These words are from none other than captain Younus Khan and coach Intikhab Alam after they lost three games on the trot to hand the series 3-1 to Australia. And if they are looking to prevent it from becoming 4-1, the Pakistan players may very well memorise these words and use it as their mantra when they take the field against the Australians in the dead 
rubber on Sunday.

Pakistan, after having a good start to the series, where they won the first ODI in Dubai, have slipped to three consecutive defeats. Their batting has let them down right through the series but more importantly, they have failed to grab
 their chances.

“We had good chances to win the second and third games. We gave them a chance and they outclassed us. If you give them a chance they will grab it,” 
said Younus Khan.

Coach Intikhab Alam said that the batting needed to come good. “Our main problem is the batting. Especially, when you are playing against Australia, you cannot win by putting up such scores. They are very professional. You just have to see how their captain Michael Clarke is batting. Problem is our batsmen have got set and got out. Two of them got 40s. When you make 40, you don’t throw away your wicket. Had we made more than 200 odd in the fourth game, we would have had a chance. And we even got good breakthroughs. Shoaib Akhtar took two quick wickets. But what we lack is the finishing touch. That killer instinct isn’t there. When we have it in our grasp, we let it go. And that is what we need to work on a lot. If our batting gets us to a good score of around 270, our bowling is such that it we can get any team out. Problem is our batsmen, two-three of them are not in form,” said Alam.  But Alam said it has been a learning experience for his team, who have played only in “bits and pieces.”

“But we have got some positives from this series. We will learn. Our batsmen, they will learn some lessons from Clarke on how to play like he played on 
Friday,” Alam said.

Younus Khan put it down to partnerships. “The thing was partnerships. If you have partnerships around 130 in every game, you can win. But we haven’t had any good partnerships. We have got those odd 40s and 30s partnerships and against Australia, we gave them chances in the previous two matches and they were on top of their game,” said Younus and added that Clarke has been the difference between the two sides. “He’s got back to back 50s and I think he is the difference between both the sides,” he said.

Younus also said that his side needed to show more commitment. “Pitch, weather, these things don’t matter, whether you are playing in Australia or in the UAE. It is all about commitment. Australia were very committed,” said Younus. Australian stand-in captain Michael Clarke, who got a century in the last game, said they would be out to win this one as well. “There is no such thing as a dead rubber when playing for your country. To me, every time you put on your Baggy Green or one-day cap, it’s a big game and we have come here to win every game. We don’t see it as a dead rubber, we see it as another 
opportunity,” Clarke said.