‘The Usual Suspects’ are back in action, and that too in their usual fashion. Lose one match, win two to raise the hopes of a nation that has nothing else to do than to don the green-shirts on match day, pray for their team and end the night on a dejected note. It is all becoming way too familiar if you ask me, because the players are the same who play well when the opposition is weak, but panic when the going gets tough!

The 1st Match -- The Indian Affair

Let’s forget about the matches Pakistan team won during the World T20 because everybody remembers success. It is the defeat that brings out the ‘finer points’ and that’s exactly what happened with P for Pakistan, P for Panic and P for Predictable. The captain’s body language ahead of toss against India was ‘supremely unconfident and clueless’. He couldn’t read the pitch but that alright; when Pakistanis bat, the pitch supports bowlers and when they bowl, it supports batsmen. Not his fault!

Same goes for the 51 dot balls in a T20 match that only has 120 deliveries! The Pakistan team was trying to see off the world’s most lethal attack featuring Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra. (Imagine how they would have feared against Joel Garner, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Co). The main culprit in the collapse was Ahmad Shehzad who seemed to be in a hurry for no reason. He ran out the back-again Kamran Akmal in the second over, tried to run out the skipper Mohammad Hafeez as well and then got stumped off the dangerous Amit Mishra in ridiculous fashion.

And then the Professor erred with his calculations and sent Umar Akmal ahead of the more dependable (at that time!) Sohaib Maqsood. His friend-for-life and good-for-nothing Shoaib Malik may have hit the first six of the match but he proved this scribe right, by being the worst cricketer in the Pakistan side. Another contender for the same position -- Umar Gul -- proved his worth by going for 35 runs in his 3.3 overs -- that is 21 balls for 35 runs. That’s what he always does except for the matches in which he is really required not to do so.

Batsmen couldn’t take advantage of dropped catches as they gave chances after chances as if they wanted to go back and rest instead of play to win. And yes, the selection of 2 Akmals in the final XI was always going to be good -- for the other team. They play when they are in the mood and against India, they weren’t. As for the fielding, it wasn’t bad; the Pakistanis hit the stumps when the batsmen were in the crease; the Indians hit it when the Pakistanis weren’t.

The Last Match -- The West Indian Affair

After winning two matches against Australia and Bangladesh (who won just 1 match between them in the tournament, that too when pitted against each other), the men in green were back in business. But as soon as Mohammad Hafeez lost the toss, they lost the plot and with it, the match and a place in the semi-final of World T20. The Pakistani skipper seemed to have been knocked out by Darren Sammy at the toss, because his face showed the ‘Oh my god, we will lose again!’ expression.

Pakistan bowled well for the first 15 overs but the last 5 saw the defending champions score as many as 84 runs, thanks to their all-rounders Dwayne Bravo and skipper Darren Sammy (we also had a few, but none performed as all-rounders!). And when it was Pakistan’s turn to wield the bat, they played like club cricketers -- former captain Javed Miandad said so! West Indian spinners made their assistant coach Saqlain Mushtaq proud who had said ahead of the match that ‘we plan to counter the Pakistani spinners.’ That’s it, the West Indians planned ahead; the Pakistanis planned during the course of the innings.

The target was achievable had Pakistan not consumed 40 deliveries before they hit their first boundary. Their innings featured 40 singles, 2 fours and 4 sixes that came way too late in the match. Four of Pakistan’s batsmen were stumped, opening up a discussion whether these players are good enough for international cricket. It seemed that Pakistan team came from an alternate universe where spinners were extinct because they faced Sunil Narine and Samuel Badree as if they were Shane Warne and Saqlain Mushtaq at their prime! The team faltered at 82 runs -- 2 short of what the West Indians scored in the last 5 overs.

The Old Timers Did It Again

It wasn’t that Pakistan cricket team failed to play well during the tournament, they just failed to play as a team in crucial matches. Shoaib Malik was in the final XI of all the 4 matches as an all-rounder but he didn’t bowl a single delivery, he couldn’t hold on to a simple catch against Bangladesh and showed that if given a couple of chances, he can be a good batsman -- 52 runs in 4 matches.

Kamran Akmal is becoming a burden on the team just like the current head coach Moin Khan who didn’t quit international cricket but was replaced by a younger ‘keeper (Kamran Akmal was the name). Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal dedicated their best-ever knocks to their brothers (how sweet!) only to fail in the next outing (maybe it’s the curse of the brother dedication!). The two should realize that critics point out their stupidities because they have been following the game and instead of speaking to reporters and/or at Press Conferences, they should let their willow do the talking.

And lastly, I don’t know on which galaxy is Sohail Tanvir a better bowler than Junaid Khan, but in our world, the selectors feel so.

They would, since they didn’t get to play international cricket themselves, and that is why they are ensuring that Tanvir doesn’t fall in their group and even replace them as selectors (where else would these one-Test wonders find a job then?). Junaid remains Pakistan’s premier bowler since he can take wickets, bowl Yorkers and boost the morale of his team mates with his aggression. Sadly, we expect the same from Gul who needs as many as three people to cheer him up during his 21-run over, that saw the Windies go from a precarious position of 107 for 5 to 128 for 5 in a space of 6 deliveries!

If Pakistan need to win, they should give chances to newcomers and even if they team loses, diehard fans will understand. Because with old timers in World T20, only one team played to win -- and they weren’t wearing green!