Shan Masood lamented “the same mistakes” Pakistan keep making after they slipped to an eighth Test defeat on the trot in South Africa and their seventh in their last nine games. In a
topsy-turvy game, the final twist belonged to South Africa as they recovered from an epic collapse that saw them lose four wickets for three runs to record an unbeaten 50-ball 51-run partnership that clinched victory by two wickets, and alongside it
a berth in the World Test Championship final.
“We had the game in our hand, whether with the bat or the ball,” Masood said. “I don’t have to add anything and sound like a broken record. [I’m] extremely proud of the efforts, but going forward as a team we need to be ruthless. We’ve been competing well in these conditions and I’ve said that before when we played
in Australia in similar conditions. We had the game by the scruff of the neck and even here twice, we had them eight down and we thought we were in a reasonable position and even with the bat, when we could have extended our score in both innings.”
While Pakistan have
not won in South Africa since 2007, they have never come as close as they did in this Test. But collapses with the bat in both innings – they lost 4 for 22 in the first innings and 7 for 84 in the second – were compounded by toothlessness in the field against the tail: South Africa’s ninth and tenth-wicket partnerships added a combined 139 across two innings for the loss of just two wickets.
“All four innings [cost us]” Masood said. “We can only look at ourselves. You’re going to make mistakes over several days, but you need to have a cushion. I thought when it came to a time when we could get that cushion with the bat, first and third innings, or whether that was with the ball when we had them eight down on two occasions. We didn’t have that cushion, and then you get partnerships like Bosch’s innings and Rabada and Jansen, and you don’t have enough of a cushion to retain a winning position.”
A failure to kill games off has been a familiar theme for Masood, one he has highlighted so often he was conscious of sounding “like a broken record”. In Australia, Pakistan found themselves in positions of dominance – or at least parity – in two of the three Tests, as well as in both games
against Bangladesh. Pakistan have chopped and changed the personnel; the bowlers, coaches and selection panel have all been rejigged over this period. Masood maintained, though, that his team had the ability to get over the line.
“I don’t think it’s a quality issue. The quality is there, and we’ve seen it at various points. To be a top team, to be in South Africa’s place, to play a WTC final, these are the things where you have to be ruthless.
“Sometimes you learn the hard way. You can’t use it as an excuse but the more we play Test cricket, the more people get into sync. A lot of the players were playing for the first time in these conditions. It can be a really hard lesson where you feel like you’ve got the other team under pressure, but you still need to finish the job.
“It can also feel like we’ve got a really good partnership with Saud [Shakeel] and Babar [Azam], or Kamran [Ghulam] and [Mohammad] Rizwan, or me and Saim [Ayub] in both innings and you feel that you can take them on and have a great score. You’re never set in these conditions whether with the bat or the ball. We’re learning the hard way through a defeat, but the challenge is that we have to respond to this and make sure once we get into winning positions, we must make sure we win the game rather than bring the other team back into it.”
There was still enough encouragement from the Pakistan captain to highlight the contributions he felt merited more.
Mohammad Abbas, playing, at 34, his first Test in over three years, bowled 19.3 unbroken overs across the second innings as he scrapped to pull a victory out of the hat for Pakistan, registering career-best figures of 6 for 54 in the second innings. He is now three wickets away from 100, and has the best Test bowling average for a Pakistani in history (minimum 15 wickets).
“The message is clear, age is just a number,” Masood said. “The disappointing thing is a performance like that should be on the winning side. I also thought Saud Shakeel’s innings [was excellent] – if we had batted a bit better with him – he would have got a hundred. Those two performances deserved to be on the winning side, and unfortunately they’re not.”
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