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| June 9, 2005 | Thursday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 1, 1426 |
Pakistan missed golden chance: Zaheer, Sarfraz
KARACHI, June 8: Former cricket greats on Wednesday praised Pakistan for their series-levelling win against the West Indies at Jamaica but said the team missed a golden opportunity to seize a first-ever series win in the Caribbean. “Winning a Test after coming from behind is always great,” said former captain and top batsman Zaheer Abbas, referring to Pakistan’s 136-run win in the second West Indies Test on Tuesday.
“The West Indies team is now a shadow of the team which ruled the world. Their fast bowlers are not as venomous as they were when we toured there in 1976, so for me it’s a chance of lifetime lost,” said Zaheer.
The tourists shared the two-match series 1-1 after losing the first Test by a whopping margin of 276 runs at Barbados.
However it means Pakistan have still not won a series in the West Indies in six attempts.
“Everyone had said Pakistan was the clear favourite to win the series against a weakened West Indies side and, for me, the blame falls on us for not doing so,” said Zaheer.
Zaheer, who played 78 Tests for Pakistan, said the three key players missing from the side in the first Test had been a major factor in their downfall.
“Pakistan played the first Test without captain Inzamamul Haq, Shoaib Malik and Yousuf Youhana which proved a great setback and played a part in the poor batting,” he commented.
Inzamam and Malik sat on the sidelines during the Barbados Test due to bans, while Youhana returned home to be with his ailing father.
The tourists also missed bowling spearheads Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami, who were deemed unfit.
Zaheer said the Pakistan team must settle down in its batting order and not make so many experimental changes in the line up.
“Bob Woolmer is now the coach for one year and his work can be described as ‘so far so good’, but there are too many experiments in the batting order,” said Zaheer, who rated the West Indies as among the lower ranked teams.
Another former great, pace bowler Sarfraz Nawaz, said Pakistan should have “whitewashed” the West Indians.
“Inzamam’s loss from the first Test was the major reason we did not win the series. We should have players to fill the void,” said Sarfraz, who played 55 Tests for Pakistan.
However he praised leg-spinner Danish Kaneria, saying he was “outstanding” in the second Test.
“Had we scored more runs in the first Test, Kaneria would have been more effective,” he added.—AFP
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