Chasing targets: If Pakistan loses the toss, will it lose the match too?

Matches against S Africa exemplify how our batsmen suffer psychological pressure when made to chase a target.

Adnan Ali Syed Chishty November 08, 2013
It was evident from the moment that Pakistan lost the toss and was made to bowl first to the Proteas in their third encounter in the ongoing One Day International (ODI) series, that the spectator’s expectations would not be met. At best, it would be a nail-biting match.

Statistics show Pakistan as a very poor side at chasing down targets for decades, but this flaw seems to be becoming worse over the last couple of years.

The world last witnessed Pakistan successfully nailing down a target of over 260 runs against Kiwis in late 2011. However, since then winning when batting second in 50-overs has been a distant dream for this cricket-playing nation.

In most of the matches, it doesn’t even seem to make a difference whether the asking total set by the team batting first exceeds 150 or 200 -- Pakistani fans have almost resigned to the fact that the green boys lose hope before even reaching the finish line.

To Pakistan’s credit, our boys kicked off this five-match ODI series against South Africa with thumping dominance over one of the world’s best batting line ups, restricting them to a mere 183 in the first challenge.

Despite a good show put up by the first four batsmen, the rest could not take their side home. With only 17 runs required, with six wickets in hand, they lost the match by only one run. The number of balls left was not an issue at all.

Does this indicate that there is a dearth of international level batters on our side?

Of course not, as proven in the second ODI.

Immediately after biting the dust with a negligible margin in the opening encounter of the series, we trounced the Proteas by a huge margin of 66 runs. However, history repeated itself in the third ODI and the Pakistani team let its fans down yet again. This loss left a big question mark on their abilities to chase targets in the international arena.

Although the openers were off to a flying start, sharing a 50-run stand within six odd overs, the middle-order and tail-enders failed to capitalise on that massive margin. Consequently, the entire side was bowled out in just 44.3 overs, needing another 69 runs to win.

Although there has been a lot of criticism on the team’s failure to find a dependable pair to open batting, the fact is that middle-order batsmen too have not been up to the mark.

Like most ODI series in recent years, Pakistan is yet again, ‘experimenting’ with openers.

Ahmed Shehzad

Ahmed Shehzad has been paired with Nasir Jamshed twice in this series and once with Mohammed Hafeez. Although Shehzad has been trying to stand strong with two 50s and an over 30 score, Nasir Jamshed disappointed the nation with a duck and single run in the first and second match respectively. Jamshed was then ruled out of the third match.

On the other hand, the Shehzad-Hafeez pair seemed to have brought opening back in business in the last match. However, their consistency remains to be judged in the coming encounters.

The Pakistan team also relies heavily on skipper Misbahul Haq, Asad Shafique and Umer Akmal during their innings. This ODI series however, all three failed to make an impression.

Misbahul Haq and Umer Akmal

Contrary to his reputation of being a solid rock for the team, Misbah only managed to score 31, 25 and 19 respectively, while Umer Akmal, known to have all cricketing shots in his bag, hit 18, 18 and seven respectively.

This, according to cricketing gurus, is simply not enough to pace their innings during the middle stretch.

Asad Shafiq

Shafique got his first chance in the third match of the series, courtesy to a ton he hit in the second innings of the second Test. Unfortunately his presence didn’t do much to help the team. With only 11 off 40 balls he served as a disappointment.

Umar Amin

While Umar Amin is fresh-blood inducted in the middle order, his performance thus far puts his selection altogether under jeopardy. With a mere 20, 14 and 13 runs in three chances, should he have been in the team, let alone the middle order.

So, what do the batsmen in green need to learn from their consistent failure in chasing targets?

They need to understand that although they cannot always win the toss, it in no way means that they cannot win the encounter.

In order to improve their chances and make an impressive comeback in the fourth ODI, the team needs to work on two fronts: building partnerships in the middle innings and respecting at least two South African bowlers, Daryl Steyn and leg-spinner Imran Tahir.

Imran Tahir has bagged a number of wickets for Pakistan on more than one occasion.

During the last encounter, the duo played a huge part in gaining victory for the Proteas over the Pakistani side. Steyn finished with one wicket for 31 balls in his eight overs while disengaging the formidable Shehzad-Hafeez 50-run opening stand. Tahir bagged four wickets for 53 balls.

Although Pakistan’s bowling is backed by the world’s top-ranking ODI spinners, with the likes of Ajmal, Hafeez and Afridi, they are simply unable to guarantee victory every time. This trend is likely to continue at least until the batsmen show maturity. After all, it’s a universal fact,
“It takes two to make a quarrel!”

It still surprises me to hear cricket tales of the late 70s and 80s from my elders, when Pakistan would apparently always choose to put the opponents into batting first after winning the toss, and would still win the gold while batting in second.

These veteran fans insist that Pakistan won in spite of this strategy, simply because the players then were more mature and responsible – they played sensible cricket, selected shots on merit, and knew how to neutralise the psychological pressure that haunts international teams while batting second.

Watching their matches in our current times, it is quite apparent that it is precisely this psychological pressure that gets the best of our batsmen when they are made to chase a target.

Pakistan’s trouble with chasing targets first came to the limelight in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) 1999 World Cup, which they finished as runners-up against Australia. They lost to South Africa and Bangladesh in their group matches – again, both were poor instances of chasing runs. Since then, they have been struggling to figure a way out of this dilemma.

The world knows that ‘it is never too late to mend’. Similarly, it is not yet too late for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) coupled with the coach and the skipper, to engage the services of psychological therapists or trainers on a permanent basis, with the specific task of working with our batsmen on their strengths, in order to improve their skills at chasing targets.

Looking closer to home, plenty of lessons can be learnt from India.

India showed great character and temperament against the world’s number one side Australia in a recently concluded one-day series, which ended with India’s coming out as a strong run-chase side. They crushed the Kangaroos batting second, overcoming mammoth totals of over 300 runs more than once.

South Africa is leading the series by 2-1 at the moment and has put Pakistan under tremendous pressure. Looking at the current scenario, the latter may have strong chances of winning the series, provided that they win the toss in both matches.

We all know that losing the toss in either case would be akin to losing the series.
WRITTEN BY:
Adnan Ali Syed Chishty A freelance journalist, currently contributing to a US-based web portal that caters to cultural diversity issues, he tweets as @ AdnanAliUSA (https://twitter.com/AdnanAliUSA)
The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

COMMENTS (7)

Faizan Syed | 10 years ago | Reply yes absolutely, this is how Pakistani players keep on letting down the image built by the Pakistanis Khan, first Imran win 1992, then Younus 2007 and in the end last world cup when Afridi took the sunk team to the semi final
Sohail Butt | 10 years ago | Reply Shame on our team. The whole series was tilting in their favor but batsmen showed utter negligence which resulted in sudden collapse from first match until last defeat. Only if Umer Akmal could hold his nerves, the series would be level now.
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