Cricket victory

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Editorial
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16
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Commendable

 

 

 

Big of Misbah to dedicate the Independence Day Oval Test win to the nation and Hanif Mohammad. The original Little Master was part of the generation that put Pakistan on the cricketing map, with authority. For a long, long time since then we were always part of the best few teams in world cricket. That remained till well after the world cup win in ’92. But then flashes of brilliance became the exception rather than the norm. And incidents when the Pakistani outfit would dominate – often enough even weaker teams – became very, very rare.

The Oval Test, too, came when the team was pretty much written off the series. The first win was definitely worth writing home about. But, typically, before long the side was back to dropping simple catches and misreading straight forward deliveries. That is why the last Test was such a welcome, thumping return to form. That Younis, with his brilliant double century, was named man of the match and captain Misbah was awarded man of the series shows that the seniors led from the front in a determined effort. Yasir Shah, mostly lethal, clicked at the perfect time – destroying England’s second innings – just as Sohail Khan had done in the first innings.

Yet as remarkable as the win was, it does not mean that the outfit is back to its winning ways. There’s still a lot that needs to be sorted out. For example, the team dropped a number of sitters even in the two matches it won. And the battling line up is far from perfect. The game is nowhere near institutionalised, as it is in much of the world, and we still rely on individual brilliance for face-saving. And PCB is still among the least professional cricket Boards around. Hopefully the team will now look to sort out its many avoidable weaknesses, and the Board will do the same.

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16 COMMENTS

  5. It was a DRAW repeat DRAW! Pakistan’s performance in second and third matches was lousy failures – Great performance in the last (fourth) match was huge success but only for a bloody DRAW so celebrate but not too much – you won nothing just DREW the bloody series!

  6. Younus you were amazing! Long live Younus! Keep on touch with Azharuddin – the crooked former Indian captain – he can help you with good advice!

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