Sharjah: Islamabad United coach Dean Jones never backs away from the media like most coaches in explaining their team’s defeat. He also doesn’t mince his words in pointing out the mistakes in his players nor hides his team’s drawbacks. Explaining his team’s poor batting, Jones said: “The average winning score after batting first is 176. We have got to play straight, We didn’t do it. Our top three guys didn’t. We tell them and they don’t do it. So we go back to the nets, let them look at the vision and get them to play straight. It is not a hard game.”
After Islamabad had lost to Peshawar Zalmi in the third match of the tournament last Saturday, Jones did not hesitate to remark that his batsmen were rusty.
When asked what would be his team’s plans for the upcoming matches, Jones said: “What we got to do is what we learnt from the first PSL (in which they emerged champions). The only way to get out this state is sheer hard work, belief and make the change around. Momentum is a big thing. This is what they call in horse racing as two mile race. Not what we do in the first mile what matters but what we do in the last matters. Obviously we are going to work hard and try and qualify. It’s early times yet. If we can get a couple of wins, especially back to back, we will be back in the same form again. So that is what we are trying to do.”
Jones then went on to laud Quetta Gladiator Kevin Pietersen’s who played the match wining knock. “He (Pietersen) is a freak. He has played here enough. I think he had made a great 100 here last year. I think it is going to be his last tournament and going to retire. He is a great player, should have played more international cricket which he did not get. He smashed us.”
Brief scores: Quetta Gladiators bt Islamabad United by six wickets. Islamabad 134 for 7 in 20 overs (Luke Ronchi 43, Misbah Ul Haq 22, Faheem Ashraf 21) Quetta 135 for 5 in 17.1 overs (Asad Shafiq 22, Kevin Pietersen 48, Mohammad Nawaz 25n.o, Steven Finn 3 for 35)
