Pakistan had their chances against Sri Lanka and India. Shahid Afridi produced one of his finest innings in the match against Sri Lanka, scoring a century after 5 years. But it was Malinga five-wicket haul which blew Pakistan away in the end. In the match against India, valuable contributions from Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal helped Pakistan post a competitive total. But failure to hold onto important catches and some shoddy bit of fielding resulted in their ouster from the tournament.
Failure on the part of the youngsters to perform on the big stage could be attributed as one of the main reasons for Pakistan's defeats. Umar Amin, who got a chance to prove his mettle, let the team down with scores such as 7 and 3 against Sri Lanka and India respectively. Umar Akmal had a couple of good starts but could not convert that into fruitful contributions. Salman Butt let his team down against Sri Lanka, getting out for a duck, but made up for the loss by scoring well against his favourite team India.
When it comes to bowling, Pakistan have always been known to field one of the best bowling attacks. With the likes of Akthar, Asif and Aamer in the pace department and Ajmal, Afridi and Malik manning the spin section, Pakistan had the best combination to make full use of the conditions. However, that was not to be as the bowlers performed only in patches and were unable to fire as a whole unit.
While Shahid Afridi attributed the lack-lusture performance of the youngsters as a reason for the team's failure, he did mention that Pakistan would field a team containing youngsters in the match against Bangladesh, giving them another opportunity to prove their worthiness. This means, some of the senior players like Shoaib Akthar and Abdul Razzaq would be given a rest.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, have been very ordinary in their endeavours in the Asia Cup. Although the openers Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes provided the impetus at the top of the order, the middle order let them down miserably, failing to capitalize on the solid starts. The batsmen, who were found wanting against spin in both New Zealand and England, seem to have the same problem in Sri Lanka. Their inability to handle spin has been to such an extent that they were left under the mercy of part-timers like Sehwag and Dilshan.
The biggest letdown in the middle order for Bangladesh is Mohammad Ashraful. For an extremely talented batsman, Ashraful is woefully out of form. He needs to put in a lot of work to try and regain his touch because his role in the scheme of things for Bangladesh is already on question and the countdown has begun for the right-hander.
In the bowling department, only Shafiul Islam seemed capable of troubling the opposition batsmen. The likes of Mashrafee Mortaza and Syed Rasel failed to deliver when Bangladesh needed them the most. Captain Shakib Al Hasan has had a couple of decent performances with the ball, but he will expect the new-ball bowlers to pitch in with some contributions.
Bangladesh have to sort out their middle order problems if they seek to avoid a third-successive defeat in the 2010 edition of the Asia Cup, against a wounded Pakistan, who would be looking to avenge their loss to arch-rivals India by trampling Bangladesh.
Quotes:
We want Akthar to be part of the 2011 World Cup team. So we will conserve through the rest of the year and ensure that he stays fit for the big event. We will rest him along with some senior players for the match against Bangladesh. I am not happy with the way Umar Amin and other youngsters have performed. They will have to improve. They can only do that through experience. It will be a good opportunity for them to make some runs: Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi
We struggled in England when Swann spun the ball. Vettori always troubles us when it is spinning. But we are fine when the ball is not spinning. As soon as it turns a little we have problems. It could be due to lack of footwork or poor decision-making. Ashraful is out of form for a while. But he is not on his own. A lot of other players have let us down in the last two-three games: Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons
