[LBW103]

Originally Posted by offstump
first of all it was not OUR STRATEGIC plan to not let IMRUL OPEN, or NAEEM was not preferred over IMRUL. as IMRUL was unable to open due to his absence in the field during fielding we needed a make shift OPENER.

now the question come WHY NAEEM ??? why not ASHRAFUL, SHAKIB, ALOK or MUSHFIQ ?????

this is what i understand. everybody was a bit feared of facing the WI quicks and two new balls from both ends.

Mushfiq realized he is needed in the middle order to guide the team in the latter stages like he have been doing recently. Also Shakib was protected to produce quick runs in the middle overs. ALOK is in as the Batting POWERPLAY man

now there are 2 names left ASH, NAEEM. well sending ASH and TAMIM together can be like suicide. it could be 100 in 10 overs or it could be 2 down for 5 runs.

SO IT WAS NAEEM who will open. now team management had to decide what will be naeem's role ??? pinch hitter o grafter ??? well with Tamim aleady there to play aggressive perhaps the team management asked naeem to play the sheet anchor role. see off the new ball, hold one end, accelerate later. BUT with 300 to chase we should have send somebody like ASH or ALOK to open with TAMIM. Naeem perjaps played the role he was assigned, but the problem was tamim was slow too. that made the partnership look too slow. if tamim had a quick fifty plus then perhaps naeem innings would have looked like a perfect foil to tamim's innings.

now if u are naeem, you would have been very happy to open. naeem would feel its better to play as opener rather than at 7/8. he could play himself and get a 50 or more. what he exactly did. anyway he was better than rockibul in one sense. Rockibul would have blocked a lot of balls that naeem missed, but naeem was actually tying to pay shots in those balls, but he was late to play those shots.

NOW my opinion is team management should investigate whether NAEEM played according to team plan or whether it was NAEEM's own plan ???? if it was according to team plan then let him keep his place. But if it was NAEEM' own plan, he should be immediately dropped.

there should be a clear message to all the players that as long there is a team plan to win the game, the players should play according to team plan to win the game. players who are playing for averages and stats not following the team plan should not be in the team.

This assumes the management had a plan? I didn't see any real intent to chase down 299 until the game was almost half over. What was happening in the middle had little resemblance to what the scoreboard was shouting "score a run a ball".

Any plan to chase 299 would be this: 60 off 10 overs, 80 off 15 overs, 120 off 20 overs etc etc or close to it. you don't need to be more complicated than that. 300 balls requires 300 runs. SR of 100 for all the batters or close to it.

What you do is attempt to accelerate (not drop anchor) on the easiest batting pitch to score on. And batting 2nd you know what you gotta do so there are no surprises.

Your suggestion that the batsmen were in someway afraid of the west indies bowlers is so ridiculous. This is not a schoolboy game. If any player is afraid of a bowler they should not be playing in an international match.

Sorry to say that either the management mucked this up with dreadful tactics, and/or the batsmen are not being taught how to bat properly to chase targets. Either way this is a fault of coaching.

If you want to promote a batter up to open to make it the number 3 batter who is actually used to the game situation, and not the number 8, sorry.