Former Australian captain Ian Chappell slammed Pakistan director Mohammad Hafeez after the latter said that Pakistan were better despite the defeat in the second Test in Melbourne as well. After a thrilling battle saw Australia pull off a 79-run victory, Hafeez felt his side played better cricket as well. While talking to Wide World of Sports, Chappell added that the Australians did well and rubbished Hafeez’s comments.
“If you took any notice of Hafeez, their manager and an ex-player, you’re mad,” Chappell said. “How the hell can he say Pakistan were the better side? For starters, you’ve got a bloke at first slip ( Abdullah Shafique) who can’t catch much and he’s dropped catches that have really impacted the series.”
Ian Chappell also added that he feels the difference in the bowling attacks makes Australia better than the Pakistan side.
“Pakistan haven’t got a bad attack, it’s not in the class of Australia’s, but it’s always gonna struggle when blokes don’t hang onto catches. Their batting is always dicey, the bottom part of the order can be blown away in a hurry. I would suspect that things will go pretty similarly to how they have in the first two matches and Australia will be too good,” Chappell added.
Meanwhile, another former Australian captain, Mark Taylor said that Pakistan had been good in the series that could have easily been 1-1. Following a defeat in the opening Test by 360 runs, Pakistan bounced back before falling away towards the end of the second Test to lose by 79 runs.
“I’ve actually been impressed with the way Pakistan have played at times in this series,” Taylor told Wide World of Sports. “I’ll be surprised if they don’t come once again ready to play – if they had held their catches at the MCG, this series could have easily been 1-1. They have not been a long way off the pace in this series … they had every bit of good of that game at the MCG as Australia did. I’d be taking a lot of positives out of that from a Pakistan point of view and hopefully they hang onto their catches a bit better.”
