2 Wins out of 2 for Rashid's Youngsters

Responsible Innings
By SS
April 5 2003

An excellent victory for Pakistan as they beat Sri Lanka comfortably by 7 wickets in the 2nd match in Sharjah. Once again the young bowling line up performed admirably and fifties for Mohammad Hafeez, Yousuf Youhana and Younis Khan enabled Pakistan to ease home.

It was 2 out of 2 for the new look Pakistan team, as they beat Sri Lanka yesterday by 7 wickets. Chasing 224 to win, Pakistan reached their target with 16 balls to spare as Yousuf Youhana and Younis Khan batted with level headedness and maturity against an attack missing Chaminda Vaas but including Muralitharan.

The efforts of the young Pakistan bowling line up can only be admired and commended as they restricted a very experienced and talented Sri Lankan batting line up to only 223 runs. Bowling according to their field and with great discipline, it must have been heartening for Rashid Latif, Javed Miandad and Aamir Sohail to see their young selections performing so admirably.

Pakistan were full of enthusiasm and aggression in the field as they raced through their overs, finishing off the allotted 50 overs, 17 minutes before the required deadline. No showboating, no major conferences and no prancing around between overs meant that the new ICC enforcements for not completing 50 overs in time were never an issue.

Mohamed Sami bowled once again with great pace and venom, Umar Gul was again effective and tidy, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan picked up 2 excellent wickets, whilst Shoaib Malik and Abdul Razzaq were both economical.

After the early loss of Taufeeq Umar, Pakistan were settled by a patient but important partnership of 76 between Mohammad Hafeez and the recalled Faisal Iqbal laid the foundations for this victory. Two needless run outs meant that the experienced pairing of Yousuf Youhana and Younis Khan were under some pressure at the start of their innings, but they both played superb knocks, mixing quick singles with classic strokes against the ineffective Sri Lankan bowling attack.

Chasing recently has never been the strong point of the Pakistani team, but hopefully both Younis and Yousuf will have realised what is required of them when Pakistan are chasing totals. Both these players need to take on the responsibility of making this inexperienced batting line up tick and yesterday they showed that mentally they have what it takes.

Overall the Pakistani players, coach, selectors and fans can be proud of the teams efforts so far. As many have already said, it is early days yet, but in both games the youngsters have done what was required of them. Umer Gul, Naved-ul-Hasan and Hafeez have shown that they have potential at this level and have not been overawed by performing on the big stage. More importantly though in my opinion is that some of the current group of players are climbing out of some big shadows. What I mean when I say this is the likes of Mohamed Sami realising that there is no Waqar or Shoaib Akhtar, so the main bowling responsibility is on him, and Younis Khan realising that there is no Inzamam to come in after him, so he would have to see his team home, and Shoaib Malik realising that there is no Saqlain for him to be compared with and he would have to shoulder the responsibility of being the main spinner in the team and Abdul Razzaq realising that there is no Wasim Akram to bat after him in the order and that he is the main all rounder in the team.

Already one can see that some of the boys are starting to mature and take on the responsibility left by some of the big names not in the current squad. Their roles in the team are changing from being support acts to the main performers and it remains an interesting and crucial phase in Pakistani cricket.