Mickey Arthur gives a cheeky reply to a journalist

Pakistan lost the first of two Tests against the Lankans in a close affair. They lost the Test by 21 runs as Rangana Herath just cleaned through the batting lineup. Pakistan looked in control of the Test match when they bowled out the visitors for just 138 in the second innings. Chasing a score of 136 in the fourth innings looks easy but never is.

However, the head coach of the team, Mickey Arthur told the reporters that their batting lineup is young and inexperienced. That led to the downfall in the fourth inning. However, there were some interesting comments during the conference as well. Arthur was thoroughly disappointed with the effort by the batters.

Herath performed out of his skin to take the Lankans home and the Pakistan coach praised him for that but also said that his batters were not up to the mark. However, the Pakistan coach was asked a tricky question during the presser and his answer will make your day.

The Mickey Arthur’s way

Herath was on fire in the fourth inning. He ran through the Pakistan batting lineup as he bagged 6 wickets for himself. He finished with 11 for the game and entered the 400 wicket-club. The 39-year-old also became the first left-arm spinner to reach the 400-wicket mark. That said, Arthur was asked a tricky question in the press conference but his answer won a lot of hearts in Pakistan.

The question was, “Is Rangana Herath the best spinner in the world?” To which the Arthur replied, “Did you say, Yasir Shah?” How cheeky of him. This is one of the best replies a coach can give without hurting the other as well. Yasir Shah was absolutely brilliant in the third innings as well. He bagged a five-for for his team and reduced Sri Lanka to just 138 giving his side a chance to win.

Shah ended up with 8 wickets in the game and his coach was delighted with his performance even though his team lost the game.

Arthur on the lost game

Mickey said that he has a young batting lineup at his disposal and that has been one of the reasons for the loss. He said that losing Azhar Ali early made it very hard for the rest. There were no partnerships strung and that also didn’t help. And the tail is not expected to take you home in such situations.

“This is a young batting line-up, obviously trying to find their way. Losing Azhar Ali early was a big blow. We discussed at lunch break that we needed one good partnership and wanted that up front, but didn’t get that. That put us under pressure. We were always going to be under pressure as the game goes on because we couldn’t expect the tail to get us over the line,” he concluded.