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The Pakistani camp was on Monday looking for excuses for its team’s surprisingly below par performance against England in the final two matches of the one-day series.

After the emphatic manner in which Inzamam-ul-Haq’s men began the one-day series, it was shocking to see the tourists getting slaughtered by England at Trent Bridge and later edged at Edgbaston for a 2-2 verdict in the five match contest.

The Greenshirts were booed by their own supporters after they could just score 154 against an average England attack in the final one-dayer, a very low score by a side that arguably has the strongest batting line in one-day cricket. The way Pakistan lost the last two matches and failed to win the one-day series has raised a lot of eyebrows but their coach Bob Woolmer said he was focusing on the many positives from the series rather than the losses.

Filling in for Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, who once again ducked the media after the Edgbaston loss, Woolmer tried to hide his team’s shortcoming by underlining some of its success stories on a tour that most of Pakistan cricket fans would like to forget.

“There were several encouraging parts for us on this tour,” said the Englishman who was at the helm of one of Pakistan’s most unimpressive showing in England in two decades. “There was Younis Khan. He was an absolute plus point and batted superbly during the entire tour,” said Woolmer about his vice-captain who was named man-of-the series in the one-day contest on Sunday.

He added: “Mohammad Yousuf was great so was Mohammad Asif in the bowling department. Umar Gul got better and better and though he did not play in the one-dayers, the bowler is very much a part of our ODI squad.”

Woolmer said that the tour of England itself was a big plus for Pakistan. “England is a great country to play in and my boys have learnt a lot on this tour.” The coach said that his players succumbed to fatigue following a long and tough tour. “It was a tough tour with a lot of injuries and an unfortunately elongated incident at The Oval Test,” he said. “My boys were emotionally drained and physically tired,” he added.

He said that the signs of fatigue were evident in the fourth one-day at Trent Bridge which England won by eight wickets but was quick to praise for “working hard” in the final match at Edgbaston. “We played badly at Trent Bridge but in this last match we really worked hard though in the end our 154 runs proved to be insufficient,” he said.

Woolmer said that the toss, which Inzamam lost for the first time in the series at Edgbaston, was very important in the final one-dayer that began in misty conditions. “The conditions in the morning were really tough for batting. The ball moved a lot in the first session and did a lot of damage. But in the afternoon it didn’t move at all. We have three of the world’s best away swing bowlers but they were unable to move the ball and that say a lot about the conditions they faced. It was really a tough job to defend a small total,” he said referring to the trio of Mohammad Asif, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Rao Iftikhar Anjum.

Woolmer praised his players for fighting till the last ball. “The boys showed what they are capable of by bringing themselves back in the match,” he said. He said that Pakistan were now looking forward to the ICC Champions Trophy getting underway in India from October 7. “We would be playing in completely different conditions there and I am confident of a better showing from my team,” he hoped.
Source:The News