Pakistan’s efforts while chasing totals in one-day international (ODI) cricket have been on the decline ever since Inzamam-ul-Haq hung his boots, Mohammad Yousuf and Shoaib Malik began struggling – due to on-field and off-field issues – to make it to the ODI squads and Younis Khan reserved his best for Test cricket only.

Let’s take a statistical look into the pre-Inzamam-retirement era (2004 to 2007) and the period that proceeded Inzamam (2009 onwards). Statistics from 2008 have not been included since Pakistan, save Asia Cup, hardly played any competitive cricket that year.

Pakistan’s batting, while chasing in particular, has been in a state of difficulty over the years. Since the start of 2009, they have successfully chased a target of 250-plus in ODIs only three times – twice against South Africa in same series in UAE in 2010 and, a few months later, against New Zealand in 2011.

Narrowing down the figures to targets of 230, the numbers are abysmally stacked against Pakistan. Since January 2009, they have failed on 18 out of 23 occasions when set a total in excess of 230. This win-loss ratio (27 per cent) leaves them at seventh spot, just ahead of Bangladesh and West Indies.

New Zealand, at sixth, maintain a W/L ratio of 55 per cent which is almost double to that of Pakistan’s 27 per cent.

South Africa and India maintain the best percentages. In their failed attempts, the Proteas, have usually come within touching distance of their targets, which these stats don’t reflect.

Bangladesh, who shocked India at this year’s Asia Cup in Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th-century match with a successful chase, managed four wins during the period, but two of those were against a West Indian side who were playing with their fringe squad in 2009 due to their senior players’ dispute with West Indies Cricket Board. One of their wins was against Zimbabwe.

India’s success largely correlates with the form of two of their star batsmen, Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir, who show up as leading second-innings run-getters in the period.

If Kohli’s bulk of runs (2268), at more than an ideal average (59.68) and brisk strike rate (88.76 per cent) isn’t surprising enough, consider that he scored each of his seven centuries in an Indian win. It took Tendulkar five years and 40 ODI innings to score his first century while chasing a target. Kohli in four years and 46 matches has already got seven.

No Pakistani makes the top-ten list of such batsmen, let alone the top 20.

Looking back at the period between 2004 and 2008, the situation wasn’t that bad for Pakistan. They had the third best W/L Ratio (89 per cent) of chasing 230-plus targets. Only Australia and South Africa were better than them then.

It is worth mentioning that until 2004, Pakistan had never chased 300 in ODIs. In between 2004 and 2008, they chased it thrice (each time against India). The fourth and last time they chased such total was in mid-2008 again against India in the Asia Cup. On their tour of Australia in early 2005, they successfully chased targets in Brisbane and Perth twice. The following year, Younis Khan designed one remarkable chase in a day-night fixture against England at the Rose Bowl.

There were also fantastic chases in the BCCI Platinum Jubilee match at the Eden Garden against India in 2004 and against Sri Lanka in Champions Trophy 2006 Match at Jaipur. The former relied on Salman Butt’s maiden ODI century, while the latter will be remembered for one of Abdul Razzaq’s cameos.

For more than a decade and half now, Pakistan have been struggling to establish a solid opening pair. Perhaps, it has rubbed off on their middle-order too. The middle-order’s shortcomings of the last few years are evident from the table below where they stand at number seven in terms of average, only ahead of West Indies and New Zealand. Their strike rate (72.87) is the worst among all.

Since January 2009, only two centuries have been scored by their middle order in second innings – one by Kamran Akmal in dead-rubber of 2009 Australia series, and the other by Shahid Afridi in a losing cause in the 2010 Asia Cup. However, while batting at number seven, Abdul Razzaq did score one, South Africa facing the brunt of his incredible assault in Abu Dhabi in 2010. This hitherto is the last century scored by a non-opening Pakistan batsmen in either innings of an ODI.

Not long ago, when Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik were in harness, Pakistan’s middle-order batting average (38.23) was second only to Australia’s (47.13). Also their compilation of runs (6080) was only behind India (6731), who played 12 more matches than Pakistan during the period.

The remarkable aspect of Pakistan’s successful run chases during Inzamam’s tenure was that they didn’t rely on one batsman, everyone chipped in his own way. Yousuf and Younis could build in the middle and later duties were fulfilled by Inzi himself and Malik. At this stage of his career, Malik had a double role – batting at one down if the situation required or coming in as a dasher later in the order.

Five Pakistan batsmen had 500-plus runs in successful run chases between January 2004 and January 2008. All with dandy averages.

Then Inzamam retired, Yousuf couldn’t carry on as regular in the team basis due to his off-field issues with board, while Malik failed to build on his reputation. Younis is still facing a slump in limited-over form.

Now, Misbah-ul-Haq has an average of 110.00 in winning causes, which is one of the best in the world during this period. Only MS Dhoni and Michael Clarke are come close. But one crucial factor is his strike rate (68.60), which gives a doesn’t help his numbers too much. But then Mohammad Yousuf (65.87), as mentioned in the previous table, had an even worst strike rate than Misbah’s.

This is most likely due to the lack of support given on the crease to Misbah, who is playing the role of a Yousuf. Yousuf, however, had Inzamam and Malik for company to speed things up in the latter stages of the chase.

Since 2009, only two of the Pakistan batsmen have reached 500-plus runs in successful run chases. Hafeez has 578 runs, out of which 340 runs came against Zimbabwe and West Indies, his performance against tougher oppositions is still a concern.

Over the period where their batsmen have struggled, Pakistan’s bowling has provided the ‘wow’ factor.

Since 2009, Pakistan boasts the best economy rate in first innings among top ODI teams. Also their average (30.65) comes only behind New Zealand and Australia. The economy of 4.73 signifies that on average, Pakistan restricts teams to under 240 [4.73 multiply by 50 overs is equal to 237]. This 240, unfortunately, is too much for their batting.

Mazher Arshad is a Cricket buff based in Islamabad who considers watching Cricket and giving insights of it as his foremost priority on social media. He tweets @cricket_U

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