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Contrasting styles

Posted on | October 18, 2009 | 1 Comment

Geoffrey Boycott looks ahead to the three match one-day series between New Zealand and Pakistan which will be played in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

You couldn’t have two more contrasting styles, they’re just complete opposites.

With Pakistan you never know what you’re getting. They’re very talented and can be big match winners with the extraordinary Shahid Afridi a huge factor. They’ve always had great players but they keep you on the edge of your seat because you never know what’s going to happen. They played fantastically to win the T20 World Cup in England but success always seems to depend on which side of the bed they get out of and sometimes their performances seem to be ruled by the moon. They can be unruly, undisciplined but they always capture the imagination and have a top class leader in Younis Khan.

He was an absolute gem when he was with Yorkshire not least for his attitude in the dressing room added to his skill with the bat and brilliance anywhere in the field from slip to the deep. No sulking from him when he failed he was good to everybody else in the team and nothing ever got him down. If you can’t get on with Younis, there’s something wrong with you!

In Mohammad Aamer, the 17 year old, they have a superb bowling talent and a wonderful ‘death’ bowler in Umar Gul.

And then there’s Afridi, the best bowling all rounder in the world. His wrist spinners are difficult to pick and his quicker ball is as fast as some seamers. With the bat you’re never going to get consistency; he can’t defend for three balls without wanting to hit it out of the park and by the way, if you ever meet him be careful of shaking his hand; he’ll crush it and I thought mine had dropped off when we first met! It’s funny, but I’m always drawn to cricketers who are the opposite of the way I played and Shahid who is a wonderful, unthinking, carefree talent is one of them.

So Pakistan have fine players, but it’s going to be all about can they harness those gifts.

New Zealand are totally at the other end of the scale.

In nature they are very like the British and have to make the most of what they’ve got because there’s so few cricketers in a population of just over 4 million as against Pakistan’s 172 million citizens. How many of those 4 million play cricket? It’s a pretty small pool to pick from but that doesn’t stop them from being tigers on the field, the way they set about playing the game is tremendous and as the smallest of the Test playing nations they confound people all the time. They are never rated in the top two or three for any tournament but perform way above expectations and produce unbelievable performances like beating England and reaching the final of the Champions Trophy in South Africa last month.

In Daniel Vettori they have a captain who is a wonderful player with bat and ball and who personifies the nature of the team; not brash, almost apologetic but with a heart of steel. They also mange to find some pretty good characters too like Brendan McCallum, the wicketkeeper- opener, Shane Bond, quick with genuine pace, and Jacob Oram who when fit is a world class all rounder. The problem with Jacob is just getting him on the field!

Even though in the last 18 months their cricket has been ravaged by players like Scott Styris, Shane Bond and Nathan Astle going to the IPL or the ICL they always seem able to come up with more talent like Martin Guptill, a classy middle order batsman, and Jesse Ryder, the burly opener who gives it a helluva a clonk. Their fielding is top class, they have good minds, plan well, think on their feet and make the most of what they’ve got.

Dubai and Abu Dhabi are going to be Pakistan’s home grounds for the next few years while their country is out of bounds to cricket because of the terrorist threat. It’s a real home from home because there are a lot of migrant workers from their country. In April in Dubai the ground was packed to its 25,000 capacity for the Australian matches.

They call the stadium ‘the Ring of Fire’ because when all the floodlights are on that’s exactly what it looks like as the lights are placed on top of the circular stands. Abu Dhabi is a much more open ground with plenty of grassy mounds for spectators to sit on.

The pitches in both places are slow turners so any total between 220 and 250 is a pretty good score and with Pakistan having better spinners that the Aussies you would think they should have won the series but they didn’t.

Now it will be Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal, the talented Pakistan off spinner, up against Vettori and maybe Jeetan Patel, the Kiwi off break bowler.

Pakistan should be favourites but it won’t be cut and dried and you can bet New Zealand will be a handful.

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Comments

One Response to “Contrasting styles”

  1. Sabih Mazhar (Pak)
    November 10th, 2009 @ 7:57 pm

    A nice read. By now you know you got your prediction wrong GB but your views are always a joy to listen and read. Indeed Shahid Afridi is a great prospect for Pakistan in the near future

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