Mohammad Hafeez: "Inconsistent umpiring, technology curse gave a different result; Pakistan were better than Australia"
Pakistan team's director and coach Mohammad Hafeez blamed "inconsistent umpiring" and the "curse" of technology for his side's 79-run defeat to Australia in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. He said Pakistan were "generally" better than the hosts and there were a lot of positives to take for the Men in Green.
Despite chasing a massive 317-run target, Pakistan always looked to be in the game courtesy of some good partnerships but Australia kept coming back with key wickets in crucial times.
The dismissals of both Imam ul Haq (LBW) and Mohammad Rizwan (caught behind) involved the third umpire's judgment.
"We made some mistakes as a team. We'll take that, we'll adress those things. But [at] the same time I believe, inconsistent umpiring, technology curse, really gave a result which should have been different. So, I feel like these are the areas that need to be adressed rightly," Hafeez said in the post match press conference.
Imam was given out LBW for 12 (38) against Pat Cummins. He reviewed it but the on-field call was upheld because Hawk-Eye showed the ball to be clipping the leg-stump. A similar shout was given not out on the field earlier, which Australia reviewed and the on-field decision was upheld then as well.
Later, Cummins came back to get the key wicket of Rizwan who was amid a key partnership with Agha Salman. Rizwan got the ball off his wristband (which was in contact with the gloves and thus considered a part of it) and Ultra-Edge and HotSpot confirmed it. The Pakistani 'keeper was quite unhappy with the call.
Hafeez said he doesn't understand the Decision Review System (DRS) and called it a "curse" on the "beautiful game".
“Technology, I’m in favour of that... but if it is bringing some doubt and bringing some curse into the game it should not be acceptable by anyone. We play this beautiful game of cricket on the basics of the game but sometimes the technology brings some decisions which obviously as a human we don’t understand. Hitting the ball into the stumps (on DRS) is always out. Why is there an umpire’s call? I’ve never understood that," Hafeez said.
“I think there are a lot of areas that need to be addressed for the betterment of cricket in general where technology is taking away from the instinct of the game. We play this game for the fans but the fans will never understand why this technology is inconsistent and the result of the game comes up differently. This technology is basically putting a curse on this beautiful game of cricket and we need to address it," he added.
Australia had their tails up after Rizwan's wicket and took the other four wickets in less than seven overs to finish the game off.
"Pakistan team played better" - Mohammad Hafeez
Hafeez further stated that he felt Pakistan were the better team than Australia with both the bat and ball.
"This whole game I'll sum up, our Pakistan team played better than the other team in general. Our batting intent was better, our bowling was hitting the right areas. Yes, we made some mistakes and lost the game. But as a team, I believe that there were a lot of right positives within the team to win the game. Unfortunately, at the end, we didn't win the game," Hafeez said.
Australia have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. The third and final Test will start in Sydney on January 3.