Azhar Mahmood lambasts another Pakistan batting collapse, saying his side need to take more responsibility.
Azhar Mahmood bemoans another Pakistan collapse: ‘This is not acceptable’.
The head coach of Pakistan was forced to lament a well-known weakness in the team’s performance, citing his team’s collapse in the first innings as the game-changing event. Azhar Mahmood claimed that Pakistan had particularly discussed this at their training camps and that it was “not acceptable” that this continued to occur following the Test, which South Africa won by eight wickets.
“The first innings collapse was where it started,” he said at the post-match press conference. “We lost 5 for 17. We should have posted 400-425 there, which was the position we’d put ourselves in. Agha and Rizwan were building a partnership which we couldn’t utilise.
“This is the fourth time in two Tests that we’ve lost wickets lower down the order cheaply. This is not acceptable, and we need to take responsibility. We spoke about this at our two camps. Whenever your top players score 270-300, the contribution from the lower order really matters.”
A senior player or coach condemning Pakistan’s late-order breakdowns this series has been the only thing more dependable than those collapses themselves. Mahmood blasted Pakistan’s first innings collapse, which saw them lose their final five for sixteen and fall from 362 for five to 378, midway through the first Test. After Pakistan lost their last six for 17 in the second innings, captain Shan Masood emphasised the problem again after the match.
“You also have to give credit to opposition,” Mahmood said. “South Africa were much better than us in this department. We could have taken the lead but credit goes to Muthuswamy, the way he played; his shot selection was perfect. He put on 70 with Maharaj and 98 with Rabada. If you play with a quality team and you give them several chances in a brief period of time, they will punish you. That’s what happened and we allowed them extra runs.
“You have to work on your game and know your scoring shots. You can learn from the opposition. Muthuswamy scored primarily from the sweep and reverse sweep. You should know your scoring options. When we went to bat, we started blocking early. If we had rotated the strike and put pressure on them, we could have pushed them off their lengths. The way they did – though of course a low target made it easier. You need mental toughness; international cricket is all about how you cope with pressure.”