Dot-ball disaster

The Pakistani batting order struggled greatly in Saturday’s Champions Trophy match against India. They collectively failed to score on 152 deliveries (dot balls) and rotate the strike properly. The batters faced challenges from insufficient intent towards gap selection when converting single hits into double runs, thus spending large parts of the innings in stagnation. During his spell, Indian bowler Hardik Pandya used this weakness to great effect, delivering 31 consecutive dot balls.

India deserves acknowledgement for their bowling achievements. The field positioning, alongside the tight bowling, created conditions that restrained Pakistan. The Indian bowlers maintained their accurate bowling lines, which led Pakistan to commit errors. The ability to manage strike rotation while sustaining consistent runs plays a critical role in high-risk matches, yet Pakistan lost this battle, which resulted in their weak batting display.

Shoukat Ullah

Bannu