Waqar Younis refused to blame the lifeless Sharjah pitch for his Pakistan side’s struggles against New Zealand in the third and final Test of the series in the UAE. Instead, the Pakistan coach praised the New Zealand batsmen and pointed out that one bad session on Friday changed the whole complexion of the match.
With New Zealand already ahead by 286 runs, Pakistan will likely face a challenge of scoring more than 300 runs in their second innings to avoid an innings defeat.
Pakistan are 1-0 up in the Test series, having won the first Test in Abu Dhabi and drawing the second in Dubai.
Younis was confident his batsmen would deliver the goods when they take to the crease for the second time, but admitted it would be a battle for survival rather than an effort to win the Test match.
“It is a batting pitch no doubt. As you saw today, more than 375 runs were scored, so it is a great pitch to bat on,” said the former fast bowler.
“But there will be pressure on Pakistan and it will be a test of how we cope up with the pressure. We do not need to score runs at a fast pace, because we will be in survival mode. We have the batsmen who are capable of scoring 100s and 200s and I just hope we can cope up with the pressure and play good cricket over the next two days.”
When asked if he was disappointed that the pitch prepared for the Test match rendered his bowlers ineffective, Younis said: “I think the pitch is batting friendly, there is no doubt. I think it is helping the batsmen more than normally what the Sharjah pitch does.
“But there is no disappointment. We should have coped better, we should have scored better. The session in which we lost seven wickets, that was when we lost the plot a little bit and we are struggling to take back the momentum that we gave to New Zealand at that point.
“Both (Brendon) McCullum and (Ken) Williamson played splendidly well. When somebody is in a mood where he is coming after the bowling, it is very difficult for any kind of bowler to survive, especially on this sort of pitch, which is very flat.
“I don’t want to take any credit from both of them. Both were free flowing and they were extraordinary.”
