhtar behind, if it was true then its a shame on him for being so biased or he is so naive and ineffective in convincing the selectors that he can go to SA with whatever team they choose and ask him to lead. In the later case he does not deserve to be a captain.

If Umar Gul and Shoaib comes in for the second test, then Rana and Nazeer are out. They should send Rana Naveed back home ASAP. If MOYO joins the team for the second test then Faisal Iqbal is out too or else, Asim Kamal be given a chance. If the pitch for the second test helps the fast bowlers then, Sami should get in to strengthen the 4 pronged pace attack. That would be a formidable force to match the SA team.

I have been a follower of Pakistani cricket since the heady days of Hanif and Fazal. In all these years one thing stands out - Pakistanis never learn from their mistakes, whether it is the pull/hook shots or the number of extras they give away. You go through past scores and one thing that stand out is the number of extras conceded. Only the names of the bowlers dishing out no balls and wides change - Wasim, Waqar, Imran, Shohaib, Sami, Asif - take your pick!

pakistan have 6 pacemen in this squad, provided that gul is still unfit for the second test, should sami be included in the playing XI because naved and nazir have been unimpressive?

then the pace trio would consist of shoaib, asif and sami- at least we have experience there.
at the moment pakistan have bowled 104 overs, nazir has bowled twenty with an economy of almost 5, naved has bowled 12 with an economy of 6....both havent taken any wickets!!!

disgraceful!

anyone agrees?

Lack of Cricketing Intelligence, nothing else. Need to educate the players especially Inzi, the captain.

How about a few comments on today's umpiring by m/s doctrove and bucknor...bucknor is now just too old and doctrove never belonged in the elite panel anyway...what a load of tosh!!! pakistan has taken 16 wickets in an innings!!! imagine that....
exemplary behaviour by pakistan considering the ludicrous umpiring desicions....

Not only South African team was laughing. The whole world was laughing with them at the stupidity of the Pak captain & his team.
PCB should Appoint an Academic coach to teach english & aptitude to the team, so that they can understand the strategy of Bob woolmer and as well as of opposite team.
What an embarrasment!

sorry to make so many comments, but after watching hafeez get out in the 2nd innings, i am beginning to have doubts about him.

in the 1st innings he scored 19 from 80 balls, in the second he's scored 15 from 48. there isn't any point trying to occupy the crease when you cannot get on top of the game.

aamir sohail once commented that batsman from karachi are more mature than batsman from lahore/punjab. i am beginning to realise that, that comment holds in the case of openers.

look at pakistan's 2 most renowned openers- saeed anwar and hanif mohammad- both are from karachi. most of the renowned specialist batsman have also been brought up in karachi or trained majorly in karachi, such as miandad, zaheer abbas...and now i am thinking about asim kamal.....

is that the solution to pakistan's problem? getting more batters from karachi who will have the maturity to occupy the crease, but also to make inroads with shot selection. both concepts are equally important.

faisal iqbal, though, is proving aamir sohail wrong.............

Gosh no one else but the Pak team could have achieved such a feat. Hook after hook, guys this was not a practice session on playstation 2!!!

Anyone who does not admit their mistake does not learn from it.I wonder if Younis Khan and co. know this-or are simply too cocky and arrogant to admit that.When the opposition are setting a trap that you know you cannot overcome, why play into their hands-literally!The Pakistani batsmen must have been coached and informed of the bouncy nature of the S.African pitches before they set off on this tour and no amount of practicing on 'marble slabs' is going to help you in the middle when you are taking on the pull shot to excessively bouncy deliveries from outside the off stump-especially risky when fielders are placed for suicide.But then again when have pakistan played according to the situation (the pitch, bounce, quality of the oposition, their own weaknesses and strengths-all this summed up in two words: discipline, professionalism.Always lacking in Pakistan teams-something that i hope is being drummed into future Pakistan players in the academies.If they can sort that out then, i believe, could be world beaters.They certainly have ability and outrageous talent in abundance!

I was quite heartened by the application & concentration showed by pak batsmen in the final session esp Farhat. Conditions were awkward with lightening and constant drizzle, but they showed a bit of fight which is what test cricket is all about. Prince & Gibbs batted well but a number of umpiring decisions didnt go pak way. One can excuse the on field umpires as they are allowed to give the benefit to the bastman, if in doubt, but i fail to understand the TV umpires decision when nazir caught Prince, one particular angle clealy showed that he got his fingers underneath the ball and even the SA commentators conceded that much. I dont particuylarly think there are great demons in SA bowling but Pak need to bat sensibly. I dont think they should shelf the pull shot completely, as it will clearly send a defeatist message to the opposition, but they need to be much better at their shot selection. Being trigger happy, as they were on day 1, is just being reckless and that is no way to win the test matches abroad.If they can somehow muster a a lead of 230-250, then on a turning pitch with unpredictable bounce batting on day 5 could be a bit hazardous. Kaneria, for crying out loud, needs to stop leaking 4 balls in every over, try to land on the same spot 6 times at a trot, thus dry up the scoring opportunities, apply pressure and results will come, none of this overexperimenting nonsense.

I know everyone is busy getting on the case of Rana & Nazir. Rana did get few wkts once he found his radar, and as for nazir, with a bit of luck (or should i say proper umpiring) he could have got 2 or 3 wkts. I think nazir will make way for shoaib in next match & if Gul is fit then Rana will be on the bench. For those people who are pushing a case for Sami, well what can i say, they have incredibly poor memory. We just dont need the return to bad ole days. Lets face it Sami is not an international player, period! He delivers buffet balls and a buffet ball is just that, with or without pace, and gets the same treatment.

After the end of the 3rd Day's play

Shocking decisions from umpire Bucknor and Doctrove. Like Robin Jackman said to Rameez….”Did your boys (the paki team ) refuse them a lift to the ground or what? Abosulte shockers…the last 2 to Ntini
And I also agree with Javed Khan’s assessment of the inefficient technology being used in South Africa to identify 3rd umpire decisions. SA have been known to be ahead in this dept. but this season really there is something seriously wrong. Australia indeed seem to have really taken it to another level with the techonology Super slow mo, utra motion etc..

After looking at the final score today Pakistan seem to have wiped out the deficit and really it will be up to Inzi especially and karam akmal to really make it count this time and set SA a target of 250. Younis Khan I feel also needs to score a big one. Anything faisal iqbal scores will be a real bonus. I am not even going to expect him to make many runs.

Cant seem to understand Aamir Sohail’s two faced opinions. At times he can really be an embarrassment to Pakistan with his views and cricketing knowledge. Seems to be very stubborn with his views even though he knows they are wrong.
Many examples like Junaid Zia whom he picked to play for Pakistan because tauqir Zia appointed him as the head of PCB and we all know he wasn’t up to the standard but Sohail still seems to believe he is one of the best. Same with Faisal Iqbal and only today he was telling everyone how is going to get out in the 2nd innings before he has even come to bat.
However the most embarrassing piece of commentary was during the SA vs India test series when Shaun Pollock came in to bat and Aamir Sohail was commentating and started telling the public when he (sohail) was the captain of the Pakistan side he would always confer with Ian chappel his advisor about Pollock being THE BEST SOUTH AFRICAN BATSMEN……common…if he said the best bowler we might have agreed but best BATSMEN and BEST TECHNIQUE…like hello…we know you’re trying to be popular with the south afriacan public .. but please for goodness sake stop singing/licking the laurels of the SA team without proper knowledge of each player.
I don’t mean to take anything away from Pollock batting wise as he is a good player but certainly not the BEST batsmen. Even the other commentator commentating with Sohail had to change the subject. Even ended up fighting on air with Mike Huysman a few years ago and had to be kicked out.

Looking towards the 4th day;s Pakistan will need all the luck they can get provided the umpiring decisions don’t go against them. I feel that those umpiring decisions that went against them (last wicket -runs) might make the difference between pakistan wining and loosing so Inzi, YK and Farhat really have to make it count this time with the runs as Paki has a long tail.

Woolmer has to share the blame along with Inzi & Yunis... half of the team got out playing the same shot, aggression is one thing and stupidity is another.

This is tyical Pakistani mentality! One bad performance and Nazir comes under fire. How can you people overlook his consistency over the last couple of series? Before calling for the inclusion of Sami and Afridi let's not forget that they have been pathetic throughout their careers. We keep persisting with them just because they look 'glamorous' on field. Matches are won by performance not by face value. Stuart Clark is a prime example of this fact. I agree that Rana probably needs to focuss on the one dayers more as he is better suited to the limited overs version of the game. Inevitably Akhtar should replace him for the next match. On the other hand Gul can be considered for Nazir only if he is hundred percent. Kaneria has been unlucky throughout the season so my sympathies to him. Overall our batting is doing better than we have ever done in SA. Farhat and Hameed have come good with the bat. They only need to apply themselves more and convert those fifties into big hundreds. This would only happen with experience (look at Yusuf's transformation). I sincerely hope the selectors stick to Hafeez, Hameed and Farhat for the World Cup and beyond. The 'Hook or Duck' dilema poses a problem but it should not take long to sort it out.

The Super Sport commentary team interviewed Bob Woolmer the morning of the match wondering what the team's plan should be against the short stuff. Woolmer responded "We'll be ducking." So the question I would like to pose here is what went wrong?

Did the batsmen mysteriously forget the plan when they strolled out to bat? Imran Farhat consistently hit pulls that weren't off the middle of the bat but luckily landed away from the fielders and yet he persisted. I'm wondering how well the communication within the team is. Wasn't there a time when the dressing room sent messages to the batsmen? Why doesn't the present management remind the players not to hook or fall for a certain trap when it is evident that they're a little too trigger happy? If such messages are being sent to the players but are being ignored they should be thrown out of the team to set an example. How can you expect to pull or hook the ball from wide outside off stump? Do our players even know how to play a hook or a pull much less when it should be employed?

Every now and then, people tend to compare Inzi with Miandad. Some have argued that Inzi is more accomplished than Miandad. To me howevr, Inzi's dismissal in the 1st innings was another example why he could never be compared to Miandad. I would have expected him to spend Thursday night tossing and turning ib his bed, agonising over the way Younis and Yasir threw away their wickets after taking Pakistan to a comfortable position. I am sure there would have been a team talk and people would have realised the folly of playing hooks. Inzi, hopefully, also would have realised at the end of day's play how much the team depends upon him. The fact that he went for the shot so early on day 2 and got out just shows a glaring deficiency in his batsmanship. He can not adjust his game according to the needs of the hour. During last summer's England series, on the last day of 3rd test, he did not apply himself to try and play out the last 2-3 hours with the tailenders. With 7 wickets down, he threw in the towel, did not shield tailenders from the strike and started throwing his bat at every thing. The question is not if would have succeeded if he tried but why did he not try at all. For people like me who grew up watching Asif Iqbal and Miandad fighting epic battles with tailenders at the other end, Inzi too often fails to rise to the occasion.

MR Bob since his joining to pakistan team never give a single member to pakistan team which has bright future in the team nor he improve any technique fault batsmans like Imran Farhat, Shoib Malik, ABdul Razzak, Faisal to be mentioned. All the players like Yasir hameed, Salman BUtt,Asim Kamal, Umer Gul, Muhammad Asif, Rana Naveed , Muhammad Hafeez , Kamran Akmal and others apart from shoib Malik ( which i never think a player who plays for the team got injured whenever pakistan tour outside) , all these player came to team when pakistan coach was javed miandad and Selector was Amir sohail. Yasir Hameed and asim kamal was thrown out from the team just to accomodate shoib malik as opener , Shahid afridi and abdul razzak down the order. And much more to add Shahid Afridi Batted more decent when Javed Miandad was coach of Pakistan team u can see the stats for this. As coach Javed Miandad has far more better percentage of winining than Bob Woolmer and that to with the young team. And even he has far more winning percentage than all captain pakistan had. Javed Miandad 34 matches 14 wins 6 loss Imran Khan 48 matches 14 wins 8 loss. I am not saying that foreign coach not good but i still believe that local coach is far better than foreign coach.

Lots of people talk about faisal iqbal nephew of javed miandad thats why he is in team but i have different opinion he is in the team because inzamam and woolmer all scared if asim kamal plays well than there will be no place for shoib malik and abdul razzak ( both mentioned as future captain of pakistan team hahahahahahahahaha) in the test ( not in odis) so they continue with faisal iqbal in the team who is not good as asim.

I honestly think Pak team should hire an interpreter for our players. I guess they could also hire a teacher. Most of our players can't speak english. Hows Woolmer to communicate when they can't understand him. Woolmer probably said don't play the hook shot, but our idiots probably thought that he told them to play it.

ONE of the worst umpiring decisions in the recent times. Definitely the umpiring was below par. I would give Steve Bucknor the benefit of old age, the old man still tries his best to consult the second and the third umpire when in doubt. But, Billy Doctrove, the accomplice of Daryl Hair, who zipped his lips after the hair raising issues to save his own skin, is 'disgustipatingly pathetic'. Apart from the few LBW decisions he denied a straight forward catch of Makhaya Ntini, the second ball Ntini faced from Danish Kaneria he was out. How could Billy not see the ball hitting the pad, bat and the simple, straight forward catch? If he thought it was not from the bat, the replay confirmed that he was plumb LBW and the SA commentators were saying this is too much. Three plumb LBW decisions, two catches denied by the umpires is really poor and below par umpiring.

On wickets like this where its hard for the bowlers to get a batsman out, a few instances like these by the umpires adds frustration to any bowler and the feilding side. In this case whether Inzamam was feeling the pain or not, only he knows that, 'coz he is such a poker face, lazy, lethargic, slow motion character who can only scratch his beard or pick his nose and then do nothing more than sitting on his haunches. When Ntini arrived he should have removed Rana and brought back his best bowler Asif from the other end with Kaneria, which he ultimately did and Asif got his 5th wicket, but after a loss of 28 odd runs for the last wicket partnership and that could prove costly in the end for Pakistan.

Kaneria bowled well and I think he would be more difficult and dangerous in the 4th innings on this pitch as he was able to make use of the rough patches, especially the way he clean bowled Harris from behind his legs . But, to be more effective he needs aggressive field placement and to do that you need a lead of at least 270-280 runs. Is Pakistan capable of taking that lead? Its yet to be seen. Based on the law of averages it is very easy to predict a few Pakistani players performance and I wasn't expecting another 50 plus score from Yasir Hameed, he played and missed a hook shot before opening his account and immediately realized his mistake, but after pulling a successful shot for 4, he forgot that he needs to control his aggression until he is fully settled well and threw away his wicket needlessly by playing a poor shot. So did Hafeez, I don't reckon Hafiz as a consistent player. He took too much time and yet scored 19 and 15 runs.

Rameez Raja on both accounts (1st innings 48 runs; 2nd innings 41 runs) when the opening pair put on a score of 40 he said, this is an outstanding performance from the Pakistani openers! And that was, what they call it "a commentator's curse". If you say a 40 plus score from an opening pair as 'outstanding' then it is a shame and a disgrace to Pakistan team. In my opinion it should at least be 80 or a 100 to be called as a decent opening partnership and one of the openers must carry on to score 70 - 80 runs if not a 100. If Pakistan needs to save this match, they have to play all day on the 4th day and build up a lead of 280. I am not sure whether they will do it, but certainly they are capable of doing it if they apply themselves like Prince and Gibbs and also the umpires remain equally consistent with their LBW decisions. I think Faisal Iqbal has this one last chance to prove his worth by scoring big runs here or else he will go into oblivion like Bazid Khan and others. No hopes from Younis to go on and score a hundred or from Inzi to score even a 50 in the second innings. But, Farhat, Kamran and Faisal MUST score and that will make the difference. We need the youngsters to perform before the World Cup..... and that will build up their morale and increase the team confidence.

I agree with the earlier post about Inzi not even being in the same league as Miandad. The latter was a shrewd warrior, and could adapt to any situation. Enough is enough. PCB needs to hire coaches to help players develop their aptitude, mental tougness, and decision-making skills. It is essential to train future players who can think intelligently, adapt to changing realities, and take advantage of their opponent's weakness. The current paksitani batting order is clueless in this regard.

Imran farhat living dangerously i think he wont last long when the fourth day starts .Well we need younis khan to stay at least till lunch, inzi is in bad form cant xpext from him to flourish 100% .It would be great if Pak ll be somethink like 275/5 till tea .But it also remind me couple of words i.e batting collapse.Any way lets hope for the best that pakistan will come out strong .

Most comments are non-sensical, emotional.

An aggressive approach towards any weakness means to "counter-attack". Imagine all of them getting out "trying" to defend the short ball.

They just need a far better shot selection that's all.

Rembember, they just got to play a three day match before this game - which means they had no time to adjust and they've been adapting on conditions right from the word GO.

It's so damn easy to sit there and critisize but when you face the music, trust me, it's a lot different than just writing the ooh's and aah's.

Why not have a blog on happy driving?

Many batsmen, time and again, match after match, get out driving.

Why not cut that shot out. Once that is done, we can line up the other shots and start having them eliminated!

There is NOTHING wrong in principle with hooking or pulling. On bouncy tracks in particular it should be a highly productive shot and often is. Much better than ducking / weaving running away to square leg etc.

The decision to hook and pull, if that was taken collectively is a good one. As the series progresses and a little more experience gained on its safer execution in SA conditions (which can only be gained by playing the shot)its returns will be higher. The problem is not playing the hook and pull, the problem is not having enough games prior to the Test to hone the technique for SA conditions.

Oh come on people.things happen in cricket.Crickets a game of chance. THey all got out hooking or pulling. So what?
The brighter side is that green are playing very well as all their outs were due to bad hooking. They were responsible for their dismissals themselves.

And that gives us another point. Proteas bowlers haven't done much except bowled intelligently and make Paki batsmen go for da pulls and hooks

EItherway, the match is poised very nicely.Inzamam and YOunis have to play well. One of them has to get a century..

Au Revoir

For the love of all that is holy will someone please tell me what in damnation is wrong with Andre Nel? I mean I love Fast bowlers and like to see them have a bit of verbal sparring with the batsman ...am all for an occasional walk down the pitch for a deathly stare and a chirp after a short one...
but Andre Nel's verbal Tirades remind me of a full fledged Fidel Castro speech...dramatics and all...and to be quite honest he is not all that quick...his bowling is fast meduim yet he talks like he's lillee/thommo/wasim/wasqar/holding all rolled into one....
and the Umpires never caution him..never caution the captain...and bully for Younis Khan for making Nel look like an idiot by laughing at him...

how about some comments on what the consequenses would be if a Pakistani bowler say Shoaib or an Indian bowler say Harbhajan did the same..? I think they'd be drawn and quartered by the match ref and docked their entire match fees...
am sick to death of seeing this total tosh!

I just wonder why people call the Heraphiri that Pak middle order displayed aggression, I think it is totally defensive approach. becasue when you are failed to bled the runs from ur hositle throu classical fashion, then u go for such unproductive shots. I think the S. African have jsut put up a simple plan in which they have completed succeeded, they have made Pak batesman to struggle for runs, therefor the short ball was just like an hunt in hand for them to go for.
but as a professional, solid and strong minded batesmen they could have easily perished their plans by avoidng pull or hook, there would have been a big chance for the youngsters to approve their skills by converting a paltry total into a big advangegious total

Posted at end of third day's play:

Pakistan should immediately lodge a strong complaint against sledging and several critical umpiring decisions which went against them as usual. In fact they should now start considering boycotting coming fixtures and tournaments unless continuous umpiring bias and injustices against them are addressed without further delay and aggravation.

The mismanagement of ICC's Percy Sonn and Malcolm Speed as regards falling umpiring standards should also be put under the microscope and qualified and able personnel with honesty and integrity should replace them.

I have been ardent follower of cricket and I don't feel ashamed in saying that except for the Pre-Imran captaincy and Post-imran captaincy era, Pakistan cricket has always been disorganized and close to shambles. We keep on bragging about raw talent what it takes common sense to nourish and flourish the talent. You can find immense talent in street cricket of Pakistan but how do those cricketers make it to the next level? They had to polish it. Unfortunately, once our cricketers make it to the national level they start resting on their laurels and take everything for granted. I remember the days when Wasim was leading the side and he kept on boasting on the fact that Mushtaq is the best leg spinner in the world and Pakis are the best despite being clubbered down under several times. Modesty is no longer prevalent in Pakistan cricket. Look at cricketers like Sobers, Botham, Imran, kapil, Miandad, Amarnath, Qadir, Vengsarkar, Richards, Waughs, Gooch, Greenidge, Haynes, Marshall etc,. The elite list goes on.............but I have yet to come across an incident or an article when these super stars claimed that they are the best. Their performances did the talking. Unfortunately, we have overrated cricketers...........Most of all is Danish kaneria!! he can't even spin the bowl, let alone taking wickets. You could bring on Warne, Qadir, Kumble anytime and they would get a wicket. Mr. danish goes for 100 odd runs in every innings and claims a couple of scalps........Hellalujia......that's breathtaking. What Pakistan needs is fighters that's what won Imran's tigers the world cup. Aqib was an average bowler but a fighter.......Rameez was an average batsman but a fighter, Moin was an average keeper but a fighter. Most of all the greatest batsman pakistan has ever produced (Miandad) never had the right copy book technique and raw talent but he was a great fighter. The only fighters I see in the team right now are Younis, Akmal, Gul & Asif. You can feel their presence in the field. That's why i believe players like Afridi & Razzaq should be in the team. They are fighters.To give you an example Shoaib malik has limited talent but he has won several games because of his fighting abilities. Asim Kamal is a fighter who is unjustly out of the team. Having said that, Mr. Woolmer should definitely give the batters a piece of his mind for the way they batted. In my personal opinion, I still feel that Pakistan can clinch the test series against the Springboks but we should not fool ourselves by thinking that this team will lift the coming World Cup.

Pakistani batsmen are not capable of hooking and pulling the ball. It is not for the first time that they threw their wickets in this ridiculous fashion. Remember Pakistan’s tours to Australia when Australian bowlers were unable to take wickets for longer times they used the same technique which SA bowlers used in the first innings.

I think Bob Woolmer should be wise enough to tell his men not to try their batting skills on short pitch balls. Especially Imran Farhat got out in this manner a lot many times and whenever he goes to bat I tell my acquaintances to see him getting out in the same way.

As far as umpiring is concerned, Steve Bucknor has played a long inning and his retirement is far overdue. He is a respectable figure but for the last couple of years, he has not been up to the mark.

No comments on Billy Doctrove.

Regards

I only wish, the so-called Pakistan opener Imran Farhat reads the comments by Euceph Ahmed and retire himself from playing international cricket before the selectors open their eyes and put their mind behind it to realize what quality of players they select to play international matches. Imran Farhat doesn't even seem to qualify for a first class match. His selection only reflects the bad quality of the selection committee or there is a dearth of good players to represent their country in the global araena. It is a real shame that a country like Pakistan which is as old in cricket as the game itself, could not take care of the breeding process to groom good openers. Same view applies to the so-called front line bowler Naved-ul Hasan. I don't know how much of further hammering he would enjoy from class batsmen of the world. Can't selectors learn a lesson from their poor selection of players?

I think Kamran and other people on the forum are being a touch too harsh by taking Pakistani players to task for playing the hook shot. Today's test cricket is not about playing safe, it is about being aggressive. Only the teams that play aggressively win test matches these dasy. So Pakistani batsman adopted the right strategy by taking the attack to the SA bowlers. However, there were flaws in the execution of the strategy, in particular their choice of which ball to attack and which one to leave. While there may have been flaws in the tactical aspect, the overall strategy is the right one and it will stand Pakistan in good stead. And plz stop criticizing Bob Woolmer. Had it not been for Woolmer's patience and efforts to make Pakistani players mentally and physically tough, we wouldn't even stand a chance against South Africa, who are the next best team after Australia and are particularly difficult to beat on their home ground. Lest people forget, even when Pakistan had all those star players in their midst, they rarely managed to beat SA on home soil. That this team is putting up a stiff challenge to SA with very few star players in their midst is testament to the courage of this young team and the work ethic that Bob Woolmer has inculcated in them.

Day 4 - Lunch

It looks as if Pakistan's grip on this match is slipping away. Couldn't believe how Imran Farhat after getting 3 lives gave it away to such an easy ball just before Lunch.

From here on in, Inzi really needs to play a big one...nothing less than a 100 which seems highly unlikely because SA have been very tight with their bowling. Faisal Iqbal from what we saw before lunch doesnt look like he is going to last too long. I think the only way he can really get out of the rot is to attack.

If Pakistan even get a lead of 180-200 from here on in I think they would have done extremely well.