JAVED MIANDAD: Pakistan batting gaining confidence
There's lot of talk about Misbah's defensive mindset. I'm afraid the resources he has at his disposal any captain could have gone into his shells. He plays too many dot balls, but it’s the fear of losing wickets from the other end which forces him to farm the strike. He needs to have confidence on batsman at the other end by rotating the strike. There's no better torture to an opposition than to keep moving the scoreboard with singles and twos.
Pakistan should also shrug off the fear of defeat from their minds. Perhaps that was the reason that we might have over bowled our trump pace bowler Mohammad Irfan. Playing three matches in seven days is not easy for a bowler of Irfan's height. We could have easily rested Irfan against UAE as we had two other bowlers - Yasir Shah and Ehsan Adil - on the bench. It could have given Irfan enough time to recharge his batteries and come out blazing against South Africa. He's the only bowler in the tournament who could extract extra bounce and can keep batsmen in check.
It was no surprise to me when the 7-footer Irfan limped off the field after bowling just three overs against UAE. It will be nothing less than a shocker if he doesn't get fit in time for the match against South Africa. Pakistan desperately needs Irfan to challenge South Africa's top order batsmen and without him I'm afraid Pakistan doesn't have enough bowling power.
If Irfan gets unfit, Pakistan could contemplate including Yasir Shah in the playing XI because attacking South Africa with spinners is much better choice than the fast bowlers. We have already seen South Africans being curtailed by Indian spinners.
South Africa have come back in whirlwind fashion after their loss against India. They have bulldozed their opponents in the last two matches by racking over 400 runs. Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers and David Miller all are in form of their lives. The huge gulf between them and the other teams is their attacking approach. They even take boundaries off deliveries which other batsmen might only play out for a dot ball. The only way to counter them is to keep bowling them consistently at a good line and length and force them to err.
The brutal power hitting of South African batsmen have raised the bar so much that it's for sure tough for any opposition. Pakistan simply needs to be more innovative and try out something new to surprise AB de Villiers. Pakistan are underdogs and they have nothing to lose. There's no harm in tinkling with the playing XI with some positive thinking. At least I wouldn't mind if we go out with some "Super" approach on Super Saturday against South Africa.
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