Australia prove that Pakistan are unfit to face the elite in World Twenty20

Same old problems, not least their bowling, leaves the team light years behind their rivals and out of the tournament, writes Osman Samiuddin from Mohali.

Ahmed Shehzad of Pakistan fields during their ICC WT20 India Group 2 match against Australia at I.S. Bindra Stadium on March 25, 2016 in Mohali, India. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Australia ran a four on Friday. They ran it. In Mohali, which, OK, had a biggish square boundary but still, it was one for a World Twenty20 in India.

It was only the second all-run four in a Twenty20 international in India ever.

I would say Mohammad Sami chased it down but that would be entirely the wrong verb. If you leave anything out on the field, it is bound to come back at some point. He then threw it back as if it was a bowling ball.

(The other night, Ross Taylor ran a three when his miscued edge went high and landed two-thirds of the way to the boundary.)

Read more:

Umar Akmal had taken seven off three balls from Adam Zampa, in the 11th over of Pakistan's chase.

He had hit one boundary in the over already. The required rate was over 11, so sure, another boundary would have helped.

But he was set. He was on to a target, not ahead of it, but on its coattails. There is no way of knowing, but the best chasers, with those runs in the bank for the over, they very likely would not have attempted the slog-sweep Akmal did.

They would have given themselves maybe just that little bit more time. Or they would have been good enough to execute the slog-sweep.

Off the last ball of the 19th over, Steve Smith shuffled to the off, so far he may have crossed the state boundary.

Instead of aiming, you know, at the stumps manned by nobody, Wahab Riaz decided to aim even wider of Smith, a ball that would definitely have required a visa to whatever its destination was. Smith flicked it over midwicket for four.

As a default setting it is always wrong to blame Pakistan’s bowlers, but in that little dance was something: yesterday, as in the tournament, Pakistan’s bowling has lacked the intrinsic nous and cunning to bowl in this format.

Just being a good fast bowler is not enough – ask Dale Steyn.

These are isolated moments that do not even begin to tell the whole story, not of this match, not of Pakistan’s tournament and not of their deficiencies in the format.

Right now, they just stand out more than others.

And there were many others, especially in the field.

They missed a run-out of Glenn Maxwell when he was on 18 which they might not even consider a chance, but which the other nine teams of this stage would have executed.

Other misfields and fumbles cost them in the region of 20 runs – no happy coincidence that they lost by 21 runs. Pakistan would probably consider the dropping of no catches as a positive.

Later when Waqar Younis arrived to dissect the defeat and exit, he thought first to blame the bowling, especially that in the death overs. He said it had been totally off-plan and cost them the match.

Only later did he speak of the fielding, which also cost them the match. “Difference between the teams is very obvious and clear,” he said. “As a fielding side we are not the best of the sides in this tournament. That is one thing we really have to dig deep and think about, even the selectors for next time or going forward that when you pick someone, you have to really look at the fielding aspect of the game.”

It was telling the order in which he spoke of these reasons. Pakistan still, it appears, do not understand that fielding is now an equal skill, an equal contributor to the fate of a match as batting and bowling. Or at least, this management does not.

If you add Grant Flower’s assessment that, from the outside, even the batting looks outdated; or that, in this squad, there were at least four players who were visibly out of shape, then where does that leave Pakistan?

Dumped out of the tournament, light years behind the elite.

Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE

Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport