By Saj Sadiq
February 12 2003

Pakistan had the Australians in trouble early in the match in Johannesburg, but then they seemed to ease the stranglehold and let the Australians back into the game. Some strange decisions by Waqar, poor back up bowling and a slow over rate allowed the Australians to score 310 in their 50 overs. Pakistan suffered a heavy defeat against a resilient Australian team in their opening match of World Cup 2003. Pakistan looked in ominous form at the start but heads started to go down when Symonds and co got stuck into the back up bowlers.

At 86 for 4 Waqar will have been totally satisfied by his decision to bowl first in Johannesburg. Wasim was a little erratic but bowled some beautiful deliveries and was unlucky not to have picked up Hayden earlier than he had. Shoaib bowled with venom, aggression and bowled with great control.

With the Aussies countering each wicket with aggression, it was always going to be an innings that was high scoring or they were going to be bowled out well within their 50 over allotment.

In my opinion the crucial period of the game was when Symonds had just joined Ponting at the crease, after the fall of Maher. This was the time that Waqar should have brought back Shoaib Akhtar to get rid of either Symonds or Ponting. If at this stage of the game the Aussies had lost another wicket then the Pakistanis could have put real pressure on the men from down under. Instead Waqar opted to bowl the very poor Afridi and Razzaq, both of whom were belted around the park by Symonds.

With all due respect to Symonds, I’ve seen the guy play a number of times for Australia, and I don’t believe that he has suddenly become a world beater overnight. The Pakistani team obviously thought that they had got rid of the big guns and at 146 for 5, with Gilchrist, Hayden, Ponting, Martyn and Maher back in the pavilion, the job had been done. Instead they fed Symonds with width outside his off stump and he continued to gratefully accept the rubbish served up by Afridi and Razzaq.

To add to Pakistans problems the over rate was far too slow and they had to bowl Younis Khan to try to catch up with the required over rate.

Pakistan were never in with a realistic chance of overhauling the large Aussie total and struggled right form the start. The usual 20s and 30s ensued but one must praise Rashid Latif and Wasim Akram for their efforts late in the game, in fact one could sense a bit of panic in the Australian camp when Wasim and Rashid were really going for it.

I am comfortable with Waqars decision to bowl first, and the fact that the ball did plenty in the early overs and that the Australians were 86 for 4 justifies Waqars decision to field first. However the decision to bowl Afridi continuously for 9 overs was ridiculous given that Symonds had got the measure of Afridi and he was bowling in the slot for Symonds, instead of trying to tuck him up for room and stopping him from freeing his arms. Abdul Razzaqs bowling lacked any ort of penetration and he continues to bowl at least one poor delivery an over. It seems that it is a concentration problem with Razzaq as he went for 7 runs an over.

The team selection was also controversial with only 5 bowlers including Afridi selected and an extra batsman being opted for. Lets get one thing straight, it doesn’t matter how many batsman you select, if you are chasing totals in excess of 300, its highly unlikely that you are going to reach such high targets.

Overall it was a match that Pakistan were in control of at the start, having got rid of the big guns in the Australian batting line up, but poor captaincy by Waqar, a lack of discipline in the back up bowlers and a slow over rate enabled the Aussies to set an unachievable target.