Inzamam's bat slipped, says Woolmer
Bob Woolmer spoke after the game on where his team went wrong
|
|
He played fantastically well, along with Virender Sehwag today. He is a big hitter of the ball but I don't think we bowled well enough to him and generally in the first hour and a half today. We allowed him to get underneath the ball which you can't do in ODI cricket and if we bowl like this to him again, then he will play fantastically well again.
The key to losing the game was our bowling first thing this morning. Later, although we batted well, we lost wickets at crucial stages.
In Australia, where the pitches are good, they also bowled well so I don't think it is a question of a wrong strategy. I just think our skill levels haven't been up to the mark in both the games we have played so far.
I think we are missing him, he is very alive in the field and he keeps the team bubbling but he hasn't been a big part of our ODI team for some time now so he doesn't come in to the team that easily.
He is a very cool person. His bat just slipped out of his hand as he walked back to the pavilion.
The weather wasn't as much a factor today as it was in Cochin. I think we had the better conditions fielding in the morning and the Indians had it much worse in the afternoon.
We shuffled it for obvious reasons with such a big target to chase and even though Afridi didn't score we got it about right. We made nearly 300 with six overs to go so I think the batting worked well and our run-rate was about right throughout. The only problem was that we lost wickets at crucial junctures.
Yousuf Youhana batted really well today and I think in the field we were committed; we chased hard and were determined. Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan bowled fantastically well today as well.
I think we have enough variety in our attack. Shahid Afridi bowls his leg-spin and Mohammad Hafeez can bat. Arshad Khan has also done well since he has come in.
The euphoria of Bangalore has been shelved and we need to improve now and win the next game if we want to win this series. We have to do all things well at the same time now. In Cochin, we bowled well but batted poorly - 282 was a gettable target. Here we batted well but bowled badly so we need to get it right for the next game. We have not played out ODI game well and we need to bounce back now. The one-day game is a lottery anyway but we just haven't played well enough.