DUBAI: Mickey Arthur, the Pakistan coach, rued the fact that his batsmenplayed out of character against India in the Asia Cup game, and said theyneeded to take more responsibility.
After all the build-up, the India-Pakistan game ended up being a one-sidedaffair, with India dominating proceedings in Dubai on Wednesday, 19September. They first bundled Pakistan for 162 in 43.1 overs, and thenchased that down in 29 overs, with Rohit Sharma, the captain, scoring a39-ball 52.
More than the result, it was the batting that disappointed Arthur. Afteropting to bat, Pakistan were reduced to 3/2, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar sendingback the openers within five overs. That put quite a bit of pressure on themiddle order early, and they couldn’t really fight back.
“We sort of batted outside our roles, which was very disappointing,” saidArthur. “Imam-ul-Haq, it’s not his role to be running down to BhuvneshwarKumar in the third over. It’s not Sarfraz’s (Ahmed) role to be hitting overthe top and getting caught out there. We’ve got X-factor guys whose role itis to do that.
“If Fakhar (Zaman) gets out playing that way, it’s OK. If Asif (Ali) getsout like that, it’s OK, because that’s his role. But the other four batsmencertainly need to take responsibility.
“(It was) the pressure that told on Imam. As I said, out of his role, hehad two off eight balls or whatever, but Fakhar had just faced a maiden. Hetried to have a go, he tried to hit the ball that’s not in his area. I dothink there was a little bit of pressure.”
Such is the strength of Pakistan’s bowling attack that there remained hopethat they could yet defend that total. However, Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan(46 off 54) absorbed the pressure and ensured there were no early wickets.