THE recent defeat of Pakistan at the hands of a tough South Africa has brought the national team under severe criticism. This criticism is largely caused by emotions.

The so-called cricket experts appearing on the electronic media have declared the performance as mediocre. It shall be borne in mind that South Africa is the number one test side according to the ICC world ranking these days.

It has the right mix of youth and experience. It has got three top quality players whose presence alone is enough to threaten any side. Styne, Amla, Kallis rank number one on the ICC’s world player rankings. Of late, South Africa has played lots of test cricket and they also have the advantage to be playing at home. The compounded effect of these facts has definitely given South Africa an edge over Pakistan.

On the contrary, Pakistan has not played much international test cricket recently. Most of its players are young and inexperienced and are not used to the conditions of South Africa.

Despite being at odds, the team has shown a lot of character; particularly when they batted the second innings. The batsmen hung on and gave their best to survive but in the end they couldn’t withstand the quality bowling from South Africa.

Modern-day cricket is about having intelligent players in the side and using technology to capitalise on the weaknesses of opponents. The team should focus much more on these aspects during their training sessions.

M. EJAZ Karachi