Karachi Kings coach Arthur gives thumps up to Dubai wicket

Shahid Afridi celebrates a fall of Lahore Qalandars wicket with the other Karachi Kings teammates at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Monday.

Amidst low scoring T20 matches in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), blame is put on the nature of the wicket but Karachi Kings head coach Mickey Arthur gave thumps up to the tracks used during the first round of matches at the Ring of Fire.
"It is a good wicket, it is different from one we have had here in Dubai," Arthur, who is also in charge of the Pakistan national team, said in reply to a question after 27-run win for Kings over Lahore Qalandars on Monday.
"Good players play well on these wicket," he opined at the post-match media briefing. "Players that do well on flat wickets against mediocre attack get exposed here, this is more like international standard, I am very happy with the standard of the wicket here," he stressed.
Talking about the team composition, he said: "We were very particular in our choices, we looked at the players we wanted, players who knew if they perform in PSL they have a gateway to other T20 tournaments in the world."
The South African reckons the foreign recruits have looked extremely hungry for success so far in the third edition of the competition. "They (foreign recruits) have been extremely brilliant."
He reckons that his team Karachi Kings was in good position after three wins in equal number of matches. "We are in good position now and we have played good cricket so far," he enthused.
The Kings fielders have not only pulled off a couple of spectacular catches but have been sharp in outfield too. "We have worked hard on our fielding and (I am) pretty happy with the standard showed and some of the catches taken have been fantastic in competition, a lot of the local (Pakistani) players are taking the lead and I am excited about that," he said.
In reply to a question he said that so far, he had not spotted any exceptional talent in the tournament. "We have had Hassan Ali in first PSL, Sajjad Khan and Fakhar Zaman from last season but haven't seen anybody yet this season."
He also praised Shahid Afridi's role in the team. "Shahid has been brilliant in fielding and bowling, he has been outstanding and has trained hard for the season."
"He is going to win a game for us with his batting," he optimistically said.
In the meantime, the team's fielding and Afridi's bowling won them the eighth game of the competition on Monday night against Lahore Qaldars, who frittered away a good start to continue their slide in the PSL. And, their star batsman Umar Akmal agreed when he said: "We are getting good start but the batting unit has failed to continue the momentum. Insha'allah,
we will try and consolidate such starts in the remaining matches."
"Everyone is assigned a role in batting line up but we are not able to consolidate despite a strong middle order," he said.

sunilvaidya@khaleejtimes.com