Where did Pakistan go wrong?

The much hyped match between arch rivals India and Pakistan for the ICC cricket World cup 2015 turned out to be an easy win for the men in blue. The audience of almost 1 billion watched on as the Pakistan team struggled to chase India’s score of 301, making quite a few crucial mistakes on the way. Here’s a look at where the team faltered.

1. Gave away easy singles in the middle overs

Pakistan were off to good start with the new ball, taking out Rohit Sharma early at the score of 34. They also bowled well during the power play. India, reeling from the early loss of Rohit needed a partnership and hence were obviously not looking to take risks. But as soon as the spinners started bowling, singles were easy to come by. The field was well spread and the fielders inside the circle were not alert enough. Virat and Shikhar took advantage of this and had a very successful partnership which took the game away from Pakistan and set a solid platform for someone like Raina to bamboozle the Pakistan bowling attack.

2. Virat Kohli’s let off’s

Knowing the ability of Virat Kohli to take the match away, the Pakistanis shouldn’t have dropped his catches .The first chance was a difficult one with Kohli trying to pull a Shahid Afridi ball for a six over long on. Though it was only half a chance, these are the kind of chances that lift the spirits of players. The second catch was a dolly. With India just losing the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan, the wicket of Kohli would have caused many problems for the Indians. Haris Sohail bowled a beautiful loopy delivery and managed to get an edge but wicket keeper Umar Akmal dropped it making way for Virat Kohli to do some massive damage.

3. Sent Younis Khan to open their innings

Agreed, Younis Khan has been a great player for Pakistan, but he was currently out of form. So was it wise to open with Younis and drop a regular opener like Nasir Jamshed from the side? It definitely didn’t seem a wise decision in this match though. Younis looked out of confidence from the start and even though he played a good flick of Umesh Yadav, he never looked set and a good bouncer from Mohammed Shami did the trick and got India his wicket.

4. Lack of singles

Pakistani batsman couldn’t do what Indians did excellently in their innings. They were unable to rotate the strike enough due to excellent fielding and lack of intent from Pakistanis which lead to increased pressure on them. Indian took advantage and removed the middle order of Pakistan quickly.

5. Immaturity of the Pakistani batsmen

After the early wicket of Younis, Haris Sohail and Ahmed Shehzad got together for a much needed partnership. They were scoring at a decent pace before Sohail got out on an excellent delivery from Ashwin. This was the result of some excellent bowling by the Indians. Then Shehzad and Misbah got together. Shehzad started playing some shots taking advantage of the good pitch, but a cut shot played in the air saw the end of his innings. At a time where he should have stuck with his captain, he threw his wicket away which lead to a middle order collapse. The following batsman- Shoaib Maqsood played a lazy kind of a shot to a ball there for the cut and gave a simple catch to Raina in the slips. Umar Akmal then got out on an excellent delivery from Jadeja and Pakistan were reduced to 103 for 5 at the end of 25 overs. The Pakistanis never managed to recover from it. Need of the hour was to play alongside the captain and take the game till the end which the Pakistani batsmen couldn’t quite manage to do.

Edited by- Arundhati Pimplikar