Urgency is to stay cool (10 June 1999 )

10 June 1999

Urgency is to stay cool

Mark Baldwin

LONDON, June 9: Rarely have I seen Wasim Akram as agitated on a cricket field as he was during the high tension of Tuesday's lost match against India. For the rest of the tournament, for Pakistan's sake, he must try to stay cool.

It was easy to see why Wasim was continually attempting to gee up his men, for the irritation of the defeat by South Africa was still writ large on the faces of his team. But trying too hard to force cricket matches your way is never a good idea. Intensity - a cold-fury type of intensity - is what distinguishes the most powerful cricket teams from the rest, and that is what Pakistan must regain.

Yes, regain. They had it against Australia and the West Indies during the group stages, and they had it when winning so easily against India and England in Sharjah during the build-up to the World Cup. They even had it, thanks mainly to Moin Khan and Azhar Mahmood, for much of the match against South Africa at Trent Bridge last Saturday.

Then, due to carelessness more than anything else, they lost it as Lance Klusener was allowed to get into his stride deep into the final 10 overs in the Nottingham gloom. Pakistan's three most potent wicket-taking bowlers - Shoaib Akhtar, Saqlain Mushtaq and Wasim himself - were all victims of Klusener's desperate but calculated big hitting, and suddenly a bit of self-belief was gone.

I wrote in my last column that defeat against South Africa might turn out to be the best thing that happened to Pakistan in their quest for World Cup glory. I must admit I couldn't say the same thing now - although I still believe Pakistan can learn from the mistakes made in the last two games and come back the stronger for them.

But that now depends on one man - Wasim. As captain he must fire up his players afresh in a much more subtle way. Being ultra-animated on the field is acceptable up to a point, but I would prefer my captains to mix the shows of emotion and passion with more than a touch of the cool, detached assuredness that Imran Khan was so good at in his prime.

Can I just say here and now that I don't believe Wasim is doing a bad job. Far from it. His captaincy during this World Cup has been inspirational in many ways, and he has clearly determined to lead from the front in the field.

An embarrassing mis-field at mid-off, however, gifting India two more runs at an important stage of the game, undermined his vocal attempts to keep his team-mates on their toes - but, overall, Pakistan could be reasonably happy with restricting India to 227-6 on a good, dry surface.

Saqlain did not have one of his better days, which happens, and the cold weather and damp run-ups stole some of Shoaib's pace and, more problematically, his ability to swing the ball. Wasim, however, was superb and Azhar continues to get better and better with his underrated seamers.

World Cup organisers, too, were glad the day passed off without any serious incident. The atmosphere at Old Trafford was memorable, with only three arrests for public disorder and nine ejections from the ground.

There was, though, a frantic element to Pakistan's performance in the field which, unfortunately, transmitted itself even more clearly in their batting.

It was shame that Yousuf Youhana, such a class act in the middle-order, was missing with a recurrence of his hamstring problems. And I really could not see the logic in recalling the chronically out-of-touch Salim Malik rather than keeping the highly-promising Wajahatullah Wasti at the top of the order.

Shahid Afridi, as I said last time, needs an innings in the middle order to boost his confidence - at the moment he strikes one or two good blows in his accustomed pinch-hitting role before becoming a predictable early victim of the white ball.

I could not believe it when Wasti's fine technique, which had come through a fierce South African examination at Trent Bridge, was not utilised again and that both Malik and Afridi had been brought in to the team instead.

Abdur Razzaq's calf muscle injury, which prevented him from filling his normal World Cup role of number three, did not help matters as he has played a number of stabilising innings against the new ball.

Ijaz seemed to catch the mood of the team, and he was jumpy rather than the settling influence required once Afridi had again got himself out early. Malik's woeful form left him exposed to the magnificent Prasad, and when Saeed Anwar was dismissed Pakistan were in deep trouble.

Saeed did look a little nearer to his best form, at last, but Inzamam-ul-Haq seems to have forgotten that against Australia and New Zealand he was a giant. At Old Trafford he could not get going. Now it was like trying to wake the giant from his slumbers.

Moin, as usual, did his best to shake Pakistan out of it, but I wondered why Wasim himself did not come in ahead of the injured Razzaq.

In the end Pakistan were well beaten, leaving Friday's Zimbabwe match as a game that simply must be won. Perhaps the advent of sudden death, in a tournament so far dominated by tortuous qualification processes at both group and Super Six stages, will act as inspiration in itself.

Wasim, it's down to you.

(PS: Now might be a good time to give Waqar Younis another game!)

Source :: The Dawn (www.dawn.com)