It was disappointing to see Paksitan loose, i went to sleep in Australia at 11pm considering Paksitan wins against South africa and Australia wins against India. mornign went to work loggind in quickly to chk the scores before breakfast, to my disappoint i find Australia lost after scorin 350 and South Africa won after just getting 183 on board, very disappointing from bunch of useless batsmens (players) I am sorry to say but it is yet another very ordinary performance from Pakistan. No matter it is Afridi or the whole line up is responsible but it is not acceptable from national cricketrs!!!!!!!

Shahid Afridi is an idiot. In the batting order (if he is even selected) he should be 8th or something. On the field he plays how a 5 years kid would play.

Afridi, what about the shot of Nasir Jamshed and Umar Akmal ? And I would say someone who is as settled as Ahmed Shahzad didn't need to play that shot either. It's an complete failure or batting temperament and I think Misbah and Whatmore are to be blamed for the negativity in their batting. They were playing like the pitch has many demons and the ball is swinging like at MCG or Oval. The whole mental approach has to change. India chase 350+ in 44 overs against Australia 2 weeks ago with positive approach and positive batting.

Sara mood kharab kar diya.

Blame game will go on in every lost match. I suggest that the way Misbah plays, he should switch his batting place with Afridi. This way Afridi will play without any pressure and score.

Afridi should be kicked out of the team. We need young cricketers.Also Bring back Asad.

Afridi is a selfish glory hunter. His an embarresment.

One should realize that Afridi is a bowler, not a batsman, and should send him at no. 9 or 10. Moreover, he is not very intelligent, not having learnt his responsibilities even after 363 ODIs. It is useless to expect him to learn anything now.

Afridi should be banished to an island in the Pacific.

This cyclical performance of Afridi is so consistent that it has kept me away from watching the cricket game. I almost laughed at reading this news.

The Pakistan batsman played like timid rabbits who want to run away.Irresponsible shots every seen in the history of cricket having 6 wickets in hand and only 17 to win.Afridi being such a experienced player also could not restrain himself and win the match.Such batting will spell doom to Pakistan cricket.They are just going to come into the bottom of the ICC rankings as minnows of cricket.Those days of Glory of Pakistan talents are history today.What is happening to Nasir Jamshed.Total failure.They seem to bat angrily.Like giving away the match.It was extremely horrible to watch the match.

Yes, and as if Aamir Sohail himself was a gifted player ? Afridi isn't a batsman - he is a BOWLING ALL ROUNDER. Those who cannot differentiate should not speak. He did his job by getting 3 wickets, what did Hafeez and Jamshed do ? What did Akmal do ? it was a team loss! Stop ruining our team and let them build their confidence. I have had enough of blame game after every match.

@Rogers Evans: What world are you living in Mr. "Evans"? Afridi can't handle scoring 9 runs from 40 balls. How do you think he'll fare when he has to score 110 in less than 30 overs?

Dirty politics, these guys want misbah out

@Taimur: Great attitude...which makes Pakistanis a great nation...We should win and India should lose...not loose...Get an English course in Australia.

One failure and how people change their opinion about the Cricket legend.

We didn't lose the game just because of one person. All the batsmen coming after no.4 are responsible, except the openers and the tail-enders (bowlers). This is a team sport. Placing blame on one person is the reason why we have so much devision in our team, and are irresponsible and unable to accept our faults. Shame on Amir Sohail.

For some reason, Afridi wanted to lose this game. There is no other explanation for the way he batted.

After all these years we still expect Afridi to play with responsibility. Afridi is 'Afridi'. We have to take it as is....he is not out there to play a responsible innings. It is the job of top 6 'specialist' batsmen. Blame the two Umars (Amin and Akmal) for this loss , not Afridi. They are in the team to play sensibly and finish it .. Afridi is out there as a bowler who can hit a few blows with the bat, every now and then ( kind of like Jadeja in Indian team)....so Mr. Sohail and Mr. Nawaz stop blaming Afridi !!! ( Can Sohail take the blame for his extremely irresponsible shot selection in the QF loss against India in WC 1996 ) ?

Afridi taken 3 wickets at really crucial moments. So what the rest of the team for and else we expect from Afridi? If India were there they would have been chasing in ONLY 25 overs, NOT like our team who take the game till the last over. I guess the most culprit part is the defensive captaincy and worthless coaching or may be the management by people who are lacking cricket sense.

Why only blame Afridi. He took three wickets and scored 9 runs. What about Wahab Riaz, his fielding lapses cost us the match. He made zero runs and took zero wickets and ws also very expensive.

Never ever rely on Afridi to finish a game. Anything can happen if even 2 runs required to win if Afridi is on batting. I can not expect this from a senior player like Afridi. He has done same thing in the past and Pakistan lost he game.

We have taken Afridi to the moon by showering acolade after acolade. This guy should have been rested and called it a day long time back. I am at a loss to understand why he does get selected in the first place.

Sohail and Sarfraz are absolutely right in blaming Afridi for Pak defeat in 1st. ODI I have always considered him a 'Tulla player". How many more years are needed to make him under stand the required need of the game.I think his inclusion in the team and his game itself needs to be investi gated.Six Wickets for 39 balls? My God IT was shameful. .

Boom-boom went BUST.

@Taimur: India is not a pakistan lose against aus. We have a great young stars, all of below 28 years old except dhoni & yuvi. But pakistan most of them above 33, not only age . They doesn't know how to bat, how to handle the situation. Afridi is the big joker in the pakistan team, before start the series he told he is going to hit the century, first he should cross 20 runs. Other guy ajmal told he will get man of the series in the test series. What was happen? pak players always give this type of stupid comments, but they cant do anything in the game.

Our batsmen wilted under pressure. If there was no pressure, Boom Boom Afridi and other tailenders woiuld have crossed the 183 run mark at least three overs earlier. Islamiat and praying should be made a part of their training and we need a Muslim coach who knows how to inspire the players.

I have said it may time...With experience comes confidence. If you look at all majority teams their most experience batsmen always open first or are at least up the order. First 10 overs are basically a test of nerves where the ball is moving around and the batsman are easily intimidated. Unless and until Senior plays don

Afridi is a unique player,363 games,more than 7000 runs and averaging just 23. Ocuppying a batsman's spot, avaraging 23 in 363 games.

There is no doubt that Afridi is responsible for Pakistan's loss.

Afridi needs some rest. Send him to Barmuda Triangle.

The biggest problem with this Pakistani batting line up is that not even a single player tries to play with a positive mindset.Nobody tries to attack.Everyone is there on defensive. The openers who are supposed to be somewhat belligerent and look for boundaries, have become lambs. Pakistan had scored 13 runs in first ten overs,on a pitch which was a normal batting friendly track, which tells the story.They start with defensive right at start. It is hard to see a bold innings from a Pakistani batsman these days.They walk into the field like chicken waiting to be slaughtered . They are afraid to play shots and the result is that they are easily overpowered.It shows the lack of mental and psychological confidence.

Shahid Afridi is the most senior player without brain.

why blame anybody name one Pakistani who is doing well at anything at world level only way Pakistan ever wins anything is due to the bad performance of the competition Aamir and Sarfraz what were their rankings as a batsman and a bowler sounds like Pot calling the Kettle black .

It seems that Afridi has become "Doom Doom" rather than Boom Boom; he is now playing for money only. We should understand this.

What an embarrasement. All 11 players share the blame. Why was Afridi going for big shot when we had bunch of balls to go? (Personal glory - very selfish). Why did Shehzad think his job is done and threw his wicket after scoring his 50? (Very irresponsible).Misbah played a very very poor shot. Tail enders need to score runs not just bowl. In an ODI all 11 players need need patience and play smart. There was NO RUSH to finish the game. All 11 players rushed to embarrass themselves and the nation.

Our so called best batsman Mr. Misbah is unable to read a googly from a meager Imran and Mr. NFP compares this guy with Inzi, yousuf and Younus who faced spin legends like Shane Warn and Muralidharan

Its so apparent that all Afridi's moves on the field are designed to boost his commercial image. Its not his fault if the selecters and the board don't have the guts to kick him out because he does not have the selfrespect to quit.

Keeping in an eye on the other match between India and Australia I wonder, Do our players analyze what is going around them? How the Indian batsmen are achieving target of 350 and over. Can't we learn from them?

Afridi has become "doom doom" rather than Boom Boom; nowadays he is after money only.

I wish Pakistan team should always have Abdul Razaq and Hamad Azam.

It's all about Team Work. Pakistan Team are not playing as a Team to win. Cricket is game of HEART. If your heart is not in the Game, you are not going to WIN. Yes Afridi should have played with responsibility. But blame goes to the whole Team, cause players before him got dismissed taking wrong shot or whatever they were thinking at that moment. And I also agree when you are in that field it's a different story. Pitch was difficult no doubt about it. Sometimes it bounce and sometimes it didn't bounce, which makes things difficult for players. But the end of the day it's all about team work. Team work starts with the Captain of the Team. Misbah and Hafeez needs to figure out what's the issue, instead of making statement for media. Selecting a Team to play the Match also counts. Is Captain and Coach are involved for the selection of the team?? If yes, then They (Captain and Coach) have to answer questions "Why We Fail". And Mr. Aamir Sohail need to minimize the Negative Comments about the Team, instead help the team to recover from this loss. Negative comments will not solve the problem.

Why to blame one person no matter how experienced, good or mature he is, when cricket like any other sport in the world, is a team game? Definitely and positively, the whole Pakistani team must be blamed for the fiasco at Sharjah-U.A.E. in the first ODI against South Africa. Since Misbah-ul-Haq is at the helm, therefore, by default and centuries old universal principle, the main responsibility in this case must be vested in him. He should have and he must show the necessary guts and the grit to accept his responsibility accordingly because winning and losing, even by one run, is part of the game.

The way Pakistan surrendered to South African bowling attack was too embarrasing and humiliating to diggest. The target was not too big at all. It was not an hard ask. Even by rotating strike Pakistan could have won the match. Affridi did not need to play the rash shot when just few runs were left. Umer Akmal is to blame too along with Ahmed Shezad and Nasir Jamshed. Pakistan needs to improve upon thier batting line up and setting up of batting order. Hafeez is not suitable to bat at one down, he is better off at number 5 or 6. Bowling did best job as per usual. Its just our batting let us down. Our team needs to come up with better game plan and strategy for next 4 ODIs.

Those players who are not performing should be shown the door for good.That goes for Afridi well.He has let down millions of fans many a times.

agree,what about nasir,hafeez,umar akmal,umar amin,whaab riaz,sohail tanveer,they played like high school kids.the shots they picked up,they need to be ashmed of themself,if they have some selfrespectthey should not walk to the ground,but they will still walk out their smiling as if nothing happened ,they are disgrace to the team.All these safarishies will walk to the groung as if nothing happened,they have no remose

This is the guy on whom a movie was made? What an icon. What brilliance..

Afridi just closes his eyes and tries to knock out the ball out of the ground, he will never learn to treat the ball on merit.With his style most of the time he is failing.

I can't really understand why is all the blame put on Afridi. He took three wickets, two of them caught and bowled, that's it, his job done. Everyone knows really well Aamer Sohail's cheap character and we still very clearly remember his insult at the hands of Prasad against India on numerous occasions. Lay off Sarfaraz and Sohail, get a life!

The reason we blame Afridi because he is the only match winner for Pakistan and we depend a lot on him. If he played with both bat and ball, Pakistan win and if he doesn't Pakistan lose 90% of the time. As you can see when he didn't go to world series Pakistan was not even able to reach top 8 team. Records speak for himself and I don't have to say much. People who critic him maybe doesn't remember records or Most likely short memory. Their article should not even be posted on this prestigious newspaper. In fact of blaming Misbah not to include Asad Shafig in form batsman in the squad they try to put the attention towards Afridi.

look it who blaming afridi aamir sohail who was a biggest ir responsible person I ever seen we loss against india in 96 world cup we were good position because of aamir sohail we lost that game. and he talking against afridi . Pakistan loss because of misbah he change the natural game of nasir jamshed he is strugling because of that let him play his natural game

I am amazed Afridi has been given so many chances again and again and again, hey if I play 300 matches I will be able to sneak in tons or 2 but this is ridiculous, when seniors were around he was playing with no sense, now he is senior and instead of making an example for the juniors, he is still playing like a senseless brat !! it's torture PCB... you need to get rid of old hags.. and give someone else a chance for God sake.

agree 100%.what about nasir,hafeez umar amin,umar akmal,they should have carried the score to184.,they playe d shots like high school kids,so unresponcible,and irresponcible way of playing,what about wahab riaz,and sohil tanveer,ajmal should have played another 2 balls himself or may be take a run on the last ball.of coarse afridi ,heafter playing 363odi should see the situation and shouldnot try every ball for6 but ratherplay the ball on ground.all they had to score 1/1/2runs per over.what was the thought process.you play according to the situation.mark my word we will have all these immature players with no maturity of thinking at the situation back in the team walkingout tomarrow as if nothing happened,you just gave them astake on the plate and theyloved it.these guys have no shame or remose..i wish they have asad shafiq and younus back in.it looks to me that misbah will have to be around for few more years,theslectors need to pick players on their ability to perform on the ground and not who they know or whose safarish they have.they should drop sohail,wahab,umar amin,hafiz, and afridi for 6months and tell them u perform or you are out and if they dont throw them out.

Every body's comments are fair about Shahid Afridi but see what he will do in the forth coming ODI's. Should he repeat the same performance then he should be grounded. It is about time to retire all seniors in the interest of the game.

Win or Loose is a part of the game. Let us boost up the moral of our young Pakistani Team. Why give our enemies a chance to criticize and make a mocking stock of our own selves. It's not the end of the world. There are other ODI matches still remaining to be played. In shaa ALLAH I've full confidence they will rise to the occasion. Pak Team, we all wish you the best of luck.

@Rogers Evans: You can send Afridi to any number he will do the same dumb thing as he did in the first ODI. Sadly Umer Akmal is turning out to be another Afridi. Brainless shots all the time. Not sure what Sohali Tanvir , Hafeez and Wahab are doing in the team either. All need to be kicked out permenantly.

Presence of Afridi in Pak team has always brought smiles on the faces opposition captain. He has been a walking wicket through out his career much to the delight of the oppositon team. He does fires once or twice a year to cement his place in the Pakistani team. This guy has been fooling you guys for the past 17 years and you Pakistanis never realised it. Had he been born in India, his career would have ended 17 years back itself just like our Yusuf Pathan.....Never the less, good going Pak, keep him in the team. We Indians as an opposition are only too happy.....

Misbah gave away T20 final to India in South Africa, who can forget his miserable inning during World Cup semi final in India, Pakistan lost test match in Australia due to Kamran Akmal and now Afridi, such list will continue to grow as there is no discipline even at the top cricket board. Hockey, Squash and now cricket is being ruined due to very negative policies. Now that the national policies are being prepared in Lahore it will be very difficult to save Pakistan from complete disaster.

Blaming the failure on single player is not an intelligent thing to do. FIVE other batsmen did not get to pass 2 runs. Plus dismissal of Umar Akmal and Misbah was irresponsible as well. Afridi bowled well and in past have won us numerous ODIs SINGLE HANDEDLY.

This suggests a secret game fixing arrangement

Steve McDermott probably wrote his book "How to be a Complete and Utter Failure in Life, Work and Everything: 44 1/2 Steps to Lasting Underachievement" after watching Pakistan Cricket Team play. Pakistan Cricket Team has become the most 'PREDICTABLE" team in world Cricket, we KNOW they are "UNPREDICTABLE"...

Not only Afridi but Sohail Tanvir, Umar Amin, Umar Akmal are also responsible for this and all these players should be investigated and a court trial should be held against them.

Is this the first time he threw away his wicket? I think we need to understand when a player loses 75% of the time, he cannot be called "A good player" or "a good all-rounder". Selection should be based on his consistent performance rather then "One-good-innings-out-of-50" matches. The strike rate of 105 is no good at all with the average of only 23. And he is playing for Pakistan this way since 17 years. **What a shame**

hi pro this is cricket. if afridi knew that his shot can loss the pak then he would have bben no tplayed. i agree he should play more sensibaly.

What's Sohail talking about? Sure you'll get a good knock once every 50 ODIs but that was the classic Afridi, boom-boom-gone!

Once again, it is proved that most of our player have no sense of responsibility. One wonder, the poor Pakistanis still love them. Strange performance, not acceptable. This time, the board management must take necessary administrative action and stop the nonsense by our team.

Moin khan is gambler. be aware and away of him. see after he became the manager of the team, team start to loose the matches. this match is mysterious loss.who knows

Afridi did goof up. He tried to live up to his reputation of a slogger and seek glory for the victory. Sadly, he goofed up in style. In all the 363 ODIs he has played; 363 ODIs are quite a huge number, he should have matured by now or he should have taken a cue from Sangakkara. A commentator said veritably, "When pakistan are playing, there is never a dull moment." Anyway, let's see how the sloppy and mercurial Pakistani team play today. Salams

AFridi has played in three decades and even in another three decades he will still play as he does, which is fanatically.

Afridi is an easy escape goat. He is still the best ODI player pakistan has. Pakistanies must look at other 10 players as well when Afridi is in the playing 11. He is still performing after so much pressure from critics and there is no point targeting him all the time.

@shazia: I also blame amir sohail for losing 96 world cup quarter final to india by showing his worthless anger towards parsad and losing his wicket... thats was also selfish.

Ya Allah Hammay Afridi or Akmal Bridari say chutkara dillah ...... Aameen

As much as we can blame many irresponsible batting the PCB has to be responsible for this horrible batting flop They need a batting coach not only for this team but to groom from the u17 team As far as this loss is concerned we must accept that we only have one batsmen and if he fails there is no one with intellectual capacity to play responsibly

Most over rated player.

the current pakistani players are lucky to be palying for pakistan, if they were born in India they wouldnt be even be selected for club cricket. Players like Sehwag, Gambhir, Rahene and Pujara are not given a chance even tough they are world clasee payers, but in Pakistan third rate players like Hafeez, Misbah, Afridi, Sohial Tanver, Wahab and Jamshed are stars. Hahaha, how many of you agree with me ? please comment....

May be Aamir Sohail should remember what Prasad did to him in India in a match after Aamir hit him for a boundry and getting bowled very next ball. First of all the way the Afridi, Ajmal and Irfan bowled the upper order should have scored with a loss of 2 to 3 wickets only Afridi did his job in bowling and it was the responisbility of pure batsman to take Pakistan to victory. I know the attitude of Aamir Sohail in his playing days and I suggest to him that before he point finger at current players he should think what he was during his playing days.

@Mr. Haq: Dont compare Pakistan with India, On Indian pitches every one scores, the same Nasir Jamshed scored back to back centuries on Indian pitches, Mr Afridi is held responsible because after playing for 18-20 years he still dont know how to play a ball on merit. If we agree on so called defensive approach of Misbah and Dav than why Afridi didnt play defensively, what was the hurry???

For quite some time now Afridi has not performed well with the bat, but his bowling & fielding is outstanding. Simple treat him a tail end batsman. There are others in the team neither performing with the bat nor with ball nor with wicket keeping so what justifies their stay in the team.

@Oz: A bowling all rounder !! a good joke. If you said a bowler I would have agreed no way an all rounder. Irrespective of if he is to blame for the game lost, he should be let go now. Same performance each and every time. If some one cant learn how to bat in 300+ ODIs then there is no hope. As for is bowling I am sure there are lots of young players/specialist bowlers that can be included instead of him

Scored second highest score in in Pak innings in the 2nd ODI against SA. Scored more then Misbah and with much better rate! Took us to fighting total. Now he will take few wickets also, InshaAllah! Go BOOM BOOM!

I think its time that afridi should look at a career in TV or movies

@Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad: Agreed with what you said but at the same time as a senior player Afridi should have taken responsibility and played sensibly.

Shahid Afridi did his gig again! Scored second highest runs and three important wickets. MAN OF THE MATCH!!! What say you now???

So the most over rated player with most Man of Match awards just bagged one more in the second ODI. What do you haters have to say about that? When all the team is complacent , please do not single out any one player just because he made a habbit of making the team.

@Imran: Can you please mention how many crucial matches he has won? May be not more than 10 after playing almost over 600 matches in all format. If you an I play so many matches, our percentage will be better than Mr. Afridi. He will again and again fail in important matches like series decider or knock-out stages matches like in World Cup.

suhail and sarfaraz on personal vendetta or playing on somebodies tunes,cant they see afridi is all rounder ,he took wickets ,it was our pure batsmen who let us down and it has been like this that pure batsmen waste too many overs and then get out to leave a high run rate for afridi who is already doing his job by taking cricial wickets

@Nasr: that game between india and austrailia was a set up since last odi in banglore cant be important otherwise--big money is involved

@syed wasim haider: afridi is the only player not after money---I say this on a personal note

@Parvez: are you blind---he took three wickets

@Youth: Quite sometime Afridi has performed but it seemed to some people that he is the only player out pakistan eleven who is responsible for win and loose!

suhail and sarfaraz arenot qualified to comment on afridi---suhail was a horrible batsman --never a match winner and sarfaraz was a mediocre bowler who played under imran khan shadow.Count number of matches afridi have been man of the match and match winner ,suhail and sarfaraz combined cant even have 10 man winning performances--they should shut up since pakistan won 2nd Odi and man of the match is afridi

Afridi is the MVP in current Pakistani squad apart from Misbah. He has over 7,000 ODI runs and 360+ ODI wickets. Do you know of any other all rounders with this kind of record?

@Nadeem Mirza: I would suggest to look at the present performances rather than living in the past glory.

@Imran: I agree with Imran.When Afridi performs we win otherwise we loose.What the other players are for if they all look towards Afridi. If this is the case then Afridi should open innings to make t easy for the rest of the players as well as for the viewers to predict about the matches.

Mr. Afridi will be Pakistan's next batting coach.

It is true that Afridi is more then capable of getting in the team as a bowler, he is a match winner and has been a great servant to pakistan cricket ,but Amir sohail has got it right he should have played to win the match and not for the gallery. At this level you have to play with discipline and afridi showed a lack of it under the circumstances.

Very stupid shot he played in 1st ODI. But he's batting at #7. Does Aamir Sohail really expect the tailenders to win matches? Will he ever question his blue-eyed boy Mohammad Hafeez? For Sohail everything in life is fault of Imran Khan or Afridi. So this statement coming him was expected.

@lubna aka Shahid Afridi Ah, You are qualified to comment on Aamir and Sarfarz, For your kind info Sarafraz is the one who introduced reverse swing and his perception is quite cogent about cricket.

Only if Afridi had a brain ...