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Their 3rd One Day International at Abu Dhabi against New Zealand was Pakistan’s last 50-over match of this format in a dismal 2009.
The match sums up Pakistan’s miserable performances this year in One Day International Cricket. It ended the way it all started. The only problem I have is that they repeated the same mistakes throughout this calendar year, which as a Pakistani fan is very frustrating.
Out of 20 matches in 2009, Pakistan has just managed to win eight, when they could easily have many more had they played with patience. Eight out of 20 doesn’t look good on paper, but I still believe this year is one of the best as compared to the last five, six years in terms of positives and future prospects for Pakistan’s cricket team.
My prediction is that their win percentage will increase in 2010 if they don’t repeat the mistakes of 2009.
The first series for Pakistan this year was three ODIs against Sri Lanka at home.
They started off brilliantly, chasing 221 with eight wickets in hand courtesy Salman Butt’s unbeaten century and Khurram Manzoor’s gutsy 83. They crumbled in the second ODI while chasing 290 plus and were bundled out for well inside 200.
Following was a match which changed the whole scenario of Pakistan Cricket. While chasing 310, Pakistan's batting led miserably, and they were all out for a shameful total of 75. This ended Shoaib Malik’s captaincy tenure of a year and a half. Pakistan ended up losing a series which they should have won after being 1-0 after the first match.
Abu Dhabi and Dubai hosted Pakistan’s home limited over series against Australia in April.
A new captain, Younis Khan, led a side against the World Champions, who had lost their flair after some key retirements, and had the best chance of clinching a bilateral series against them in many years.
It couldn’t have started better for Pakistan after afridi-ajmal heroics in Dubai when they whistled through the Aussie batting lineup to go 1-0 up in five match series. Pakistan went on to lose the next three games including the third one in which they were chasing 198 and comfortably placed at 95 without a wicket at one stage.
Due to a batting collapse, they were restricted to 171, and a chance to win a series against Australia perished. A consolation win in the last match ended up the series at 3-2. For the second consecutive time, Pakistan lost the initiative of winning a series after winning the first match.
Grouping rumors within the team also got the media’s attention during the series, especially after the batting collapse in the 3rd ODI.
The Sri Lankan tour in July-August was another miserable one in which the grouping and bookies scandal came to the limelight. This was the only ODI series in which Pakistan had no initiative to lose as they lost the first three matches after winning the last couple of dead rubbers.
Pakistan had no solution to Kulasekara’s in-dippers and collapsed in two out of first three ODIs.
In the third match, bowlers were not up to the mark to defend 289. The team clearly looked out of sorts, and Younis Khan was under the scanner even though he won the T20 Championship just a couple of months ago. The last two convincing victories came when the series was already over.
Pakistan announced their best possible 15 member squad for the Champions Trophy, perhaps apart from the exclusion of Abdul Razzaq, who wasn’t convincing in the Sri Lankan tour. Pre-tournament statements of various players suggested that they were off to play a one-off encounter against India and nothing else really mattered.
Umar Akmal saved the day against second string West Indies while the team had a hiccup during low scoring chase on a green bouncy Johannesburg track. One of the best partnership worth 206 runs between Yousuf and Malik against India saw Pakistan home to the semifinal.
A remarkable fight back while defending a low score against Australia was regarded more or less as a victory by all.
Batsmen fell irresponsibly to New Zealand attack in the semifinal just like the game against Australia but this time they were not saved by the bowling and fielding.
Then, the storm of match-fixing allegations among others started. I knew it had nothing to do with match-fixing as the team was in a great form of missing out an initiative in the on-going year. Plus, they took New Zealand a bit lightly and of course, luck didn’t go their way.
All Pakistan wanted was to learn from their recent past mistakes while going into the 3-match ODI series against the Kiwi’s in Abu Dhabi, but they simply are unwilling to change themselves.
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