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Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
Can't say I'm not a bit disappointed with the approach. The pitch was good and we were chasing 5 an over, not 8 an over. The miss against the West Indies and our historical inability to understand the difference between calculated aggression and brainless slogging, but it would have been nice if the top order had at least shown some intent. We have a relatively long batting order, so even if we had lost the top 3 cheaply, the others could have bogged down and ensured a draw. Yes, it's a Test match and yes, victories like this are unheard of, but the truth is chances like this are the best we'll likely get to win Test matches in the short term. When the team ranked above us is thrashing us and beating stronger sides, we need to take these chances unless we want to remain at the bottom of the table.
But instead, we saw a selfish top order playing to secure its place in the second Test. Shak had to come and show them how it's done.
But overall, this was a good game for us. Given another day or two, we would have bowled NZ out and won the match, so it's fair to say we dominated. It wasn't one of those drawn matches where you feel relieved that you ran out of time, but rather one that leaves you wondering what could have been and ruing the fact that this isn't the 18th century, when games were timeless.
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With all due respect, thats reaching not for the cookie jar but rather a cookie on the top of the Empire State Building. This match had draw written all over it. We should have gone guns blazing for the win BEFORE the toss ie curators should have made a more spinning pitch. Its clear that on a spinning track Gazi would have puree'd the Kiwis into a smoothie while Sodhi, Martin, Williamson, and Razzak would have all gotten their asses handed to them. Since that didn't happen, nor was it the fault of the top order, they went for the safer alternative which was to draw this game.
A pair of draws, is still equal to 1-1 result and nets us 8 points taking us to 18.
We have to accept the fact that the combination of our pitches and weak seam attack means that ZIM are a "better" Test side than us. We can't simply deny that and scream and shout to beat South Africa 5-0 on a Durban greentop with the personnel that we have.
Hopefully we get a result in the Mirpur Test, but I'm predicting another high scoring draw. I'll be satisfied with that because when was the last time we drew a match let alone a series at home? Thats right, never!
But I'm not going to blame our players for things beyond their control. Dealing with our non-sporting wickets, umpires consistently robbing us (this Test was the first in the long time we didn't get shafted) are beyond our players' control. In the days of Ashraful and Bashar throwing wickets away, 99% of our misery was the fault of the players themselves, but not anymore.