Cricinfo - Blogs - Pak Spin - Afridi's joy crowns Malik's debut

So the piece of rotten crap (PEC) has come out with its verdict. Big deal. We all knew what the problem was. As much as I detest the way Inzi behaved in the WC, it is not right to leave the blame with him solely. The PCB are as much as to blame. We have some educated and enlightened individuals in the PCB who are a stark contrast to Inzi in that respect. However they are ineffectual and incompetent in their decision making and administration too, just like Inzi. In any event Inzi is a dunce and I just don’t see how people can support him to keep playing Test cricket. Why is breaking Miandad’s record so important for him at a stage where his strategies played a huge part in the WC debacle?

As far as today’s match is concerned, Afridi redeemed himself with a match-winning knock after he foolishly got Nazir our earlier. I have stated before Afridi is not a bright bunny; how many times have we seen runners getting batsmen out? When a batsman is running for someone he is usually extra cautious with his runs because he does not want to get his batsman out.
Anyhow it is a good beginning for Malik but not such an inspiring beginning for the future of Pakistani cricket. First of all we went ahead with three specialist bowlers, one of whom is struggling (Mohammad Sami). This match only makes the case of removing Sami and Razzaq stronger; they both bowled at an economy of 5 and took only 1 wicket. Trust me this is the best bowling performance we can see from them. We again relied too much on Asif; Asif will not always be there to bowl his full quota of overs and concede 2.6 runs an over. I don’t understand why Fawad Alam was not played. He should have played instead of Butt, Nazir or Hameed.

In fact I feel there are greater negatives than positives to pick from this match. Afridi will not play a knock like this for the next 10 innings he plays. It was a fluke Nazir didn’t edge the ball and made it into the 30s. Same goes for Butt.

What really irks me however is that this is a dry and flat track where Pakistani openers are not as incompetent. The real test for Butt and Nazir is not how they play Sri Lanka (without their best two bowlers) on a flat track. The real test would be how they can play against Australia and South Africa in their respective countries. As far as Nazir goes he already failed that test earlier this year.

As Wasim Bhai said, same faces will produce same results.

Let us see whether we see some consistency from Nazir, Butt and Afridi in the remaining two matches.

Congratulations to Pakistan team on good performance. This Pakistan team has a lot of potential and Inshallah if they keep playing like this Pakistan will again be one of the top three teams in the world.

Gr8 nok my Afridi! Boom Boom strykz agen! But az 4 da team they luk'd better 2day in da field, not perfect but better den da world cup campaign. Shoaib Malik did good in captainin in the field but as the captain he also has to perform gud with the bat wich may tayk sum tym. I hope the pakistan team puts the world cup bhynd them & jus lux 4ward. Wish them the best!

we need fresh faces in this team.. and i mean that literally. lets hope his career takes a nose dive from here on..

we need true muslims in pakistan, youhana is a true joke, cant field, cant run, cant bowl.. lets hope he goes against shaun tait without a helmet and takes one on his face.

good luck pakistan.. down with yousuf youhana

Many Thanks to Afridi, who saved the day for our new Captain, some of our batsmen were just playing for their own place in the side unaware of the target ahead, and believe me it almost slipped, but again thanks to Afridi who single handedly stole the show and brought lots of pride for Malik and glory in the waiting, and yes he has silenced all the critics who were thinking that senor players might under perform because a junior player is handed over the captaincy.

well, i missed the live action as i am in the office, can't wait to go home and see the recording of match. Boom Boom Afridi.

Yes this was a much needed win, Afridi played great and responded to all his critics, the only thing missing was the presence of FAWAD ALAM. After the season this guy had how do you not include him in a low key ODI series? All shoiab Malik and the selectors need to do is replace Razzaq with Alam and this team's playing eleven are perfect. I will be extremely dissapointed if Fawad Alam does not get a chance to play at least one ODI in this series.

A wonderful and admirable performance, and finally fans got some entertainment after chain of PCB fiascos. I hope the team spirit witnessed on field would last forever in their ranks. If it is the case, surely we would see many more such performances.

And to Afridi; come on man, just become a little consistent, and we are the world beaters. You can single handedly tighten up screws of many team.....

Well we may not be the WORLD CHAMPIONS,we are still the most colourful and entertaining side in the world.

Shoaib Malik did okay for his first match hopefully he will improve with experience.Afridi,Akmal and Nazir really set the house on fire,Lets see if the fire keeps burning.

Only real disappointment for me was not getting to see Najaf Shah and Fawad Alam,there has been a lot of hype around them, like to know if there is any substance to it.

Javed.A.Khan good to see your starting to pick up the lingo and learning to use expressions like "Bro" and "Get my drift".How ever I fear your attempts at gaining the 'street cred'have come a bit late to attract any attention.Besides for someone who is in their 50s,it is time for you to wile away the lonely evenings listening to Mehndi Hassan and forget this "chaskaay baazi".By the way the expression "get my drift" is no longer in use:-)

Are we getting our winning streak back when the "dictators" are gone?

I would caution against premature celebration. The bedrock of our bating lineup did not stand up, once again. Afridi is a spent force. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, as they say. Celebrate when the win is the result of our top order performing well. I am afraid until the team management remains the same there is no hope. Even in a useless match like this, they did not bring in a singl new player.

after long time i have seen a good dynamic young blood with old experience players in real cricket game and i hope they gonna do the sa,me in up comming games work hard in the field section then you can beat any team of the world glad to see todays game

hi
i think afridi palyed a great part in batting even though he had a slog around the park it was great to watch.i also think pakistan bollers bolled well too.pakistan my be weakned younis and inzamam.
thank you bye

I seem to be the first one to comment on this! :)

No comments on how Shoaib's captaincy was? Osman Samiuddin said that it was definitely more agressive than Inzamam's (having Sami open the bowling). What do you say?

Pakistan's victory today in hind sight reminds us why the Ireland loss was soooo painful for the Pakistani fans. Good things is that it seems like the younger players 'HAVE' moved on and looking for a bright future again.

Flat wickets of Dubai are not going to test the real mettle of these cricketers. We Indians and Pakistanis like to overindulge ourselves in what Afridi and Dhoni produce on these tracks. But we should not forget that real test comes later, where our big hitters invariably fail.

Afridi was awsome. I wish he was in World Cup Squad...

It was again one of the matches of Pak-Team that I will never forget! Everything went right for Pakistan, the just in return of Mohammed Asif, the outstanding knock of BOOM BOOM AFRIDI and not to forget the g r e a t captaincy of Shoaib Malik, the way how he used his bowlers! And nevertheless the good-inning of Imran Nazir who unfortunately fall to a missunderstanding!!! Thank to the cricket god that we WON after a long long time again but the series is still not over there is plenty work to do but I hope that it will have a great end!! (Guys the big boost is still to come when Shoaib Akhtar returns on the big stage Shoaib & Asif will ROCK!!)) We r ready now;-)))

just pray for pak-team!

You need young blood; need get rid of all the old school(too much baggage); especially when it is Inzamam

Awesome innings by Afridi...
It might just be either of the signals he wanted to send everywhere...

Probably he wants everybody to know that he's happy with how the latest setup of Pakist cricket is and he would support it through his mature performances.

He wants people to stand up and take notice of his attacking genius and WHY he thinks he should lead the Men in Green on the field..

tough to know whats going in his head ..
more so in the mysterious world of Pakistan Cricket.

Six bullet shots!!!. Two fours and four sixes. Worth remembering!!. Good sunject for telling stories to grand-kids!!!

was impressed wiv kamran akmal, inshallah he keeps it up, we need him to perform, really does have amazing talent mashallah, and afridi what can u say? allahs blessed him..

Amen to that brother!

v true i think its the perfect start pakistan eagarly need at the time of crisis not only in cricket field but also internaly.its the time of joy and happiness for the whole nation.cheerrrsss afridi for giving us something to cheerr.

Afradi has always been a team player and he brings positive energy to the field... I am not surprised at the way he played today. I hope our selectors keep are kept honest and keep playing players who have potential. Congratulation Shahid! Congratulation Shoaib! Congratulation Pakistan! We have no doubt if the Pakistani Team plays like a "team" they can beat any team on a given day! Keep the spirit...

It was the team unity in Pakistan that came out victorious. Clearly it shows that all the boys were behind Malik and that really counts. This should give him a lot of confidence and could lead to further improvement. However, one word of caution - don't expect miracles from this team though. There will be losses on the way and instead of being too critical we should be supportive of the changes that come along.

Well played Pakistan!!

However, I'd be careful not to read too much into their victory today. The reason being simple - They rode on Afridi's temendous knock. As we all know, Shahid Afridi will win you a match, but the frequency is so far and few that I would not rely on him to perform another match winning act anytime soon again. I hope he proves me wrong and makes me eat my words, but he has flattered to deceive several times before.

Anyways, let's not take away the great work done by the entire team. Their fielding was good, manufacturing a few run outs - on the flip side, their own running left a lot to be desired. As for Shoaib Malik, he needs to lead from the front and show what he is capable of. That means that he has to bowl more regularly (he didn't bowl today) and be positive when he bats (he seemed subdued while batting).

So let's hope they continue their winning ways and bring some more well deserved joy to their fans, including of course me.

- Amjad Khan, New York, USA

Hey,
Kamran, the match was refreshing but come on, the scares of 2 embarssing world cups speak that we need a new bunch..Seriously, what do you say about a major overhaul of the team? or do you still think this patching up of the team is good enough..? Pakistan is drenched with talent ins't it, then i believe isn't a big talent search due...?

Even though it was Afridi who stole the show at the end, but to me it was Akmal whose innings made the difference to begin with. He was the one who brought the match back into Pakistan's hand by playing sensibly and quick. All other batsmen apart from Nazi have played drastically slow and were pathetic in getting out. The three run outs were just un-digestable. Full credit should be given to Akmal for making a well deserved half century at a crucial stage. and yess off course thank you Afiridi for showing what you are really made off.

Feilding was better. Salman Butt has opner and Sami looks alot better.

Malik should bring Sami when Siri L. were xxx/7 .

I hope to see najaf and fawad . I tink they will be good for Pakistan. Asif and Najaf in attack

Afridi CHA GIYA.

Cheers to that Kamran. I too hope, as all fans of our cricket team, that this bang of a start doesnt fizzle out soon. It is too early to speculate about furture performance of this yet a victory is always a reason to celebrate.

You need young blood; need to get rid of old school(too much baggage); especially Inzamam!!!

Its a new start for the Pakistani's under the young leadership of Shoaib Malik and it was a great victory for the new era, it seemed like everbody TRIED to give their best and thats all you can ask. We need the team to give 100% effort and show character, and the wins will come. We should understand that we are not going to win all the time but if the effort is there the desire is there then as a Pakistani cricket fan thats what I want from the team. Lets hope we continue with this kind of fight, team spirit & effort.

Well, I would say this innings again demonstrates the potential Afridi has, but he needs to be more consistent. One big plus for Pak is the return of Asif, this man is going to be one star. All the best to Pak. Batting is still shaky.

A good victory. I did not understand why did the captain not bowl a single over though?

Dr. Abbasi, we all know you are a proven Afridi supporter but I hope his another fifty does not come after 50 more matches. I wish him all the best.

To insult Inzi in the manner PEC is doing is 'syasi-jahalat.'

I would like to extend my sincere complements to the entire Pakistani Cricket team, and the fans all over the world. This match was a delight. But I will be very careful in appreciating the new makeup of Captain and the Players. Remember they are the same players who let the Pakistan Cricket down not long ago with their problems created by themselves. Shahid Afridee played a wonderful innings to save Pakistan today after a long long time but he took advantage of the two chances the Sri Lankan team provided to him due to miss catches. Even though the Track was good, again the top order managed to peter out. We have to really work on the top order in order to provide strength to the middle order, which in turn provides support to the lower end. From my point of view one thing is for sure for this present Pakistani Team. When the pressure comes from the top authorities, everyone align itself and perform for his place in a do or die scenario. Amazing? Why don’t they make it a habit of playing good cricket like they use to play in the not long ago when every damn player would have provided his 200% to his Country.

Wow, what a win.. It was just a that kind of win Pakistan needed after a desasterous world cup.
I think this batting line up has still some faults in it, though. Yousuf should come at no 3 where he has the best average in the world on no 3 with his 55 from many ODI matches.
Yasir Hameed would be well set if he comes later in the innings at no 5. At that time he can play as sensible he wants to and become an important backbone of Pakistans batting line up. The combination of Akmal and Afridi is simply perfect..they are fast between the wickets and Akmal is in reasonable hands of an experienced guiding senior player called Afridi. Afridi can hit from the one end while on the other end Akmal just keeps on getting the quick singles.
But on one thing Afridi needs to get credit is that he has proven to be a great sportsman. While most commentators didn't realise why Afridi stopped and defended the last ball he faced it was for me pretty obvious that Afridi was doing it for Akmal. 2 runs were needed and Akmal was on 47 and needed at least 3 to get to his fifty. Afridi was backing him wonderfully and cheering him up and when he blocked the ball he laughed with Akmal about his defense..the rest was just too good to be real but it still was. Akmal got his fifty with a four and ran to Afridi. The peak was when Malik greeted Afridi coming back to the dressing room..simply a perfect ending!
Inshallah we will see many more stunning innings of Afridi like that one today. It was in fact the 2nd big one this season after his 77 vs SA. Both were not outs and who knows how many he would have gotten from both these innings if he had played for another 10 overs or so. But this is the way Afridi should play now which is even more important now with Inzi gone. With brain and clear hitting ability.

Wassalam
Atif Waraich

Let's not forget Akmal's contribution. Afridi's belligerence came off, but one most days it wouldn't have. Kamran's knock was far more responsible for setting the platform for Afridi's blitz. Let's keep our fingers our crossed for games two and three.

Kamran bhai, you might be hopelessly optimisitc, and I admire that...sadly I cannot be like that.

A good start for Mr Malik and his new team (Which comprises of all the same faces).
Why didn't Shoaib Bowl a single over himself?
The team looked kind of weaker with not many specialist batsmen or bowlers. Instead there were All-rounders, Mind you one of the All-rounder almost single handle y defeated the opponents today but this team's batting without Inzi & Younis looks very weak on the paper.
Lets see how they are going to perform in the next game.

I think Pakistan team came out with a solid performance with a strong positive attitude,something which was missing during the later half of Inzamam days.
Shoaib malik appeared to have maintained composure even though the situation did not get auckwardly out of hand when Pakistan was fielding but It still provided Malik with a good test in his first ODI as captain.
And last but not least, Afridi provided the icing on the cake by not only winning the game but also the way he won it for his team. I am sure it left everyone in the dressing room on a morale high and gave pakistan cricket fans the oppurtunity to be involved again after the CWC debacle.

With Due Respect to kamran abbasi and every body

"Posted by: Dump Yousuf Youhana at May 18, 2007 8:53 PM

we need fresh faces in this team.. and i mean that literally. lets hope his career takes a nose dive from here on..

we need true muslims in pakistan, youhana is a true joke, cant field, cant run, cant bowl.. lets hope he goes against shaun tait without a helmet and takes one on his face.

good luck pakistan.. down with yousuf youhana"

i or for that fact nobody would like to see personal comments on players .. we are here to discuss all this cause we all were neva gud enough to make it but still this dosent take away the rigt to criticise professional life of cricketers but personal comments .TRUE SHAME. i believe you moderate the blog and comments and then they are viewable but either you ignored it or it dosent matter to you if kind of personal remarks come as comments on this blog.
hope we wont see kind of things again and atleast not on someone's faith ... my friend who wrote this seems a true muslim who calling a convert by his old name which implies he has decided that Mohammad yousaf is not a true muslim and he is coz of watever reason
i guess people agree to me on this i m not bein personal here but something i felt ...
thx
and as far as game winning and loosing part of game but spirit in which guys played this awsome
thats wat pakistan cricket is all about

I was very upset as all the pakistanis were at our dismal WC performance. I ve almost read all the comments and I am not happy about some people making clueless statements about Pakistan cricket and Inzamam. If that enquiry panel had more to say they must have blamed Inzamam for Judicial crisis in Pakistan as well. Come On guys! open your eyes. Why the head of PCB has not been fired, why there is no major change in the style of selection and overall running of board.

We are cursed people. We don't want innovation. We can't implement a fair policy in our system, from top to bottom.

I want to make certain points here;

1) Inzamam was not a dictator even if he behaved like one then this is Pakistani captaincy style. Don’t forget Imran Khan and Wasim Akram who we hail but they were even more authoritative than Inzamam especially Imran Khan.
2) I am really happy for Pakistan winning this game but there are major practices need to be done. What will happen when we leave these flat surfaces and go to Australia or South Africa and play with them. Don’t forget Sri Lanka is without its 3 major players.
3) We need to give chance to new players as Fawad or whatever performs extraordinary in domestic cricket.
4) We need to be more focused on cricket academies giving training according to the Australian cricket style. We need to build fast cricket pitches if we ever want to beat Australia 5-0
5) We need to change the overall PCB structure. FIRE the PCB Head. Make a Board of Governers committee comprising Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Saeed Anwar, Rameez Raja and make Imran Khan Head of this Committee. Make Imran Khan functional head of cricket board. Imran has some great ideas about prospering cricket in Pakistan with Australian style. Mr. President should stop interfering in Board decisions. For God’s Sake keep politics and cricket separate

Some body please show this to Mr. President or it will be too late as it is the case with every aspect of Pakistan.

I am a true Pakistani and I am coming back to Pakistan to try to create some difference. But you guys won’t see me in Politics, for sure. Long Live Pakistan

wasim akram and aqib javid have done well for pak and waqar younis.but let the guys play at the like it..... and they will find the way tooooooooo winners

The future looks bright, although not sure about our fielding our Abdul RazzaQ,

Afridi indeed , came to the rescue when things were looking a bit bleak .

A day like this makes you hope again...and yes, Afridi was great and once again, the legendary words "not out" come after his name on the scorecard. Truly inspiring and Kamran Akmal and Nazir did great too. Yousuf is still a great batsman no matter what is said and he should be kept on. One makes allowances for a bad day or two. And Afridi has something to prove at this point so let's hope he keeps on doing what he did today - slog yes but also some sensible playing and a good show of team spirit.

I was very optimistic that Pakistan would do well, exremley well. But what i saw was mediocre performence at best. Without Afridi's Pathan"ness" and Akmal's... well... his "ness", we would have lost this match for sure. I hope these two manage to do things like this more often.

Good show by Malik and Co. One change is required, Fawad Alam should be in playing eleven instead of Salman butt or Yasir Hameed. Why these below average players are in the team, i can't understand.

A wonderful spirit shown by green guyz. Once again they proved that if they are united then there is no thing of politics in cricket. Malik is the lucky guy who got so much reward for his first game. May Allah give him more respect (Amin)

Its interesting that Malik didn't open the batting (nor come in at number 3) and chose not to bowl either while Afridi bowled his full quota of 10 overs. While its too premature to pass a judgment, I get the feeling that Pak cricket is going to turn around for the better.

good victory in my honest opinion we need players wid better fighting spirit and to play for national pride rather than jus personal pride and in the next game i would like to see najaf and fawad replacing gul and sami

Our batting is still very weak, we should find a replacement of Inzimam, it can be Yousuf who takes the responsibility and stays at the wicket or Younis Khan someone like Rahul Dravid of India....

G'day there !The time has come when we laid back and see our team to win iNSHALLAH.i didn't have much time so i just blitz through the scorecard though i've read Kamran Abbasi's article.Well done mate that was a good one.
cheers
SAM

The wounded Pakistani tigers have come up with flying colors.
Although during the day, the aggression was not there as it should have been but the the men in green kept their heads up. Now such a bad beginning to a new start. Afridi played a cameo in today's evening show. Bravo! but next time watch your feet before you run for somebody else.

Lets save our jubilation till the end of this tournament. There seemed to be a bit more energy perhaps due to events of the last few months...they all had something to prove. But, lets see if they can win a few more games with this new found vigor. Shoaib is going to be a good captain in the long run - this was exactly what he needed for his first game. Thats probably why they didn't play the new players - Fawad Alam, etc. I wouldn't be surprised to see the new faces in the next game however.

Hi,I am very happy to know the success of Pakistan Cricket Team.But,there is still lack in our middle order batting.We have to improve our middle order batting for farther competations.Either return back to Inzmam or bring a new batsman for middle order.We are missing to Great Batsman Inzi.

I am sick of Pakistan and Pakistani cricket. They should stay at home and we all cannot get excited that they won one match. Bunch of jokers - cricketers, the PCB and all the other katlus

Posted by: Faraz Asim (PERTH,WESTERN AUSTRALIA) originally from LAHORE! at May 19, 2007 1:03 AM

Salam alaikum Kamran bhai.
Im happy to see Shoaib Malik in his first odi as a captain. Afridi is a match winner, most of all i missed shoaib akhtar, im his fan! i miss Inzi bhai as well! i hope i get to cee inzimam in the tests inshallah!

shoaib malik is big cheater he can never be good captin he lie to me and slept with me in australia and also i herd his inetrview when he marryed and now he is saying he is not when he cheats so much with people how he can be good to his country i wish afridi was captin malik i do dua he dies ameen

An inconsequential Mickey Mouse tournament featuring 1 semi-talented, yet depleted team, and another largely depleted of talent, played on a pancake of a pitch.

If it wasn't for the latter teams dwindling fast bowling asset(s) the match might have been lost, despite a lunatics rare day with the bat.

This is not the time to be

I am so proud of our team. They played with energy and sprit. They had lost 5 wickets at one point but Kamran Akmal showed his intentions to win the game clearly. What can I say about Afridi, he is the king of cricket. Four consecutive sixes....wow... I love it.....

MR."Dump Yousuf Youhana", You are totaly wrong. Yousif is one of great batsman in the world.He should play for pakistan till next world Cup. I don't think you are pakistani and muslim. i might be wrong but i think that is the case. You just afraid of yousif and Pakistan. He is Pakistani and Pakistani never afraid to anyone.

Shabash Shahid yuo brought the Pakistani team out of depression and for sure one can see that the Pakistani crowd woulld have been very enthusastic and I am sure the whole nation is and so are we the ones outside. Bravo, for doing such a superb job and thanks.

Well, Its too early to say anything, one match dosen't prove anything to me. Bringing Sami up first is not aggression, it is just an experiment and thats all, why there is so much of hype about this win. We didn't beat the full strength Sri Lankans. No Murli, No Vaas. We only win because Afridi managed to connect his bat to the ball otherwise the Top order failed once again. We had good openning by Nazir and Butt and after that we choked for a while untill akmal and afridi came to rescue. I think that in the next match, we should bring in new face but i don't think that it should be seen as replacing one of the senior player because he is not doing well so replace him, i think it should be seen as giving a chance to youngsters to showcase their potential. Well in the end, we won the match and thats what count most but we can't relax because SL will lift their game in the next encounter. Good Luck to my Team, Good Luck to Shoaib, Good Luck to PCB.

Here it goes. Yes this kind of performance was due. Woh khata han na ka " Bahat Deer Ki Meharban Ata Ata"

New Jersey, USA

WOOOOOOOOOOW.. what a match thats a match we are waiting. my parents saw this match in the abu dabhi satdium i didnot go bcz of my exams. about Afridi i and accept my whole family really proud of him. i am hope to be like aaaaafridi . and Kamran Bahi i request please do batting sincerely in the coming match or in the future. we are proud of our team

A good and much needed win for Pakistan. Hopefully the winning ways can be sustained !!!!

Since we have won the first game, we should try some new faces like Najaf and Fawad in place for Sami and Hameed respectively. Inclusion of Fawad would give us 7th bowling option. Salman Butt has no footwork at all so why don't we try new opener instead? Remember this wasn't our real test coz Srilanka was missing vaas and murali. Anyway well done and good luck

Dear Mr. Dump Yousuf Youhana: You are either a 10 year old kid, or a real jerk. To say something like that about Yousuf ("we need true Muslims") is very low. Any moron like yourself can sit behind a computer and post nonsense like that. We don't need any ‘true Muslims’ in the national cricket teams, son. What we need are real cricketers, regardless of their faith. Christian and Hindu Pakistani's are just as much Pakistanis as you are.
Keep the religious crap away from the national team, and if you don't have anything intelligent to contribute, then shut the hell up!

Kamran - please put this in the right context. These are meangingless games, with no importance, played as exhibitions for a wealthy Sheikh Nahayan who has no interest in cricket but wants to extend his Pakistan business empire (Warid, Bank Alfalah etc). To play games in May in 40 degree heat in Abu Dhabi is dangerous to the players health and certainly nothing that improves anybody's game. The money grabbing antics of the PCB by taking 750,000 USD for such nonsense might distract attentions from their immediate failings, but playing exhibition matches like this just makes Pakistan and Sri Lankan cricket a laughing stock - that the games are classified as official ODI games for records is ridiculous.

I TOLD YOU SO........... not that I am saying that I said Pak will win and they did, I am referring to khansahab's pathar ki lakeer vali verdict, where he doesn't wanna change his views and opinions because he has said it once and wanna stick to it like a, 'fataan ka zabaan ek' and would never change his stance about what he has earlier said. This is called "arriyal-ism or should I say Akhroat-ism?" Forming fixed opinions on a permanent basis about people is not the right thing, just because you have said it and formed an opinion about Afridi or anyone for that matter, it means that it can never be changed and in your opinion that person can never improve, change or become a good player!

I don't understand such biases and prejudices against any player and especially for a player who is the only Pakistani player and third in the world to score 5000 plus runs and 200 plus wickets in ODI's. It means nothing to you? And single handedly he has won several matches for Pakistan, in fact outta all the wins in which he has played,17% of them are due to his solo efforts, either bowling or batting or both, that is another thing that he was not awarded man of the match in a few other matches like, his 78 in 34 balls not out in SA. I am not an admirer of his big hitting but, he plays like a MAN. Although he didn't get any wickets in this match, but he bowled better than Razzaq and Sami, Gul got 3 wickets but he was the most expensive bowler. As usual, Asif was impeccable.

It was very obvious how Shoaib Malik was playing so cautiously, his 11 in 26 balls were due to the captaincy pressure, he should thank the man who crowned him his first success as a captain. In a way I am glad that Afridi is not the captain, even if he was, he wouldn't have changed his style. But, to predict that he will not play the same kinda innings for the next 10 matches is ridiculous. People have said this before when he played that 37/100 in Kenya that its a fluke innings and its an innings of his life time and, he will never play such an innings ever! Seven years later he came closer to improving that record in Kanpur, imo, his Kanpur innings was even better and more classy than the Kenya innings. Recently people said the same when he scored 78 n.o. in 34 balls that he will not play another innings for the next ten matches. If one knows how to count, start counting how many matches were in between that innings and this innings. His consecutive 4 sixes to Bandara will make him forget his bowling at least for a few months, like Harbhajan Singh lost his line, length and rhythm and was not in the playing XI for almost three months after Afridi smashed 4 consecutive sixes of his bowling in that test match in Pakistan. Thanks God that Kamran Akmal made a fifty he needed that very badly to boost his confidence. His efforts were over shadowed by Afridi's 32 runs over, the second highest runs in a six ball over.

So, I was right about the toss and restricting Lanka under 240, Malik should thank his stars for losing the toss, had he won and batted, they would have lost the match. When I saw the score at 80 for 1, I said, if the play sensibly they can win, but Pakistan team has a record of collapsing like a house of cards and very soon they were 137 for 5. Then someone played an insensible innings to turn the tables.

Mohammad Yousuf is an excellent player but, for the last 3-4 matches he seems to be putting himself under too much pressure for no reason and in doing so he is appearing tense and losing his wicket cheaply. He should not worry about taking the solo responsibility on his shoulders to make runs, we all know he is a great player and no one can score big hundreds all the time, he did, but he cannot continue for ever. So, my advice to him is to slow down and just play like a cool cucumber which he is, his presence on the field would be enough for the other players to perform. Thats what Inzi used to do. I do give Inzi his due for what he was, no matter how people talk about him now thats another matter but, as a player we cannot ignore his contributions.

In the next match they should try Fawad Alam in place of Butt or Yasir Hameed. This is a very good team for future and Pakistan can afford to play a batsman short if Shoaib Akhtar when he is fit, I mean when he is fully fit, actually I mean when he is super fit he can replace either Butt or Hameed. He should open the attack with Sami. I know khansahab will not agree with this idea because, he has a fixed notion about Sami and his bowling. Same is the second fastest bowler Pakistan has to terrorize the opposition along with Akhter, then there are two tacticians Asif and Gul. I dunno what would Razzaq's role be when Shoaib Akhtar comes in? A fully awake Abdul Razzaq is an asset in the team, he should be guzzling soda spiked with caffeine.

this is the first time i m saying some thing but feeling great. that im saying on this great victory.

however, this is not the end, its a good start, however, i would say with the young team this is good efforts.
as we try to appreciate, guys really need that now.

However this is just a short term,
i want to raise few points with this opportunity.

1. our bolwer are very good, no dought, however they can be more grome, Look Australian, once their bowler retire, they assign them the task.
legend like waseem and waqar are really no dought, i have no words for them. but these heores are insulted by our board. they must be part of board, or at least one must be continosly with the bowlers. in past pakistan won the game most of the time with the bowlers. although telent is there..but .......with polic. diamond is not diamond.....i m afraid

2. wining or losing always team afforts. so u can't throw to the others. like we seen that board did.

at the end i would say that we should more pressure on our board, that they should work in right directions.

The way Afridi plays simply doesn't warrant consistency from him. If it would, then Pakistan simply would have ended up wining almost every game. If wining only matters, then Afridi probably have brought more wins for Pakistan sigle-handedly than many of his illustrious teammates. If Pakistan really wants to look forward, guys like Fawad should be given a regular place in the playing eleven. He should get chance ahead of Yasir.

afridi.......afridi.......afridi.....even i play pro cricket,but one thing i dont underdtand is how can someone start slogging from the word GO?awesome pathan.....n guys dun forget what kamran akmal did, n critics said give others like zulqarnain and co. a chance.........hahahahaha.......shame on everyone who din support kami

It was a great team performance by the pakistani team. Good captianship and over all good effort by all the boys. Koddos to shaihid afridi for great knok.

But Kamran please do not post any more comments from this guy who call himself DUMP Yousub Youhanna. Man it was disgusting to read his comments. Brother grow up and get some life. Life is too short, dont be so hateful.

If any one dont know what i am talking about, please read his comments. This guy is full of BS.

I just donot understand what you guys are talking about behaving like a big burger family kids. Kick Inzimam out ok and get who In ........... look in the mirror this guy inzi is the man who has for so long battled alone and now are you banking on people like shoaib malik whose technique might be OK for 20/20 matches , on flat low bounce wickets against srilanka and India but not against real pace and swing. Its like comapring Rolls Royce with VolksWagon. So stop the "B S" against Inzi. He should play till we have an alternative and It can be one to two years.

Matches like today prove nothing unfortunately.

salman

I dont understand what Pk Cricket 11 players selection doing, they pic 4 similar pacer all are wright hand high arm bowlers, should be some variety like one mediam and one left hand pacer, i hope then it can work very well Insha Allah, there are no captaincy shown here, I mean he didn make special and tracky spel. Hope he will learn soon and he will do better n better in future. all are Akmal and Afridi dunn some extra job wot they do some time.

Fascinating victory!!! I entrilled to see the young pakistani cricketers performing as a team with great spirit. Well no doubt they have the talent to beat anyone but all they have to have is consistency and hunger of winning.

The perfect win to enter a new era! The best aspect (apart from the Afridi over) was the scenes of celebration after the win, after which any qualms regarding the amount of support the captain has from such players as Afridi have been laid to rest.
This is not the real test for this team; that will come against better bowling attacks and in the longer version of the game this winter.
However, every win is important for this team at this point, as the need is to get back to winning ways.
Afridi's blitzkrieg should not hide the fact that there are many things to improve upon: the three run-outs (all utterly rediculous) at the fore-front. There seemed to be a general lack of communication during the batsmen, which is surprising given the amount of cricket these guys have played together. Sami is another dilemma: he HAS the talent (and the pace), and I hope a captain who isn't afraid to back him will give him the confidence he needs to fulfill the potential.
Fielding was better, as seen by the three run outs that were, unlike the Pakistani ones, all close affairs, but a long-term fielding coach is an essential for this team.
And finally, Asif is a god with a ball in his hand

Let's get not excited about Afridi. He did well today but he was dropped at least twice. I wish sometime he could use his brain while playing. If he does that and be defensive on good ball he may end being the best batsmen in the world.
I wonder how many people have said this to Afridi.
Would he listen. I say no and I guarantee that
he may play like this only in few games, the rest is only in 10-20 runs. The way batsman got run out today is also very much to the ooncern and they will have to work on it hard. Again, the real test of Pakistani batsman can come on fast pitches or when they play against Australia or South Africa.

Pakistan need to build on their morale, their confidence and then their skills; this is a good start. Although a diehard SriLankan fan I am still delighted by this result. Afridi seems always to be at his manic best against us.
Question. What's with all the runouts?

First of all, my heartiest congratulation to Shoaib for winning the first ODI under his captain.

Winning and loosing, I think is part of the game. But winning habit makes a different. There are people in our blog, who tends to criticize whether team wins or loss. If Afridi plays good, they will say it was flat wicket, but they will not appreciate that he is one of the best hard hitting batsmen in the world on his day. He is a great entertainer of the game and we should appreciate and show confidence in him. Please do not expect him to play every innnings like electrifying, he could fail but it is the team game he fails other should shoulder their responsibility.

As I said earlier Shoaib will prove you all wrong by his good captaincy, who criticized that he will not be a good captain. He is very very smart cricketer (clever). Under his captaincy, you will see changes in the fielding area where Pakistan has been struggling for many many years because he is a very smart fielder.

I am not reading too much but for cricketing reasons, he has that kind of capability to egg on this bunch of team. I think Fawad Alam deserves a place in this side. Let us hope he plays next game, because we should try him earlier, the better.

Good Luck for the next two games Shoaib.

Great job Pakistan team!
Lets not forget that Yousaf is a great player and only a few months back created a couple of the greatest world records.
And Mr. Kamaran Abbasi please make sure that people do not post any hate mail or hate blogs under your column (Ref: "Dump Yousaf Yohanna" blog). There has to be a difference between healthy criticism and hate mail/blog. And a hate mail should be immediately removed.

hi.Y u post the comment by da nme of DUMP YOUSUF YOUHANA?there should b a criteria for posting a comment.

boom boom afride blowed the dubai!!.yes this is the thing afride did to world cup finalist .he taken them to all park of the ground and make pressure out of maliks head.his 32 run over was amazing thing to watch with 2 consecutive four and four six's.

We hope that pakistan repeats this performance

After this innings of Afridi it has become clear where one day cricket is heading. Gone are the days of "good timers of the cricket ball" like saeed anwar or rahul dravid who would just play with their timing and accumulate runs. It has all come down to brutal dominance, aggression and power. look at australians with the likes of hussey, gilchrist, symonds, hayden ; all powerful strikers and all extremely dominant and thus successful. look at south africans with gibbs, smith or englands's peterson or flintoff. all of these players have one thing in common and that is they hit the ball pretty hard with brute force and this aggression takes the opposiotion apart just like how afridi took apart the world cup finalists today. we need to produce aggresive and hard hitting players if we have to rule the world of cricket like australia is doing today. we don't want defensive minded cricketers like inzi or dravid. gone are those days. this is a new era....

Hi to all
Thanx to Mr.Shahid khan Afridi Pathan for a match winning inn.and thanx also Kamaran Akmal who win alots of matches for pakistan in his short career so far.
congragulation to Malik and all pakistan team and all pakistanis . My wish to pakistan win series by 3/0 .onece again thanx Mr.Boom Boom Afridi.

i congratulate to pakistan cricket team.they have done a very good job.

Yessssssssssss Mr.Boom Boom Afridi thnak you.
and also thnx super talented Kamran Akmal.

I think this is a satisfactory performance by Pakistan but still Pakistan needs one good bowler with Mohammad Aasif and Umar gul I think they also try Mohammad Khalil or Samiullah Khan lashari because they are left Arm bowlers and Left arm Bowlers are very Important in the attack.

good start. i guess only younis khan is missing in the line up.well done shoaib, keep up the good work.

Great knock from afridi, but we want consistancy in afridi's batting, but asif is realy good we hope that it will continue in future and we will win the 20 20 worldcup with afridi went to open in 20 20 worldup

Although I am an Indian but I am a great fan of this man....he simply changes the match in 1-2 overs that is what he did last night.......I stay in hostel n whole my hostelmates know that i am big fan of him...so all were waiting for him to get out...but he was different....aah amazing over that was in which he made 32....great man...just be consistent....all gilchrist,dhoni,chris gayle,mathew hayden would be nothing in front of you

shahed bhai played really fantastic inning i m big fan of your shahed bhai

congrats to all Pakistanis. But, don't be overjoyed-- there is still a long way to go

asslam alaikum to all my brothers pakistan played very well. they show that they can do anything .specially shahed bhai played very well. what a inning was that!

By and large a good performance by Pakistan. Though in the middle it looed as if they will not make it... but thanks to a promising inning by Afridi.

One more thing I want to add here is that, after recovering from the bad habbit of going after the ball, wide on the off stump... it looks as if now our boys will get out by run out more often :-D

Haan one more thing, Afridi was supposed to bat like that after leeting his partner down by his poor running...

Go Pakistan Go

Boom Boom has arrived. If Afridi was able to play all the matches at the World Cup, Pakistan cricket would not be in shambles. Vancouver, Canada

Well done,Shoaib Malik ,I think you have trained ur players by Professional way and ur players are over active.....I mean that now they know how to play with full potential,I want to tell Shoaib Malik that dont make them much over .because yesterday's result tells us,that how they got run out,half of the players were run out

@All Anti-Afridi Mafia: At least he performs sometimes and i am sure of one thing he has his own style he plays his own way regardless of being afraid of his place in the side and most important of all he brings smiles on the faces of audience, and provides entertainment which is the basic purpose of sports.

Young new team? unfortunately all the old names played. Good win lets see how consistent paki team can be. After WC cant expect SL to motivate for this meaningless series.
Paki team not selected on merit. Rao was one bowler who was one of the better bowlers in WC but he was dropped? Batting order Kamran Khatmal should bat at 8 due it his performances last year... Afridi at 6 and Razzak at 7. Shoaib Malike better start bowling some overs... Pakis need him as all rounder not just batsman.

Gr8
i m 2 happy with this win
gr8 nation
gr9 team
jagta pakistan

pakistan are a good one day side. they can beat the best in the world. only thing missing is attention to basics & team work. once they manage that they have potential to beat any team in the world. in shoib they have innovative captain who will lead by example

Hats off to Afridi & Akmal for leading the fight, but I would hold off the celebrations as both of them have proved time and again that they are capable only of ocassional sparks. Clouds of concerns still loom...
First, despite being a low profile game against a tired team resting few very classy names, this was a perfect opportunity to throw in a couple of new faces, and have given them a run of 3 games in similar conditions against similar opposition. Instead, now they 'll get a game, may be 2 if they are extremely lucky. Second, the complacency that set in after getting 5 top-order wickets. A game that was totally under Pakistan's control, went swiftly away...what looked like a 170 run target, stretched out to highly competitive 235. They need to be concerned about such instances. Third, what was our top order batting all about. 3 run-outs in top 5. The comedy of errors (I would rather call them crimes) almost cost us the game. What was a solid, quickfire opening stand, eventually got dragged to 5 down for 130 odd, extremely unacceptable. Fourth, why would Shoaib Malik not bowl himself...he is capable enough to roll his arm for a few, I really dont see how Razzaq or Sami merit bowling 10 overs each, someone needs to take a few off their weak shoulders. Then, why would Asif, who happens to be most disciplined bowler, finds himself out of his overs by 35th over of the game, why not have him bowl atleast 3 at the death. Part of the reason was the late fightback that prompted Malik to use Asif, part of the reason was that Malik realized Asif was the only viable choice he had, which again raises the same 2 questions...why did complacency set in after 5 cheap wickets, and what are Sami & Razzaq doing in this squad. Teams like Australia have achieved great heights not b/c they celebrate outrageously for every little victory of theirs, but b/c they study all the small mistakes that they commit and work very professionally to eradicate them. Its mistake the first time, its blunder the second, and its a crime if it happens subsequently...thats what seperates great teams from mediocre, I hope our unit starts looking at these small points more seriously. Then only can we talk about JOY and CROWN

well thanks to allah first of all who gave pakistan a needed breakthrough . this victory is all because of afridi's great knock , over all statistics shows that pakistani players have to lift their games 1000% more from here , salman butt, yasir hameed both are so keen to stay on the pitch runs come or not , they do not have target in mind when they were playing game almost gone from pakistan , first fifty done ball to ball and second fifty in 100 balls , this shows how keen our players to play their own game and stay more on pitch rather runs comes or not , slection of team was again a question mark there are four opners playing in this match . but botom line is we won the match , all happened because of afridi ,afridi done it before many times , but if afridi gone as usually result will be diffrent . so we can not depend on afridi everytime , once in a blue moon it happens not in every match .

I saw the whole thing LIVE in Abu Dhabi!! Alhumdulillah, it was absolutely awesome. We hadn't stopped cheering for one sixer that the next one came, from Afridi. I predict they're going to lose in the next match though, and let Sri Lanka win. It's always like this. So that it'll be suspenseful about who will win in the 3rd match.

Good captaincy but because of abdur razzak their was a lot of pressure on Malik. Razzaq has bowled his first 3 overs so bad. but malik was unable to remove him from the attack in time after a cauple of overs. What can he say to Mohammad yousuf for his lazy batting? We must not include these 2 old horses in the team.
This is a time to give a chance to the fresh legs like fawad alam, Najaf shah. Not razzaq and nor a Sami. Slecters knows malik bhai knows & every one knows Najaf is far better bowler then Sami. So this is a time malik has to break his friendship with Sami and Razzaq. U must include najaf and fawad.

All is well that ends well. But that isnt the case in cricket for sure. Malik has just opened the captaincy inning and yes, successfully as well. Important thing is to continue it and pay attention more towards his batting. Because that is the area where he has to improve a great deal. And that will be the point that can make his captincy and pakistan team successful and consistent. Good luck malik and lead from the front.

Loved those earlier comments by some crackpot asking that yousuf "yohana" be dumped in favour of "real" muslims.
It's nonsense like this that keeps pakistani cricket in the doldrums. Our wise guy just needs to read last year's statistics to see why mohd yusuf must be in the team. He will also see why our team selection is such a nightmare. Be that as it may, our team is still the most exciting bunch to watch/support. Their very unpredictability is their strongest asset, no matter how many times they have broken my heart with their excruciatingly brilliant flashes of ineptitude. Mohd yusuf has another 10 years in him....by our standards!

well...
i think pakistan team played well...
afridi played well....
shoaib malik captaining well....
nazir open well....
butt supporting well....
all the players performed well.....
but i love "inzi"

Sadly jumping to conclusions is a very old habit. Lets just wait for the tough envoirnment or series, only then we can rate the class of our team. Wait and see how good is the performance of Afridi in next matches.

yeah its again afridi the fastest century maker, one of the best striker of the ball in cricket world, played very well for his team and helped pakistan to win.
Congrates to pk & shoib malik.
i think vice captain should b afridi it has 2 reasons:
One is that he is now senoir player in team
Second is that he is attacking player, he attacks on the opposition, if whole team attacks on opposition then what u people think?
just like austratillia or south africa.
Main difference is that v take pressure and they give pressure.
NO pressure if their both oppnners bowled down on 0 score but pakistan v know that.
So guys i think afridi should b vice captain reasons i told u. tc

Congratulations to all Pakistani after this burning success and may God bless Pakistani C.T with some more such a rollicking wins.Definitely the debut of Shoib Malik as Pakistani skipper is remained better but there should be consistency in it in future which normally does't seen in Pakistani C.T.Afridi Bhia carry on such a blazing form in upcoming matches.

i like shahid afridi no metter he score 0 or 100

Boom Boom Afridi....hey guys it was gr8 inning from BooM BooM Afridi but lets not forget that Srilankan have no Vass & Murli coz they both have done very well for Lanka...i would have liked pak to just give chance to the new faces..pak should give cnace to Najaf Shah and Fawad Alam so that they can know how they can perform on this level coz its not easy to perform on this level ...lets hope selectors give them a break to show what they are capable of...any how its long way to go and malik needs to get the boys together and give their 100%..
BooM BooM Rock the Party ...wow

Regardless how the team performs during the calendar year, it was good to see a young and energetic Pakistani team with only one senior batsman. Hopefully, it would rest responsibilty on the shoulders of the younger talent alnog with hope of a spot in the playing eleven subject to performance. However, they should still play an experienced test side. Another thing, please get prone to unpredictability people, this team has won Malik's debut without a coach. Do not lose hope with Team Pakistan.

Good looking young team and good captaincy as well by Shoib Malik. now atleast give chance to these young players up to end of this year. Should consider Hassan Raza in test matches in place of Inzimam... Naeemullah Khan

Amazing to watch Afridi Going Berserk & achieving an unlikely victory for Pakistan. Akmal Supported him well by playing his stylish drives.Malik's captaincy was reasonably well. Hope our team maintains same spirit in the future tours & tournaments.
Lastly, would like to see Fawad Alam play in this series.

shahid khan afridi wonderfull perfromance yersatday thanx kamran good batting suppoting malik ok

well as a good sl cricket supporter and always highly regarded good cricket all around.first of all im so sad cause i didnt have any chance to watch the game due to my injury.
well to me afridi is one hit wonder which he make century and next ten games he go for duck.his shots are realy un authodox andhe just swing the bat and luckily ho got bat most of the times.the only pakistani batsman i ever loved was great zaid anwar was fantastic to watch his shaots.if i compare afridi and anwar afridi is like a kid who plays cricket. and over roll it was nice to finally pakistani winning and i was so hated to see that imam inzamam playing.pakistan players always look good with clean cut which they look like athletes and i saw that inamam look like some fat religious leader than a sportsman. we all love our religion and we all have respect of their beliefs but i hate to see pakistanis in to islam too much and not concentrating on winning.i wish all the best to sl and go ahead and win next two games
thanks