da mrbet： Woolmer unhappy with pedestrian display of fielding
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan at Rawalpindi11-Feb-2006
Poor running between the wickets cost Pakistan dear leading to four run-outs © AFP
Things aren’t quite working according to plan for Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach. A thumping series win against England and a crushing 341-run triumph against India inthe Karachi Test had set things up nicely but Pakistan appeared bothinsipid and complacent in the second game at Rawalpindi, allowing India tosquare the series and gain tremendous confidence ahead of the next threegames.Woolmer was visibly livid after Pakistan’s seven-wicket loss and had noqualms in admitting that his side had been “thrashed” in the contest.”Everything went wrong today,” he said candidly at the post-match pressconference. “We played badly and had four run-outs in a total of 265. Weshould have probably got 320. Judging by the standard of cricket, you cansay we were complacent but I think India also deserve a lot of credit.”Having won an important toss, Pakistan surprised most by choosing to baton a pitch that had some early help for the medium pacers, and thenbotched a chance to consolidate with some shambolic dismissals. “The balldid swing a bit early on,” Woolmer added, “but I don’t think we misreadthe pitch. There was not much for the bowlers after the early help and thefact is we didn’t get any partnerships going. In hindsight we could haveprobably allowed our bowlers to use the early morning conditions but itwas the batting that made the difference in the end. We expected it toturn a bit later but we got that wrong.”The turning points, according to Woolmer, were the run-outs of ShoaibMalik, caught napping by a brilliant throw from deep point, and MohammadYousuf, attempting a perilous second run on a misfield. Pakistan’s miserycontinued into the afternoon, when they put forward a pedestrian displayof fielding, and Woolmer felt it couldn’t be easily condoned. “Thefielding was shocking,” he continued, “but it wasn’t because of a lack ofwork. We had worked on it on the last two days and the guys were tryingreally hard. But we had a really bad day. Our body language also droppedwhen Sehwag and Tendulkar were batting.”Yet, despite all his frustrations, he added that there were positives tobe taken from the game and applauded Shoaib Malik for a “superb” innings.He felt that Malik had shown a lot of composure and was happy that hecould carry on the fine form that he showed at Peshawar.