Inzy's decision to bat second was a surprise: Woolmer

The three-wicket victory over India in Sunday's deciding Group C match in the Champions Trophy is proof of the new-found confidence of the Pakistan team.

For the third successive match since Bob Woolmer took over the Indians were comfortably beaten by their archrivals.

It is said a coach is only as good as his team, just as a team is only as good as its players.

"The thing about ODI cricket is that I believe that to win matches you need to have three-dimensional players, players who can bat, bowl and field. It gives you a tremendous advantage over your opposition," said Woolmer, a day after his team made it to the semi-finals.

With Abdur Razzaq, Shoaib Malik, Rana Naved-ul-Hassan and Shahid Afriridi, Pakistan clearly had the edge over India in that department.

When Shahid Afridi went out to bat, almost everyone at the ground knew he could single-handedly win the match for Pakistan. Everybody also knew he had a weakness against the short ball.

With that in mind, Sourav Ganguly immediately brought in Irfan Pathan, hoping to knock the dashing batsman over. But the Indian skipper did not know Woolmer had been working on him in the last few days.

"I had asked him to have a go, because if he managed to hit a few big hits he would give Youhana breathing space and the time to reach the target by just taking singles.

"Just two days back, we sat down and sorted out his hook shot. And, lo behold, the first bouncer he got was dispatched over the boundary line," informed Woolmer.

"The thing about this Pakistan team is that they are all young. They still don't have the experience. If you look at the first three men in the batting order -- Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed and Shoaib Malik -- they are all very young. It is a huge advantage but at times, it is disadvantage as well.

"This is why players like Yousuf Youhana and Inzamam-ul-Haq are very important for this side. The rest of the players are just starting out, they need to be nurtured. They will have their bad run of form, but we have to nurture them. That's the only way up for Pakistan cricket," added the shrewd South African.

However, he made no secret about being surprised by Pakistan's path to victory.

"I was surprised that Inzy chose to bat second on this wicket. Simply, because it was a two-paced wicket and batting got harder as the match went on. But, in the end, it got much closer than I expected. We won and that's all that matters."

What better can a coach hope for!