Was last evening a repeat of the one before that?

What can I say? I was wrong to hope for this quick a revival in the Pakistan team's fortunes. If you want my analysis of the match why don't you just read last evening's post - it would save me the effort to do it all over again and would still be fairly consistent with what happened in the second T20 game.

All I have to say is that, as a friend of mine posted on last evening's post, Shahzaib Hasan sucks. As does Muhammad Hafeez and the way Shahid Afridi lost his wicket was just terrible. Imran Farhat and his bloated belly also do not deserve a place in the team, in my humble opinion.

Another thing I observed was that, as the commentators kept pointing out, the Pakistan batsmen simply rely on instinct in execution of their batting plans whereas focusing on percentage shots may yield better results. Its all very well to play tape-ball cricket shots though during a slog the bowler and his captain are pretty confident of their probability of picking up wickets. However, proper yet aggressive shots combined with sharp singles tend to create pressure on the bowling side as the bowler's chances of getting a wicket are reduced and the score still mounts. Thus creating a headache for the captain. What's generally called the 'horns of a dilemma'.

I'm afraid that the factors which made the Pakistan so formidable a side in the early phases of the Twenty-twenty revolution is now contributing to its downfall. As bowlers have worked out alternate strategies to deal with prodigious hitters so have batsmen worked out strategies for dealing with the slower balls, yorkers, slow short balls, etc., but the Pakistani solution to this is reverting to what they know best - tape-ball cricket basics.

Amazingly, although our batting is causing us headaches we have a bowling legend as coach and another world champion bowler as bowling coach but no batting coach. Why? Is the PCB unable to interest anyone in the job? Maybe its got something to do with the life expectancy of the incumbant? Still the team has travelled to the United Arab Emirates with 8 members as support staff - what's the harm in having a 9th?

And why the heck is Intikhab Alam willing to work (as manager) with those very charges of his whom he, in his capacity as coach, labeled "mentally retarded" after the Australian debacle? It must be the money associated with the job otherwise why would a sane man go back to working with individuals who don't know how to properly "dress" and "talk"?

What are we in for next? I fear we might even see Yawar Saeed making another appearance as manager. Why? Simply because like our players and the public the PCB also simply doesn't learn too well from past mistakes.

Cheerio.