ABU DHABI: Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur on Tuesday described histeam’s narrow four-run defeat in the first Test against New Zealand in AbuDhabi as the “worst of his coaching career”.
Pakistan, set a modest 176-run target, were undone by a shambolic battingdisplay as they lost their last seven wickets for just 41 runs after beingon course for victory at 130-3 on Monday.
Left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel had a dream debut for New Zealand as he pickedup 5-59 on a turning Sheikh Zayed Stadium pitch.
Arthur said Pakistan were hurting from the defeat.
“This is probably one of the worst defeats I have ever suffered in mycareer,” Arthur, who also coached South Africa and Australia, told AFP.
“Everyone from myself as head coach to the players and the staff arehurting but we will use this defeat as a motivation to give ourself everyopportunity to win the second game,” vowed Arthur.
The victory gave New Zealand a 1-0 lead in the three-match series and wasthe fifth narrowest win by runs in Test cricket’s history.
Arthur said his batsmen’s shot selection was poor, having needed 139 on dayfour with all ten wickets intact.
New Zealand grabbed three quick wickets in the space of eight balls beforeAzhar Ali (65) and Asad Shafiq (45) added 82 runs for the fourth wicket.
Arthur refused to accept his batsmen were complacent.
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“There was no complacency, I can certainly say,” said Arthur, under whomPakistan have now lost 13 of their 23 Tests, with nine wins and one draw.
“The guys tried unbelievably hard and everyone was disappointed from thedecision of shot selection under pressure. We need to learn from this andmove forward very, very quickly.”
Arthur also bemoaned his side’s continued failure to chase small targets,after also falling short in a chase of 136 against Sri Lanka last year atthe same venue.
“The most disappointing thing was that it happened against Sri Lanka lastyear as well,” he said.
“That’s the thing the batting unit needs to get over and that we need tochase down targets in fourth innings,” said Arthur, before pointing toPakistan’s failure to get a bigger first-innings lead than the 74 theymanaged after New Zealand’s 153.
“We left ourselves too much to do in the fourth innings. We had thatopportunity to nail this game off in the first innings but we let that go.”
Arthur also defended batting coach Grant Flower, who has been in the rolesince 2014.
“Grant works incredibly hard with the batsmen and his level of commitmentand the work and efforts he put in is second to none.” – APP / AFP
