Abu Dhabi: Misbah Ul Haq is on the firing line. After failing to steer his team to victory in the third and final Twenty20 match despite being so close to target at the Zayed Cricket Stadium on Monday night he had a lot of answering to do after the match.
When Gulf News asked where he went wrong towards the end, Haq patiently explained how the game slipped away. “I think up to the last three overs it was very much gettable. I think in 18 balls we needed 23 runs and that was not difficult especially with so many wickets in hand. (Jade) Dernbach bowled a brilliant last over and the second last over (from Stuart Broad) we could get only four runs. This pushed the game away from us.”
Haq believes that his team did try but England bowlers were too good. “I think we did try our best but in the last three overs they changed the tempo. Credit must be given to England.”
Haq candidly admitted that Pakistan failed to deliver. “I think we are responsible, all those who were playing in the middle failed to finish the game. We should have finished that but we had no answer to their good bowling.”
Haq is set to face huge criticisms over the defeat and the players in his team on arrival in Pakistan, but he is not bothered. “You cannot keep listening to all people. Those who understands cricket and all those who can assess the game takes the decisions. So who deserves a place or not is up to the cricket board and the selection committee.
Their decisions are important because all those who watch are sentimental and their views cannot be taken for granted. You have to analyse by sitting down and then think. If you have replacement for a player then you can replace.”
Haq even answered vehemently to a question as to whether separate team and separate captains are needed for the different formats. “I think we need to take this decision only after assessing our resources. If you have those resources then do that but if you don’t have quality cricketers then it would not help. It can only harm you because you must bring quality cricketers. Change for the sake of change I don’t think will have any benefit.”
Haq went on to admit that the defeats were a huge disappointment. “You do get disappointed after losing. It was disappointing to lose the One-dayers and then we thought that we have a good opportunity to win this and lessen the bitterness but now we can’t do anything. This is a big disappointment. We now need to sit down and try to solve the weak areas and study where we went wrong. Something ought to be done about our batting soon.”
