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It’s a fact that Indian team was far much better than in talent and energy in Gohati match against Pakistan, but the main reason why Pakistan lost the match was its suspiciously slow batting and substandard fielding.

It seemed that there was no life in the batting lineup. Openers tried to hit the shots but they managed to hit some fours accidentally, while the middle order was as sluggish and as incompetent as ever. There was no consistency and continuity in the performance. Younus Khan and Mohammad Yousuf didn’t impress a bit, and the skipper Shoaib Malik was also very pathetic,, while Misbah-ul-haq was somewhere else.

Pakistani team made 239 runs at the loss of 7 wickets while playing first. Mohammad Yousuf though made 83, but they were not impressive and wasn’t as useful as they should be. Salman Butt scored 50 runs, as usual in the first match of the tournament and now he will be a consistent failure in the rest of the tournament. Shoaib Malik made 2 “precious” runs with utmost difficulty. Younus Khan painfully scored 25 runs, and it was a relief to seem him getting out. Shahid Afridi blazed away with 31 runs.

Consistency and passion was missing from the Pakistani team. They took pressure to their throat and choked like South Africa. Though the difference between Proteas and them is that Proteas are far much better team; both professionally and talent-wise.

Another thing which came out very vividly out of the match is the failure of captaincy from Shoaib Malik. He seemed at loss throughout the match, and he wasn’t being helped by the senior players like Yousuf, Younus, Shoaib Akhtar, and Shahid Afridi. He didn’t use his fast bowlers appropriately, and he didn’t use spinners according to the situation. He just accepted the defeat as it was offered.