Sharjah: Misbah-ul-Haq is Pakistan’s former captain and Safraz Ahmad is the present captain of their country.
During this edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) one can see the intelligence of both on the field as captains. Misbah has transformed Islamabad into a winning unit but for Sarfraz it has been a struggle as his players at times have failed to rise to the challenge despite him showing the way through fighting knocks.
On Thursday night, Islamabad defeated Quetta by six wickets at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium and clinched the top slot in the points table.
Misbah plays the role of a motivator and guides other batsmen to deliver. Wanting others to give their best he has even demoted himself down the batting order to give chances to others in team.
In the last three matches he did not even bat but made sure those who went up the batting order did the needful to ensure a victory.
Misbah wants his team to win but at the same time also want the youngsters in his team to gain experience and deliver for Pakistan.
After beating Quetta on Thursday he said: “These lads will go on to play for Pakistan in the future. We have a lot of confidence on the youngsters and that helps. We ask them to play their natural game. They have been groomed well and look confident. I feel it is important for us to win every game.”
Misbah and coach Dean Jones have worked in tandem to give all the inputs to these youngsters to perform at the best. Both of them have been hailed for cricketing knowledge. “Dean Jones helps me with his inputs and statistics. It helps me and that is what is hidden in Dean Jones’s diary.” In fact, Jones’s red diary in which he notes everything is now being seen as a coaching manual by the Islamabad team youngsters.
Sarfraz on the other hand has been showing the way with his bat and encouraging everyone from behind the wickets in the role of a wicketkeeper too. After top scoring for Quetta in the game against Islamabad, he said: “We have to do better with the bat, especially at the top order. We lost too many wickets early on. We wanted a good score, at least 170 runs.”
Quetta were restricted to 147 for 7 and hence he feels that his batsmen should take up the challenge vigorously. “We’ll sit and talk with the boys and make an effort to sort this out. If we had runs on the board, it wouldn’t have been easy to chase on this pitch, despite the dew factor. The play offs will begin soon. So, we can’t take more chances.”
Brief scores:
Islamabad United bt Quetta Gladiators by 6 wkts. Quetta 147 for 7 in 20 overs (Umar Amin 28, Sarfraz Ahmad 43, Faheem Ashraf 3 for 19, Amad Butt 2 for 30) Islamabad 149 for 4 in 18.2 overs (JP Duminy 54, Hussain Talat 28n.o, Rahat Ali 2 for 33) Man of the match: JP Duminy.
