The World Cup Final and Beyond

Boy that was humiliating! I get up at 0100, biked 8 miles to watch my team
and they don't even put up an effort. So frustrating. One could think of
all the possible combinations for a result but this one was not one of
them.

The thing that makes me mad is the lack of spirit. I don't think that they
were over-confident. They just didn't focus well enough. There was too
much fear of failing. And they were not nearly as positive as they
should have been. Except for Afridi and Wasim, the rest fell to shaky
strokes. Afridi's inclusion was the first mistake. Seeing that Warne was
in form, Youhanna should have been in the side as he plays spin well.
The approach should have been to hit Warne out of the attack. Afridi tried
to do so but he's not the best player of spin bowling in the world.
Letting Warne settle in was a big mistake.

I think the match could be summarized in 1 over. This was Warne's second.
Ijaz got beaten by a ball that turned quite a bit. There was nothing more
demoralizing for me (and I'm sure many other Pakistanis) and reassuring to
Warne than Ijaz's very noticeable nod of the head. He kept nodding it as
if Warne was his own teammate and surely that gave Warne a lot of
confidence. Two balls later a very ordinary ball bowled Ijaz. He should
have shown more aggression as should have the rest of the team.

I thought Shoaib and Wasim bowled their hearts out but you can't expect a
miracle every time. 4 times out of 5, Pakistan would have defended that
total but this time the spirit on the field was too low. Sloppy fielding
didn't help either. Pakistan can field well when they want to.

Well regardless of the result, these two teams are not that far apart. To
say that Shoaib is not a big match player would be unfair because he was
going all out for wickets. Being runners-up in the WC is nothing to be
ashamed of. Losing to Bangladesh is, however.

Unfortunately, nobody remembers the losing finalists. Pakistan can at
least gain quite a lot from this tournament. Razzaq emerged as a very
mature player. He and Azhar need to improve their bowling against
left-handers, though. When they bowl from round-the-wicket, they
deliver the ball from very wide of the crease and
really need a seaming wicket to trouble the batsmen. Shoaib shouldn't let
this final performance get to him as he has a pretty bright future ahead
provided he stays injury-free. His pace is the reason why he's expensive
at times. I don't think he has a problem with accuracy. Saqlain had a
mixed tournament but didn't often bowl according to his field as he
normally does.

The batting obviously looks more fragile, especially after the final.
Wasti looks exciting but needs to iron out his deficiencies against the
moving ball. Saeed, Ijaz, and Inzamam have several years of cricket left
in them and need to bat more responsibly than they did today. Azhar,
Razzaq, Moin, and Wasim form a rather strong lower order for a one-day
line-up. I thought Azhar should have gone in ahead of Moin and Afridi
today.

The nucleus of the Pakistan team is 25 years of age. I think from this
point, the team should seek out to establish themselves in the test and
one-day arena with the players that were discovered in this tournament.