England v Pakistan (in U.A.E) 2012

they have completely wrong balance in odi team. even england is trashing them what will do india, australia, SA to them.
The miss of Abdul Razzaq cost them the balance. They need to give Hammad Azam a good run and try to find a good fast bowler like Shoaib Akhtar.

I think they do have several good fast bowlers in the frame already, Wahab and Junaid for instance are a MUST in ODI's, I don't know what Aizaz Cheema is doing there, Talha and may be Sadaf can be brought into the frame too. 

If you are playing Kamran as a batsmen and still playing a keepr then that doesn't help the balance of the side either kahmed. I'm fine with Razzaq but his of late has been very patchy, both bowling and batting, still until Hammad or someone else challenges for a place in the side, Having Razzaq is OK.

ENG's ODI squad really looks fresh and talented, I thoroughly expected them to get walloped but they have been very impressive. I still think the middle-order needs some work though, there is an over-reliance on Morgan to deliver and if Cook or KP get out early, they will be exposed. In all four ODIs, either Cook or KP has gone to get a hundred but that won't happen all the time and it will be interesting to see how ENG cope when they both fail.

Pakistan were shockingly poor, the batting is terrible if I am being honest. It's far too slow at the top because they are setting it up for Afridi and Akmal, which is an outrageous policy to be frank. Akmal is extremely talented but his position is still not really settled and you can't keep expecting him to tee off and bail you out of trouble and Afridi is a straight up bowler who can hit it a bit (extremely occasionally). After that, you have guys like Rehman who can barely put bat to ball. Azhar Ali should never be playing ODIs, they only got him in because the top order was playing Finn horrendously.

I agree that Azhar is talented but he should stick to Tests, he just doesn't have the gears to play ODI cricket, or at least I haven't seen anything that would indicate he can score at 80-90 SR in ODIs. People often reference Kallis with regards to players playing an anchor role at the top but Kallis can step it up whenever he wants to. Look at most of his recent innings, consistently scoring at 80-90 SR and capable of taking it up well over 100 come powerplays. He also has the fastest Test half century of 24 or so balls. The only reason Kallis SR is as low as it is because he played a lot of his matches a decade or so ago when that kind of SR was considered good and also because he had attacking players around him like Gibbs. With Azhar, I don't think he can score faster than 50-70 and he doesn't have attacking players around him, they are all at the bottom of the order at 6 and 7. 

Hafeez has had a prolific 2011 Kahmed and that is why the selectors won't give up on him so early, his plus point is that he can bowl and can also score faster than Azhar Ali, although I do agree that talent wise Azhar is ahead of Hafeez, in fact Hafeez only last year really turned it around, otherwise his career had never really took off.

Originally posted by mystery The only way for England to win any of the Odi is to bat first otherwise i dont see them chasing anything over 150 against Ajmal, Afridi and Hafeez.

Off the mark somewhat Mystery !

I must say that 4-0 was a real surprise after the test debacle - well done England and I must apologise to Pietersen - the man is back.

I won't say he made Finn look ordinary but he certainly made him think and got him frustrated, that is the difference when you have an attacking opener at the top, LOI's are about players who can step it up, gone are the days of 90's when ODI and test team used to be the same. PAK needs to realize that.

I agree on Hammad, PAK need to try him out because it's high time they start finalizing players for WT20. There won't be many T20 internationals and their players are not in IPL, so they need to look at their options now.

All I have to say is that Steven Finn is the most rapidly improving fast bowler.  The kid can really bowl.  He's gotten stronger, pacier, more accurate, strong bounce, a true fast bowler in the making.  I have been really impressed by him lately.

I didnt mean that Finn isnt a good bowler. He is probably the best english bowler with Broad. I just wanted to suggest that the pakistani batting was too bad against finn in odis. Nobody was looking comfortable against him. Even if Zia slogged like a tailender, he managed to give Finn the worst figures of this tour. He managed that what Hafeez, Farhat, Misbah, etc. didnt manage in 4 odis before.
I didnt want to disgrace Finn but to tell that the Pakistani Top Order dont have any plan to build an innings. They want to play out the new-ball overs and in this process they are too slow and also losing wickets. Its better to slog than to play like Farhat and Hafeez did.
Zia is noway near boom boom. The big boom boom has won matches and is respected by all bowlers around the world as he can hit every bowler for long sixes.

England deserve to win it. Their Batsmen were clever and more skilfull. KP played brillantly since the 3rd odi. Englands fielding was superb, and for me the fielding was the main difference. If the fielding standard was the same Pakistan could have win this match in the 17th over. England saved at least 15-20 runs and Pakistan gave away at least 15-20 runs in the field.
Pakistans biggest problem in odis and t20 was Hafeez and Afridi. Both didnt perform at all. Both are playing as bowlers who can bat a bit and you simply cant have 2 of them in the team. Hafeez is not a matchwinner with the ball like Afridi is. He has to perform with the bat to stay in the team. Many Tasilenders in the world have better Batting average then him. every good team have great players at the top but Pakistan begins with players like Hafeez, Farhat, Asad, Zia and leave their better players for the end.
For the last T20 i had the feeling if Asad and Misbah play at least 5 overs together then Pakistan will lose the match. Misbah always want to finish the match on the last ball. Whn they needed 42 off 35 then they should have attacked but they let it for too late. Maybe they forgot that against Dernbach and Broad it will be impossible.

I agree Hafeez is no superstar but still he is a very important part of Pakistani team and he will get his form back soon as there is a match against India soon.

I thought England won without really hitting their straps when batting.  It's fair to say that one decent partnership in T20 can win a match , but England didn't do that - KP just batted through without much help at all.  He showed great maturity on a poor pitch and I always thought 130 would take some getting against this English attack. That Pakistan got into such a fine position and blew it was due to a fine over by Broad and some terrific  outfielding - England simply withstood the pressure better than Pakistan.

Edited by Sledger - 01 March 2012 at 7:00am

Yes Kahmad finally all idiots are gone but i disagree on Hafeez i still want him in the team you cant compare him to Farhat who was useless.