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I don't let pressure affect me: Mohammad Aamer
Young pacer Mohammad Aamer said the secret of his superb performance was the ability to keep the pressure at bay.
- Press Trust of India
- Updated: August 22, 2010 12:35 PM IST
Read Time: 3 min
Karachi:
Aamer, who scalped five wickets for 52 runs to help his team restrict the hosts to 222 in the second innings, also bagged the Man of the Match award on Saturday.
"I don't really let pressure affect me at all. I believe that pressure is something that an individual creates for himself and it's something that you can avoid. I just go out there, relax, smile, enjoy myself, play my natural game, do what comes naturally to me and play my cricket according to the conditions and match situation," he said.
"The more you worry about things when you are out there in the middle, the more problems you are going to encounter," the 18-year old told a website.
Aamer has become part of a formidable new-ball attack with Muhammad Asif in recent months and both of them have led Pakistan to Test wins over New Zealand, Australia and England in the last nine months evoking memories of the duo of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.
Aamer also felt that his partnership with Asif was good for Pakistan cricket.
"He's a fantastic guy to bowl in tandem with. He's such a threatening bowler, a wicket taker, someone who has ability to take a wicket with every delivery. He is such a brilliant team player who will bowl according to any situation.
"His nagging accuracy and skill really helps me and I think we complement each other very well," Aamer said.
Aamer, who attained his career-best figure at the Oval yesterday, also spoke of his experience of working with coach Waqar as well as bowling coach Aaqib Javed.
"Both Waqar and Aaqib have really helped me improve as a bowler. They guide me literally session by session. They will sit down and talk to me at the end of each session when I have been bowling and explain to me what I did well and what I didn't do well in the completed session of cricket. Besides, they will talk to me about the upcoming session and what is required of me," he said.
"Waqar has told me that I need to get closer to the stumps when I am bowling. We have been working on this issue in the nets and in practice situations. In practice I do get close to the stumps, but I have to be honest, in match situations sometimes I overlook this," he added.
Aamer also dismissed the notion that a heavy workload is affecting his career.
"The more cricket I play, the more I learn, the more experience I gain and ultimately that improves my game. If I feel I am bowling well, feeling fit and in good rhythm then I don't want to miss any matches as that will affect my rhythm in the next match that I will play in," he said.
The left-arm pacer will be targeting the fifty wicket landmark at Lords in the fourth Test and feels that the win at Oval will really boost the confidence of the team before the last match of the series.
"It's great to go into the final match at Lords with some momentum. It was such an important victory for us and keeps us in the series. We'll be going all out for victory at Lords." The youngster is already being compared to Akram but Aamer said that he didn't believe in experimenting too much as a bowler.
"I don't want to over-experiment and prefer to stick to the basics. I feel that if I try too many different things and experiment too much, that affects the quality of my cricket. "My philosophy is to keep it simple and stick to the basics instead of trying to be too clever," he said.
Young pacer Mohammad Aamer, who was instrumental in Pakistan's four-wicket victory over England in the third Test, said the secret of his superb performance was the ability to keep the pressure at bay.Aamer, who scalped five wickets for 52 runs to help his team restrict the hosts to 222 in the second innings, also bagged the Man of the Match award on Saturday.
"I don't really let pressure affect me at all. I believe that pressure is something that an individual creates for himself and it's something that you can avoid. I just go out there, relax, smile, enjoy myself, play my natural game, do what comes naturally to me and play my cricket according to the conditions and match situation," he said.
"The more you worry about things when you are out there in the middle, the more problems you are going to encounter," the 18-year old told a website.
Aamer has become part of a formidable new-ball attack with Muhammad Asif in recent months and both of them have led Pakistan to Test wins over New Zealand, Australia and England in the last nine months evoking memories of the duo of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.
Aamer also felt that his partnership with Asif was good for Pakistan cricket.
"He's a fantastic guy to bowl in tandem with. He's such a threatening bowler, a wicket taker, someone who has ability to take a wicket with every delivery. He is such a brilliant team player who will bowl according to any situation.
"His nagging accuracy and skill really helps me and I think we complement each other very well," Aamer said.
Aamer, who attained his career-best figure at the Oval yesterday, also spoke of his experience of working with coach Waqar as well as bowling coach Aaqib Javed.
"Both Waqar and Aaqib have really helped me improve as a bowler. They guide me literally session by session. They will sit down and talk to me at the end of each session when I have been bowling and explain to me what I did well and what I didn't do well in the completed session of cricket. Besides, they will talk to me about the upcoming session and what is required of me," he said.
"Waqar has told me that I need to get closer to the stumps when I am bowling. We have been working on this issue in the nets and in practice situations. In practice I do get close to the stumps, but I have to be honest, in match situations sometimes I overlook this," he added.
Aamer also dismissed the notion that a heavy workload is affecting his career.
"The more cricket I play, the more I learn, the more experience I gain and ultimately that improves my game. If I feel I am bowling well, feeling fit and in good rhythm then I don't want to miss any matches as that will affect my rhythm in the next match that I will play in," he said.
The left-arm pacer will be targeting the fifty wicket landmark at Lords in the fourth Test and feels that the win at Oval will really boost the confidence of the team before the last match of the series.
"It's great to go into the final match at Lords with some momentum. It was such an important victory for us and keeps us in the series. We'll be going all out for victory at Lords." The youngster is already being compared to Akram but Aamer said that he didn't believe in experimenting too much as a bowler.
"I don't want to over-experiment and prefer to stick to the basics. I feel that if I try too many different things and experiment too much, that affects the quality of my cricket. "My philosophy is to keep it simple and stick to the basics instead of trying to be too clever," he said.
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