The Londoner

By Sikander Hayat Apart from the dogged batting and great bowling from Muhammad Amer there was very little to cheer about Pakistan’s innings. Muhammad Amer played an innings which must have showed the other “proper” batsmen how to at least resist constant onslaught by the Australians. Umer Akmal showed some class but played too many shots in quick succession and paid the price for it. He looks the future of Pakistan batting by the way he played but need to choose the right ball to hit. Misbah played well but ran out of partners in the end which shows that unless top three in the Pakistan line up score runs, Pakistan has no chance in hell to win against the major oppositions. Australia now has over 300 runs lead with seven wickets remaining and two full days to go. They would look to score about 450 and give Pakistan a day and three quarters to save the test match. It will be highly unlikely that Pakistan can save this test match from here onwards unless there is something out of the or

By Sikander Hayat Pakistan’s top order collapsed once again as a house of cards. Ricky Ponting took pity on Pakistan bowlers and declared the Australian innings at 454/5 because there was no penetration in the Pakistan bowling attack which was severely demoralised by the absolutely abysmal catching. At the end of day 2, Pakistan were 109/4 and all too familiar Pakistan batting collapse is well underway on the same pitch where night watchman Nathan Hauritz scored 75 without much trouble. Pakistanis never get bamboozled by the surface really because the average score by any Pakistani test team is around 250 no matter how hard or easy the pitch may be. It will be a minor miracle if Pakistan can draw this match from here onwards. Batsmen at the crease are Muhammad Aamir and Umar Akmal. Yes, the same Umar Akmal who gave Australia such a good start by dropping Simon Katich.

By Sikander Hayat No player should be allowed to play in the Pakistan cricket team if they cannot field properly. Pakistan drooped at least three catches to let Australia off the hook when Australia should have been 60/2 at one stage but two simple catches were dropped by Umar Akmal & Misbah-ul-Haq. Then other Akmal brother Kamran Akmal dropped Ricky Ponting off the bowling of Muhammad Asif at the start of Ricky Ponting. Pakistani players, it seems, cannot catch to save their lives and a test match in which they should have established their authority at the very start on the boxing day will now probably end up with Pakistan on the losing side. Pakistani players not only drop catches but they laugh after dropping them as if nothing had happened. The prime example was the catch drooped by Misbah when he drooped Shane Watson and then grinned for what seemed like an eternity as if he felt no shame at all. I believe that Pakistan cricket board should only pick players who can and are w

By Sikander Hayat There has seldom been a player in the history of Pakistan cricket who had so much potential but showed very little results. Muhammad Sami is such an enigma who bowls at 90 miles an hour but takes very few wickets. I personally believe that playing with Shoaib Akhtar destroyed whatever chance he had of learning as Shoaib had other things on his mind than helping a youngster who was trying to make something out of his career. Muhammad Sami was highly spoken of by Imran Khan who was a good judge of talent but Sami somehow failed to succeed in international cricket. Now that he is 28 years old and potentially with a mature head on his shoulders, he has got this final opportunity to prove the selectors right. He still has time to prove to the world that he is the real deal but this is the last chance. He must keep this fact in his mind.

By Sikander Hayat Player power has finally forced the hand of the Pakistan cricket board to remove Younus Khan from the captaincy of the team. The new captain is Muhammad Yusuf who has captained Pakistan previously albeit for a short period. To me it seemed a concerted effort by some of the senior team members to remove Younus Khan and it started during the Pakistan Sri Lanka test series earlier this year which Pakistan lost badly. It was very obvious then that the main players in Pakistan team were throwing away their wickets so that there is no chance that Younus can be considered as a captain in future. To the dismay of these players which include Misbah, Yusuf and headed by Shoaib Malik; Younus was named captain for the ICC Champion’s Trophy. So they did their best to keep Pakistan from winning that tournament and succeeded. Pakistan cricket board should have sacked these players for good instead of removing Younus Khan which will now give players the belief that no decision can be

Sri Lanka will now be a distant memory for these two teams. Leading into this tournament, both Pakistan and New Zealand took turns in getting battered and bruised in the heat and humidity of Sri Lanka. They came to South Africa with doubts looming over their ability to stick it out with other teams in formats longer than Twenty20. Both duly won their Twenty20s in Sri Lanka, and lost both Tests and ODIs comprehensively. The weather in South Africa has been different, and so have been the results. New Zealand extracted swift revenge, knocking Sri Lanka out. But with every passing match they seem to be losing one player to injury. During their must-win game against England, Grant Elliot joined Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder and Daryl Tuffey on the injured list, and Scott Styris has been flown in as a stand-by. Their travel agent won't mind flying another man in, if that means making it to the next stage. Their opponents have no such problems. Unlike their famous triumphs, the 1992 World Cup