Cricket International Series – Australia can seal early victory in Pakistan Series with Win

Nothing is going right for Pakistan in their tour of Australia and it looks like it might get worst before it gets better.

After capitulating the Test series 3-0 the five match one day series hasn’t gone to plan.

And if the first loss was bad, the second was nothing short of humiliating which leads one to ask the question – what is wrong with Pakistan?

Take away the fact they haven’t played a home series on their own soil in at least two seasons due to persistent security threats to visiting teams, it means that Pakistan is away from home a lot.

Their recent series against New Zealand, in New Zealand was classified was their ‘home’ tour – how exactly that happens is another story for another rainy day.

Following from a series that they were competitive in, they jumped the ditch across to Australia and have been spanked backwards and forwards across their great sun-dried land.

It is not as though Australia are fielding an impenetrable team either – injuries to key players means that their one-day international bowling attack’s leading wicket-takers are Shane Watson (104) and Michael Clarke (52) for heaven’s sake – MICHAEL CLARKE?

True, an Australian team under pressure is a dangerous force, but something tells me that if the Pakistan batsmen stood tall and valued their wicket, they might be in with a chance.

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Clint McKay and Doug Bollinger have just a handful of internationals between them and Peter Siddle is far from a veteran – yet it’s those men who have done the damage.

The second ODI ended with a 140-run victory to Australia. What should have been a doddle, Pakistan failed to chase down the meagre 267 set on a good batting deck at the SCG.

Salman Butt (2), Younis Khan (0), Umar Akmal (0), Shoaib Malik (2), Shahid Afridi (9), Mohammad Aamer (4), Umar Gul (1no) and Saeed Ajmal (3) failed to break into double figures and allowed their team to be humbled for 127 while helping Australia’s attack keep a relatively clean sheet, the top three bowler’s worst performer was Siddle who had an economy rate of 2.87.

It must have been a tough job for those selecting the player of the match because over all, there wasn’t much worth crowing about except the eventual result if you were an Australian supporter.

I have said it before and will say it again, Pakistan’s habit of capitulating is worrying. Their batsmen all need to be taken back into the nets and given a stern talking to.

Their coach needs to sit them down and drill into their heads the simplest of mottos -- play each ball on its merits.

Every body wants to see a great big lofted shot into the crowd but as a fan, I want to see a batsmen craft an innings.

The pre-planned shot may come off every now and again, a hoick to cow corner may score a boundary occasionally but what’s the point of scoring a boundary if you are back in the sheds the very next ball because you have tried to do it again?