Misbah was particularly disappointed because the team had put themselves in a winning position against England only to lose the plot in the final few overs for a defeat that cost them the Twenty20 series.
ABU DHABI: Pakistan captain Misbahul Haq cautioned against a drastic overhaul in personnel after his team crashed to a sensational five-run loss in the third and final Twenty20 against England, which gave the tourists a 2-1 victory in the series.
That followed England’s 4-0 drubbing of Pakistan in the One-Day International series after the national team had beaten the same opponents 3-0 in the Test series. The limited-overs defeats, however, have left question-marks on Misbah’s handling of the team, who said he understood fans’ frustrations but the losses needed to be assessed dispassionately by the Pakistan Cricket Board.
“I think we need to take this decision only after assessing our resources and if you have those resources then do that,” said Misbah. “But if you don’t have quality cricketers, the changes will harm the team. If you change for the sake of change, it will not help.”
Drama in the death overs
Chasing a modest 130, Pakistan were cruising at one stage, needing 23 off the last three overs with Misbah (28) and Umar Akmal (22) adding 37 for the fourth wicket but England pulled back with remarkable determination.
With 13 needed off the final over Shahid Afridi took a couple before he was run out while taking a second off the next. The next three balls produced singles and a wide and with six needed off the final ball, Misbah was bowled to leave Pakistan agonisingly short.
Losing the match from a winning position left the captain disheartened.
“We tried our best but England came back strongly in the last three overs. Credit must be given to them. We should’ve finished the match but we had no answer to their bowling. Stuart Broad gave just four runs in the penultimate over, while Jade Dernbach successfully defended 13 in the last. We were in the game until the last three overs and we had wickets in hand. But we couldn’t finish it. That hurts.”
Meanwhile, England captain Broad was full of praise for his bowlers.
“It was a very good win,” said Broad. “Kevin Pietersen played a good knock and then bowlers showed a lot of character to pull off the win, it was remarkable.”
Earlier, off-spinner Saeed Ajmal finished with four for 23 to restrict England to a modest 129 for six.
Opener Pietersen top-scored with 62, keeping one end intact during his 52-ball knock for his seventh Twenty20 fifty. Pakistan won the first match of the series by eight runs, while England had come out victorious in the second one by 38 runs.
Zaheer Abbas
“It is not only about an individual’s performance as all Pakistan batsmen failed, which is to be blamed for the defeat. England’s bowling, on the other hand, was superb and deserves all the praise.”
Ramiz Raja
“The team now requires whole-sale changes in the limited-overs formats. A complete but not abrupt overhaul is required. I think we need aggressive batsmen as all current Pakistan batsmen play at a similar pace.”
Jalaluddin
“Our batsmen struggled to play according to the situation. They should’ve taken chances at the start of the innings in the decisive match but they waited for the death overs. Our fielding wasn’t good either.”
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