Pakistani Tour of New Zealand, Dec-Feb 2010/11

[Papa_Smurf]

A bit harsh that, even without Asif & Aamir the attack is certainly up to international standard.

An attack of Gul, Tanvir, Wahab and Rehman will struggle to get 20 wickets against the big teams. Of the 4, only Gul is of any decent quality - Wahab has taken 3 wickets in 3 matches sinces his debut 5-fer, Tanvir neither has pace or swing and Rehman, despite his 3 wickets, never looked threatening. Evidence - Southee has scored a 50 coming in at 177/7.

----------

Would've liked to see Sohail Tanvir play - his action reminds me so much of Akram's.

 

[Aoun13]

An attack of Gul, Tanvir, Wahab and Rehman will struggle to get 20 wickets against the big teams. Of the 4, only Gul is of any decent quality - Wahab has taken 3 wickets in 3 matches sinces his debut 5-fer, Tanvir neither has pace or swing and Rehman, despite his 3 wickets, never looked threatening. Evidence - Southee has scored a 50 coming in at 177/7.

----------

Would've liked to see Sohail Tanvir play - his action reminds me so much of Akram's.

Wrong. Tanvir Ahmed has ability to swing the ball into right hander and away from left hander(dismissal of TG McIntosh). It was the pitch which was too flat plus conditions were not very favorable for swing.
Wahab has pace and aggression and it is very early to say anything and Rehman bowled extremely well even though the pitch was flat and there was nothing for the spinner on the first day.
Southee's 50 doesn't prove poorness of Pakistani bowlers since anybody can have his day secondly pitch is too flat. Newzealand should blame themselves for not cashing the opportunity of posting a huge first innings total.

 

[Papa_Smurf]

Wrong. Tanvir Ahmed has ability to swing the ball into right hander and away from left hander(dismissal of TG McIntosh). It was the pitch which was too flat plus conditions were not very favorable for swing.

Fair enough -you will know more about him than I do. But from what I saw of him yesterday, he looked really mediocre. In my opinion, Sohail Tanvir should've been given a go.

Wahab has pace and aggression and it is very early to say anything

He doesn't use it too well - I've seen his spells in each of the 3 matches he's played and apart from the 5-fer, he's been very average. Your right though, it is early days and he will improve, but I was only talking about current performances.

and Rehman bowled extremely well even though the pitch was flat and there was nothing for the spinner on the first day.

Nah, NZ just decided to attack him crazy and it backfired. Not test quality IMO. I don't see why as well as you've got 2 quality spinners in Kaneria and Ajmal. I know Ajmal's dad died and fair enough he couldn't play (and I wish him all the best during this period), but Kaneria should've been in the squad. The last I remember, the ICC cleared him of all charges.

Southee's 50 doesn't prove poorness of Pakistani bowlers since anybody can have his day secondly pitch is too flat. Newzealand should blame themselves for not cashing the opportunity of posting a huge first innings total.

Pitch is flat but the morning conditions were ideal for swing, and apart from Gul, I saw none of it from the other 2 seamers. Southee's innings proved if the Kiwi middle order did play sensibly, then the Pak atk was not going to trouble them all.

Don't get me wrong, given their history, Pak will produce another set of lethal, world-beating fast bowlers in a few years' time - just a shame that their current (Asif/Amir) are interested in other things apart from cricket. Personally, I am very much looking forward to the debut of Abdul Haq - if Waqar's seen something in him, then their must be something there.

 

[War]

An attack of Gul, Tanvir, Wahab and Rehman will struggle to get 20 wickets against the big teams. Of the 4, only Gul is of any decent quality - Wahab has taken 3 wickets in 3 matches sinces his debut 5-fer, Tanvir neither has pace or swing and Rehman, despite his 3 wickets, never looked threatening. Evidence - Southee has scored a 50 coming in at 177/7.

----------

Would've liked to see Sohail Tanvir play - his action reminds me so much of Akram's.

This is where we may disagree my friend. Since i do think that attack can take 20 wickets against big teams.

Riaz yes has only taken 3 wickets in 3 matches since his debut 5 fer. But IMO he hasn't bowled poorly in the those games. He has alot of potential swings the ball conventially & is very good exponent of reverse swing.

Tanvir does swing the ball. On his debut vs S africa recently, he was doing that alot. So in seaming conditions he certainly looks more than useful, might struggle on flat wickets though.

Rehamn is solid also. May not rid through a side, but is a test standard spinner. But of course when Ajmal returns he probably wouldn't play.

Tanvir's action actually looks more like a left-handed Mike Procter rather than Akram to be fair. Last i saw of him, he certainly didn't international standard though.

 

[Aoun13]

Fair enough -you will know more about him than I do. But from what I saw of him yesterday, he looked really mediocre. In my opinion, Sohail Tanvir should've been given a go.

It is not possible for a medicre bowler to get six wickets in conditions of Dubai and that's too against SA. Sohail Tanvir has an awkward action but if a batsman spot his action then he is much more easy to play plus it is a settle attack so including Sohail Tanvir means excluding a bowler without any reason.

He doesn't use it too well - I've seen his spells in each of the 3 matches he's played and apart from the 5-fer, he's been very average. Your right though, it is early days and he will improve, but I was only talking about current performances.

Not the best off course but he has pace and aggression as said earlier which I believe are good weapons in Kiwi conditions.

Nah, NZ just decided to attack him crazy and it backfired. Not test quality IMO. I don't see why as well as you've got 2 quality spinners in Kaneria and Ajmal. I know Ajmal's dad died and fair enough he couldn't play (and I wish him all the best during this period), but Kaneria should've been in the squad. The last I remember, the ICC cleared him of all charges.

Attack when?
Kiwi batsmen especially Guptil played him like he is No.1 spinner of the world.I am pretty happy with Abdur Rehman's performance. He bowl on a channel and dried the runs which as a result made New zealand batsmen to play a rash shot.

Pitch is flat but the morning conditions were ideal for swing, and apart from Gul, I saw none of it from the other 2 seamers. Southee's innings proved if the Kiwi middle order did play sensibly, then the Pak atk was not going to trouble them all.

Conditions were batting friendly from the start of match. Everybody was saying that Misbah has made a wrong decision.
Yes most of the wickets were gone due to poor shot selection rather then good bowling but wickets of McIntosh and Vettori were purely due to good bowling.

 

[Papa_Smurf]

Riaz yes has only taken 3 wickets in 3 matches since his debut 5 fer. But IMO he hasn't bowled poorly in the those games. He has alot of potential swings the ball conventially & is very good exponent of reverse swing.

Like I said, since his debut, I have not seen consistent swing from him. But I do agree he a lot of potential - but on current performances, he is not too much of a threat.

Tanvir does swing the ball. On his debut vs S africa recently, he was doing that alot. So in seaming conditions he certainly looks more than useful, might struggle on flat wickets though.

I missed his debut, so I can't comment. My first impressions of him were yesterday, and all I saw was 134 kmph darts. Not a sign of a good seamer.

Rehamn is solid also. May not rid through a side, but is a test standard spinner. But of course when Ajmal returns he probably wouldn't play.

Here is where we do disagree. Rehaman is a very good LOI spinner, but just doesn't get the ball to turn enough to rip through sides in tests. What's baffling is that Pak have not 1, but 2 that can - an offie in Ajmal and leggie in Kaneria. So his selection is all the more puzzling.

This is where we may disagree my friend. Since i do think that attack can take 20 wickets against big teams.

Tanvir's action actually looks more like a left-handed Mike Procter rather than Akram to be fair. Last i saw of him, he certainly didn't international standard though.

I guess we'll agree to disagree

 

[TruSachFan]

I was just catching up on days play and it looked like Umer Gul was up to something.

Dailymotion - nzpk112 - a News & Politics video

Go around the 9 minute mark. They had a field day after this. I remember Vettori giving a lot of interviews regarding ball tampering in the past couple of years against Pakistan. Not damning evidence but it was still worthwhile. Keep up the tradition, Umar Gul

 

[pcfan123]

That's a bit of a stretch, and pretty unprofessional commentary from the kiwis

 

[Papa_Smurf]

I was just catching up on days play and it looked like Umer Gul was up to something.

Dailymotion - nzpk112 - a News & Politics video

Go around the 9 minute mark. They had a field day after this. I remember Vettori giving a lot of interviews regarding ball tampering in the past couple of years against Pakistan. Not damning evidence but it was still worthwhile. Keep up the tradition, Umar Gul

Pretty pathetic from the media. Hardly saw anything suspicious - talk about making a mountain from a mole-hill.

----------

Just remembered play's started and southee's gone

 

[sami ullah khan]

I don't know why our batsmen play so negatively in test cricket. They are naturally aggressive yet they struggle to score any runs in test cricket even against this mediocre bowling attack on a docile pitch . Pakistan need to be more positive if they want to be a force in test cricket.
I just saw the video and there was nothing in it. To allege ball tampering based on that evidence is pretty lame.

 

[CG123]

I'm heading down tomorrow, a one hour 45 minute drive from Auckland for those of you who don't know.
Hopefully I get to see six quick wickets in the first session, then I can see New Zealand finish up with a decent lead, but only a few wickets down.
We have a new ball tomorrow, so there's no reason why we can't knock them over for another 50 runs, considering their next guy in has a FC average of 23.

 

[sami ullah khan]

But we have Umar Gul. His batting is a lot better than his bowling in test cricket .

 

[mohit_dude10]

Why is Adnan Akmal in test team with such poor FC stats, just because he is a "akmal" or there aren't any better keepers in pak other than akmal brothers?

 

[sami ullah khan]

He is in the team for reasons other than cricket. His pathetic FC average should have barred his selection but thats unfortunately not how things work here in Pakistan

 

[TumTum]

Asad Shafiq <3