BRISBANE: Pakistan cricket team coach Mickey Arthur has described his side’s sluggish run chase against Australia in Brisbane as “old-style cricket” that “doesn’t really have a future” in the one-day game.
Arthur conceded he’s unsure who will captain the side in Melbourne on Sunday if regular skipper Azhar Ali is ruled out with a hamstring injury.
Pakistan lost the toss at the Gabba in the opening match of the five-match series and did well to restrict the home side to a total of 9-268, but their batsmen laboured in the chase and were eventually bowled out for 176 in the 43rd over, an economy rate of just 4.12 runs an over.
Number four Babar Azam top scored with just 33 and not one Pakistan batsman finished their innings with a strike rate of 85 or higher.
In contrast, five Australian batsmen finished with a strike rate of 100 or higher, including top-scorers Matthew Wade (100no from 100 balls), Glenn Maxwell (60 from 56 balls) and Travis Head (39 from 39 balls).
The tourists had exceeded 300 in three of their past four matches in one-day cricket, a format they’ve struggled to master in recent years.
‘One-day cricket has moved on’
But Arthur said his side would continue to fall behind the rest of the world if they batted as slowly as they did tonight.
“I thought from the fifth ODI in England (in September) we had devised a brand that worked for us and a brand that would be sustainable for us at international level,” Arthur said.
“But we went back to the old-style cricket tonight, which doesn’t really have a future and it means that we don’t get the scores of 300 that we need. “One-day cricket has moved on. We saw Chris Lynn tonight come in and it looked like he was playing Twenty20 cricket again. That’s where the game’s going. – Agencies
