They won the toss, posted 450 runs in the first innings, yet they lost the match by 7 wickets. That’s team Pakistan for you, the only team in the world that can win from a losing position, and lose from a victorious one. Sadly, at Galle, the Green-shirts chose to play defensively and lost a match that should have been a draw. Indeed, luck favours the brave and not those who consider rain as a reprieve.

Heavy rain did arrive but only after the Sri Lankan captain Angelo Matthews had hit the winning runs and given his team a lead of 1-0 in the 2-match series.

Why did Pakistan lose the match is a question on everybody’s mind, but the answers are only available if one accepts the faults made. The Pakistani selectors believed that they had selected the best side in the world, and still don’t blame their obsession with complacency for going one-down in a series that should have been 0-0.

Negative mindset!

When a team hopes for rain rather than ‘go for the kill’ and take wickets, it loses half of the battle. That’s what happened with the Pakistan cricket team which hoped for rain to intervene on the last day as Sri Lankans were going all guns blazing, chasing 99 runs to win. The batsmen are to share the blame as well since they tried to kill time and draw the match, instead of score runs and go for a victory. Captain Misbahul Haq did try to accelerate the run scoring but the rest of the players came in and went out as if there was a competition going on. Even wicket keeper batsman Sarfaraz Ahmed chose to expose his partner -- number 11 batsman Junaid Khan -- to the most successful bowler of the match, and resulted in another wicket for Rangana Herath.

Déjà Vu for Moin-Waqar

Former captain Rameez Raja commented ahead of the second day’s play in Galle that in presence of Waqar Younis and Mushtaq Ahmed (head coach and bowling consultant), Pakistan team would be thinking positively. However, he forgot that the manager was another colleague of his -- Moin Khan -- under whose captaincy Pakistan lost a match to England for being way too negative. The match in discussion happened 14 years back when Moin Khan was the skipper and Waqar Younis was his prime strike bowler. However, in Karachi’s National Stadium, the duo decided to waste time and use time-delaying tactics, which only angered the West Indian umpire Steve Bucknor who extended the match post-Maghrib prayers!

It was due to the ‘brilliant plan’ concocted by the current manager and the head coach that saw England win the match and defeat Pakistan at a ground where they had never lost a match before. Umpire Steve Bucknor’s towering personality even made his co-umpire Nazir Junior break his fast on the ground, although he could have easily asked to end the day’s play. Instead, he asked Abdur Razzaq to bring him a date that served as his iftari. The match wasn’t aired on TV (a religious scholar was seen on TV while Pakistani players were battling it out with England on the ground), and many fans believed that the Test might have ended in a draw. But to their horror, it was announced that England had emerged victorious against a team that chose to be negative all the way!

The other way round!

Earlier this year, Pakistan beat Sri Lanka in Sharjah in what can be termed as an amazing chase, as the Green-shirts needed 302 runs to win the match on the final day! In that match, it was the islanders who went out with negative mindset and came back as losers; in Galle it was the other way round. Captain Misbah ul Haq showed dissent when his main bowler Junaid Khan went for runs in his last 2 overs but that’s what you get when you select one genuine pacer and partner him with newcomers. Junaid Khan was over-used by the captain on a wicket where Rangana Herath took 9 wickets in the match; and Pakistan’s answer to Sri Lankan spinner was Saeed Ajmal, who was reported for suspect action, and Abdur Rehman, who wasn’t even asked to bowl in the second innings, proving that he was the selector’s choice, not the captain’s.

Being stupid is no excuse!

For those who laugh at Pakistan team’s critics, the Galle Test should serve as an eye-opener. The selection of Mohammad Talha over a genuine fast Bilawal Bhatti (who would have bowled, batted and fielded better and might have bowled a couple of yorkers and / or bouncers); the over-dependence on bad-boy Ahmed Shehzad, who likes to crack jokes instead of taking referrals; the decision to go ahead with Abdur Rehman instead of the attacking Zulfiqar Babar; and the unwanted recall of Wahab Riaz, all came back to haunt Pakistan.

They lost the match not because Sri Lanka played better but because they were stupid, and nothing else. Over confidence in their abilities also helped the Sri Lankans bounce back. Had the team been selected on merit, things would have been surely different.