NAPIER: While expressing his tentativeness regarding a solid bowling combination, Pakistan batting coach Mohammad Yousuf on Saturday lauded New Zealand for playing exceptional cricket which gave them victory over the Green-shirts in the first One-day International in Napier.

After being sent in to bat, New Zealand from a precarious 50-3 went on to post a massive 344-9 at McLean Park before dismissing the tourists for 271 in 44.1 overs. Middle-order batter Mark Chapman struck his career-best score of 132 and was backed well by Daryl Mitchell (76) and debutant Mohammad Abbas (52).

“It was a good track for bowling in the morning, yet they [New Zealand batters] played very good cricket. Chapman deserves more credit — he stood at the wicket, covered later, and played very well. And [Daryl] Mitchell and finally, the debutant played very good knocks. I think credit goes to them; they have played very well,” Yousuf told reporters during the post-match media conference.

Answering a question, the batting coach sought to defend his bowlers but at the same time acknowledged that extra runs conceded by the part-time bowlers — off-spinner Salman Ali Agha (0-67 in five overs) and medium-pacer Irfan Khan (3-51 in five overs) proved costly.

“See, both my [part-time] bowlers went for some 120 runs. I think, obviously, it could have been costly, but I think it is not appropriate to talk about the team that has been formed [recently]. It could have been better; they could have bowled well,” he said.

“Chapman, replying to a question in his media conference, has said that he decided to attack when we [Pakistan] brought in a part-timer.”

Yousuf signalled that Pakistan may look to include fifth regular bowler in order to manage things better in the remaining matches of the ODI series.

“Look, as team management, even before this, we saw in the [preceding] T20 series that in powerplay, we gave overs to spinners and made them score 30, 30 runs [each]. However, these things are proving to be costly,” he said.

“Now, we will see what to do in the next matches — which fifth bowler or an all-rounder will play and what benefit do we get from that.

“Obviously, if a regular bowler plays, he may not concede as many runs which the part-timers conceded. So I think this [team] management will definitely think about what bowling attack we should play in the next match,” he maintained.

He admitted that conceding 43 extras in the Napier ODI was a costly bargain for the tourists which he said would be looked into by the coaches who would make sure the bowlers put things right in the coming games.

The match, Yousuf noted, at one stage was within their reach before it got out of their hands.

The New Zealand pace bowlers, Yousuf emphasized, fared well on a fairly good batting track.

“The wicket was playing well in the second innings, the ball was coming onto the bat. Credit also goes to the New Zealand bowlers who continuously kept us in a testing mode. Their tall bowlers kept delivering bouncers and kept bowling in good areas which gave them success in the end,” the coach concluded.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2025