VIDEO | Sarfraz Ahmed pulls off an anti-Dhoni tactic to frustrate Hasan Ali

VIDEO | Sarfraz Ahmed pulls off an anti-Dhoni tactic to frustrate Hasan Ali

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Despite being the most successful skipper in Pakistanā€™s ODI history, certain Sarfraz Ahmed decisions in Asia Cup has been questionable, to say the least. Today, he removed the slip that he stationed for Hasan Ali despite the bowler bowling on the off-stump line, which gave a life to Mushfiqur Rahim.

Pakistan quick bowlers were terrific in Abu Dhabi today and found rhythm and accuracy that had eluded them so far in the tournament. However, after reducing the Bangla tigers to 12/3, Pakistan were yet to see the magic as Mushfiqur Rahim and Mohammad Mithun played beautiful cricket to frustrate their bowlers. However, pacers were still creating chances and the fact that there was a bit of swing on offer, they extracted them to great effect. However, Sarfraz had other plans in mind. Instead of allowing his pacers to dictate the course of the game, he turned to his spinners for a 14-over marathon spree.

While he will be the best person to explain the logic behind the bowling change, he can never give any logic whatsoever for removing the slip fielder when all Hasan Ali was doing was keeping the ball in the channel outside the off-stump. He had the fielder stationed at the slip when Mithun hit the pacer for a cover drive, and despite knowing that the ball might flow to the slip cordon, he removed it instantly. However, lady luck had the last laugh. The first ball of Hasan Aliā€™s next over, which was faced by Rahim, was another one on the outside off-stump and the lack of slip fielder meant Pakistan couldnā€™t do much about it. The edge flew over the slip region and crossed the fence for a boundary.

It was exactly the opposite of MS Dhoni style of captaincy, who would have immediately guessed batsman's move and stationed the fielder at those exact positions where he thought the batsman might try. This intuition has also helped him hand-hold Indian spinners in the limited-overs format of the game. How Sarfraz missed a lesson though!

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