Afridi should lead the team for long time: Wasim
The former captain of Pakistan cricket team Wasim Akram has said that Shahid Afridi should lead the team for a long time. According to him, he captained very well in World Cup 2011.
Wasim Akram was giving interview to a Pakistani private channel. He said that due to the great captaincy of Afridi, Pakistan won the 6 matches out of 8 and reach into the semi-finals.
Batting coach is necessary: Wasim Akram
Wasim Akram supported the decision of batting coach and said that with his our batsman can correct their mistakes. He asked that most of the teams have the batting coaches at this time, then why we don’t have?
Wasim Akram says, this is a great opportunity for youngsters
Wasim Akram further said that extras is the big problem of green shirts but I hope that bowling coach Waqar Younis and his assistant Aqib Javed will work to recover this problem. He supported the decision of PCB’s selection committee to give chance to youngsters and said that this is a great opportunity for youngsters to prove themselves as the alternates of old players and make their place in the team. Especially he said that Hammad Azam is a good and very talented player. Wasim Akram added that giving rest to Umar Gul is a good decision.
Royal Challengers Bangalore v South Australia, Live Streaming
Royal Challengers Bangalore sets 154 runs target for South Australia team. After winning the toss they decided to bat first and put good score on the board but RCB got all out on 154 runs. Only three batsmen entered in double figure rest all batsmen failed to score runs. It took RCB team 19.5 over to score 154 runs.
South Australia bowling and fielding was very good and DT Christian took 4 wickets. He bowled 3.5 over and gave away 23 runs. SW Tait and GD Putland were the two bowlers who took 2 wickets each. South Australia will open their batting to chase score of 155 runs. Their team consists of M Klinger, DJ Harris, GA Manou, CJ Ferguson, CJ Borgas, TLW Cooper, DT Christian, AW O’Brien, CB Bailey, GD Putland and SW Tait.
Batting first LRPL Taylor scored 46 on 28 balls and he hit eight 4’s and a 6. D du Preez also scored 46 on 25 balls. He hit four 6’s and a 4. CL White was the third batsman entered in double figure. He scored 25 runs. No other batsmen entered in double figure. Batting order collapsed at the end of the inning. Last four wickets fell for just 14 runs.
England, Pakistan 1st Test today
LONDON: The rebuilding of Pakistan cricket continues at Trent Bridge today. To facilitate this, the ICC has given them as punishing a schedule of Tests as any side can have undertaken, with six matches crammed into seven weeks, two “home” and four away (which, of course, amounts to one and the same thing at present).
The series against Australia, just completed, was emotionally draining, particularly the dramatic second game at Headingley with the nerve-racking climax. Four matches now against a pretty good England side in English conditions may just prove too much: by the end, the bowlers, led by the remarkable teenager Mohammad Aamer, will be spent.
For now, though, there is much to anticipate, not least the prospect of how England”s batsmen, vying still for a place in the XI that will take the field in Brisbane four months hence, perform. Given a Dukes ball and a ground with a reputation for helping swing bowling, Pakistan”s attack must constitute the most challenging that could be assembled by any country.
Against that there is the counter-equation of how Pakistan”s inexperienced batting lineup, shorn now permanently, it seems, in pursuit of team harmony of the veterans Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf, will cope with the England bowlers.
Two of them, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, can swing the ball in the right conditions and one, Steven Finn, can gain the sort of bounce that Steve Harmison once used so disconcertingly.
The Tests against Australia may not be a huge guide to how the batting will fare in the coming weeks. Both games were so dominated by the seam bowlers that neither side managed a century between them. Pakistan”s only half-centuries came from the new captain, Salman Butt, who held things together at Lord”s with 63 and 92, his opening partner Imran Farhat, who made 67 at Headingley, and the novice Azhar Ali, who made 51 there at No3.
Unless the former captain Shoaib Malik moves up the order from six to lend some experience, the engine room of the middle order has a total of 12 Tests, of which Umar Akmal has played eight. Ali and Umar Amin were debutants in that series. It is hard, therefore, to pitch the batting as it stands as any better than that of Bangladesh, whom England faced back in sappy May and early June.
The bowling, though, is another issue entirely. Aamer is startlingly good. He is waspish in pace with a quick arm and has the priceless capacity to swing the ball into the pads of the right-handers as his natural delivery, the one slanting across his alternative.
It means that England”s left-handers, particularly Andrew Strauss, who prefers the freedom of the ball angling away when facing right-arm bowlers, will not get the width they crave. Nor will Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen, who have a tendency to fall across their stumps, find the inswing easy to cope with.
Alongside Aamer comes Mohammad Asif, a slinky bowler, accurate with it, who ghosts the ball this way and that from a high arm that refuses to telegraph his intentions. Finally there is Umar Gul, one of the finest “death” bowlers in one-day cricket and an excellent third seamer, the only proviso being his stamina to last the course. Even by the end of the second Australia Test, he looked on his knees.
England will probably pursue the policy of six batsmen and four main bowlers that they are almost certain to carry into the Ashes series, if not further. It will be a starting point and no more: Andy Flower, the coach, will cut the coat according to the cloth.
That Graeme Swann can bowl in all conditions and circumstance makes a massive difference. But in the absence of Ian Bell through injury, there is now an opportunity to see further whether Trott can put to bed the notion that he might be temperamentally fragile when put under the cosh, and whether Eoin Morgan has the aptitude and technique for Test cricket that he has in abundance in the shorter forms of the game.
There is a subtext beyond this pair, though, which demands more from Alastair Cook, now that he has got away from the relative freedom of the Bangladesh attack, Pietersen, who last made a century in Port of Spain 21 innings ago, and indeed Paul Collingwood, who missed the home series against Bangladesh and needs to pick up the threads once more. Only Strauss, who recently has been playing brilliantly at times, is exempt from scrutiny.
The seamers, like the Pakistanis at Headingley, have to show that they have the control and discipline to exploit the swinging ball, should that happen. Their appalling performance at Headingley a year ago suggests this is not a given, nor the admission from Broad that he got his recent glut of wickets for Nottinghamshire on advice of the bowling coach Mike Hendrick, which amounted to line and length in helpful conditions. Why on earth would he need to be told that?
The test for Finn, on the other hand, comes in how well he lasts the four-match course. He was rested after the Bangladesh series because medical opinion saw him teetering on the brink of an injury. You can only do so much strength and conditioning in a few weeks and Finn is very much a work in progress. But he needs to show stamina now.
Asia Cup flop ”a warning bell”
KARACHI: Former Pakistan cricket greats said Sunday Pakistan”s failure to reach the final of the Asia Cup was “a warning bell” for problems that needed urgent attention before next year”s World Cup.
“Pakistan did play well in both the matches but the fact is that we are still number three, behind Sri Lanka and India, which is a warning bell for next year”s World Cup,” former Pakistan captain Zaheer Abbas told AFP.
The four-nation Asia Cup, being played in the Sri Lankan resort of Dambullah, is seen as a build-up for next year”s World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Arch-rival India beat Pakistan by three wickets on Saturday, qualifying for the June 24 final against Sri Lanka and leaving runners-up Pakistan and Bangladesh to contest a league match on Monday.
Abbas said the results showed that Pakistan was performing poorly.
“Against India our batting did well, but bowling and fielding were not up to the mark,” said Abbas.
Pakistan also failed to reach the final of the 2008 Asia Cup, when the tournament was held in their own country.
Abbas said there were “too many coaches” in the Pakistan camp, which he found “hard to understand,” referring to head coach Waqar Younis, assistant coach Aqib Javed and batting-fielding coach Ijaz Ahmed.
“Too many coaches are spoiling the broth,” Abbas said.
Former chief selector Iqbal Qasim, who resigned in February after Pakistan”s winless tour of Australia, said Pakistan had to confront its problems before next year”s World Cup.
“Fielding is our main problem, which again failed us on Saturday,” said Qasim, a former left-arm spinner. “We also need to know when to utilise our batting powerplay, which is being spoiled every time.”
Qasim said fast-rising batsman Umar Akmal and paceman Mohammad Amir needed guidance to turn their huge talent into better performances.
“Umar is creating panic when he comes on to bat,” which led to run-outs for his batting partners which he survived, Qasim said.
“It”s a big problem which needs to sorted out.”
Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi will lead the team on the tour of England starting next week.
Pakistan will play two Twenty20 and two Tests against Australia and four Tests, two Twenty20 and five one-day matches against England.
Mahela magic leaves Windies spellbound
BRIDGETOWN: Mahela Jayawardene”s superb form at the World Twenty20 continued as he made an unbeaten 98 in Sri Lanka”s 57-run win over the West Indies in the Super Eights here on Friday.
The opener”s entrancing innings at the Kensington Oval was the centrepiece of Sri Lanka”s total of 195 for three – the best by any side this tournament.
But the West Indies helped last year”s losing finalists greatly by missing six chances during a wretched fielding display as they lost for the first time in the competition.
Jayawardene, given two reprieves, faced 56 balls with four sixes and nine fours as he followed up his 81 against New Zealand and 100 against Zimbabwe with another dominant innings.
The former captain”s average for the tournament now stands at a scarcely credible 139.5 and there is no doubt he is enjoying his new lease of life as an opener in this format.
“Whatever the role you”re given, you back yourself to contribute,” Jayawardene said at the post-match presentation.
“Opening the batting gives you more time, it suits my game,” the man-of-the-match added.
Earlier Friday, a statement on Sri Lanka Cricket”s own website berated the national”s team performances in the Caribbean so far, saying most of the senior players looked “rusty and tired”.
The statement added: “Jayawardene seems to be the sole breadwinner in the batting department. He needs support.”
Well in this match he got it from Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara (68) in a partnership of 166, the second best in all Twenty20 internationals.
Only Loots Bosman and Graeme Smith, with 170 for South Africa against England at Centurion last year, have enjoyed a bigger stand at this level.
“Mahela was superb again, his form has been crucial to us getting this far in the tournament,” said Sangakkara, dropped on nought and 27.
West Indies captain Chris Gayle, who dropped Sangakkara at slip when his opposite number had yet to score, was at a loss to explain his team”s inept fielding.
“We had our chances, but we put them down,” he said. “I can”t say why our fielding was so bad, we have worked extremely hard on it.”
He added: “We are in a must-win situation now, I hope we can lift our game.”
West Indies lost two wickets early on as Shivnarine Chanderpaul and the hard-hitting Gayle both fell cheaply, with Sri Lanka holding their catches as the hosts slumped to 23 for two.
The innings never really recovered from that double blow and West Indies limped to 138 for eight off 20 overs.
Ramnaresh Sarwan (28) and Dwayne Bravo (23) were the only batsmen to pass 16 in an innings where extras was the third-best contributor with 17.
Spinner Ajantha Mendis took three wickets for 24 runs from his maximum four overs and paceman Lasith Malinga three for 28.
Senior spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, back in the side following a groin injury, took none for 26 from four overs.
Sangakkara, also dropped on 27, eventually holed out having faced 49 balls with three sixes and five fours.
Jayawardene showed his class throughout but he too was given a couple of lives, both in the same over from left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn.
On 65, he was well beaten by a Benn delivery, only for occasional wicketkeeper Andre Fletcher to miss the stumping.
Jayawardene had added only one to his score when he skied behind but, embarrassingly, neither Fletcher nor short third man Wavell Hinds went for the catch and the ball fell safe.
No one has yet made two Twenty20 international hundreds but the unselfish Jayawardene refused to hog the strike in the last over as Tillakaratne Dilshan ended the innings with a four.
Both teams are back here on Sunday, with the West Indies playing India and Sri Lanka facing Australia, who thrashed the Indians by 49 runs earlier Thursday.
Mahela magic leave Windies spellbound
BRIDGETOWN: Mahela Jayawardene”s superb form at the World Twenty20 continued as he made an unbeaten 98 in Sri Lanka”s 57-run win over the West Indies in the Super Eights here on Friday.
The opener”s entrancing innings at the Kensington Oval was the centrepiece of Sri Lanka”s total of 195 for three – the best by any side this tournament.
But the West Indies helped last year”s losing finalists greatly by missing six chances during a wretched fielding display as they lost for the first time in the competition.
Jayawardene, given two reprieves, faced 56 balls with four sixes and nine fours as he followed up his 81 against New Zealand and 100 against Zimbabwe with another dominant innings.
The former captain”s average for the tournament now stands at a scarcely credible 139.5 and there is no doubt he is enjoying his new lease of life as an opener in this format.
“Whatever the role you”re given, you back yourself to contribute,” Jayawardene said at the post-match presentation.
“Opening the batting gives you more time, it suits my game,” the man-of-the-match added.
Earlier Friday, a statement on Sri Lanka Cricket”s own website berated the national”s team performances in the Caribbean so far, saying most of the senior players looked “rusty and tired”.
The statement added: “Jayawardene seems to be the sole breadwinner in the batting department. He needs support.”
Well in this match he got it from Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara (68) in a partnership of 166, the second best in all Twenty20 internationals.
Only Loots Bosman and Graeme Smith, with 170 for South Africa against England at Centurion last year, have enjoyed a bigger stand at this level.
“Mahela was superb again, his form has been crucial to us getting this far in the tournament,” said Sangakkara, dropped on nought and 27.
West Indies captain Chris Gayle, who dropped Sangakkara at slip when his opposite number had yet to score, was at a loss to explain his team”s inept fielding.
“We had our chances, but we put them down,” he said. “I can”t say why our fielding was so bad, we have worked extremely hard on it.”
He added: “We are in a must-win situation now, I hope we can lift our game.”
West Indies lost two wickets early on as Shivnarine Chanderpaul and the hard-hitting Gayle both fell cheaply, with Sri Lanka holding their catches as the hosts slumped to 23 for two.
The innings never really recovered from that double blow and West Indies limped to 138 for eight off 20 overs.
Ramnaresh Sarwan (28) and Dwayne Bravo (23) were the only batsmen to pass 16 in an innings where extras was the third-best contributor with 17.
Spinner Ajantha Mendis took three wickets for 24 runs from his maximum four overs and paceman Lasith Malinga three for 28.
Senior spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, back in the side following a groin injury, took none for 26 from four overs.
Sangakkara, also dropped on 27, eventually holed out having faced 49 balls with three sixes and five fours.
Jayawardene showed his class throughout but he too was given a couple of lives, both in the same over from left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn.
On 65, he was well beaten by a Benn delivery, only for occasional wicketkeeper Andre Fletcher to miss the stumping.
Jayawardene had added only one to his score when he skied behind but, embarrassingly, neither Fletcher nor short third man Wavell Hinds went for the catch and the ball fell safe.
No one has yet made two Twenty20 international hundreds but the unselfish Jayawardene refused to hog the strike in the last over as Tillakaratne Dilshan ended the innings with a four.
Both teams are back here on Sunday, with the West Indies playing India and Sri Lanka facing Australia, who thrashed the Indians by 49 runs earlier Thursday.
AUSTRALIA’S Batting Never Scaled Any Great Heights In The First One-day Match At The MCG
February 7, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
TrendPK.com AUSTRALIA’S Batting Never Scaled Any Great Heights In The First One-day Match At The MCG:The home side was well placed at 0-50 after 10 overs, but the West Indies bowlers did well for the bulk of the innings after visiting skipper Chris Gayle won the toss and sent Australia in.
Gayle [...]
Fulton dropped, paid price for poor performance
WELLINGTON : Peter Fulton has paid the price for a poor run of form. South African-born batsman BJ Watling is poised to make his test cricket debut in the series finale against Pakistan in Napier from Friday after joining the squad today at the expense of Peter Fulton.
Watling, 24, is the only change in a 13-man squad named for the third test as New Zealand’s selection panel moved to partially remedy a batting unit guilty of under-performing in Dunedin and Wellington, nzherald.co.nz reported.
Watling opens the batting for Northern Districts and is also capable of filling a position in the middle order.
He could replace an out-of-form Tim McIntosh and form a new opening partnership with Martin Guptill or be a straight swap for Fulton at No 5.
Fulton’s comeback to test cricket was unspectacular – 42 runs at 10.5 and memorable for his duck in the second innings at Dunedin when he failed to request a review of his leg before wicket dismissal despite suspecting the ball had hit his bat.
McIntosh retains his place in the squad despite scoring 37 runs at 9.25. Flynn, 57 runs at 14.25, and Guptill, 75 at 18.75, have also been persevered with.
Long identified as a player for the future, Watling made his New Zealand debut during the Twenty20 component of the Pakistan tour last month in the United Arab Emirates.
Watling, who made his first class debut in 2004-05, pushed for selection thanks to compelling form in the current Plunket Shield four-day competition – 241 runs at 80.33 including scores of 90 and 136.
Tours to Australia and India with the Emerging Players and A teams during the New Zealand winter also indicated the right hander and capable wicketkeeper was in contention.
“He’s a quality young player with good technique,” selector Mark Greatbatch said.
Although New Zealand were beaten by 141 runs in the second test at the Basin Reserve inside four days yesterday – principally because they made only 99 in their first innings – Greatbatch said widespread changes were never likely.
“There was a lot of discussion about the batting line-up, but this was not a time for wholesale change. We are aiming to give guys the opportunity to succeed,” he said.
Black Caps squad
Daniel Vettori (captain), Tim McIntosh, Martin Guptill, Daniel Flynn, Ross Taylor, BJ Watling, Grant Elliott, Brendon McCullum, Daryl Tuffey, Iain O’Brien, Tim Southee, Jeetan Patel, Chris Martin.
? 2009, CricketMove.Com. All rights reserved. Partner with APakistanNews.com
Fulton dropped, paid price for poor performance was first posted on December 7, 2009 at 1:28 pm.
Afridi, Kamran demolish Kiwis in first ODI
Highlights of Pakistan Vs New Zealand, 1st ODI at Abu Dhabi
Pakistan won the 1st ODI of the Cool & Cool Cup at Abu Dhabi by a whooping margin of 138 runs. New Zealand couldn’t withstand the demolition acts from Boom Boom Shahid Afridi and Kamran Akmal which powered Pakistan to a total of 287. The Kiwi batsmen later were outclassed by the Pakistani bowlers who were just too good to handle.
Younus Khan had won the toss and elected to bat first, he announced that 280 is what Pakistan will be looking at. But when the score read 0 for 2 in the 3rd over, Younis’ statement looked ridculous, more so when Pakistan crawled through for the next hour or so. Shane Bond created the jitters in the batting side, starting with a peach of an away going one to have Salman Butt nicking behind in the fourth delivery of the match. In his next over, Bond lured Younus into a false drive to give another catch for Brendon McCullum.
It needed the class of Mohammad Yousuf to repair the ship for Pakistan. His partner at the other end Khalid Latif looked very rash to begin with and showed poor technique in playing the swing bowling of Bond and Southee. Fortunately for Latif, the Kiwi attack for the day was very thin with Kyle Mills not playing because of an injury. Also with the movement ceasing off the track, a partnership was developing along for Pak. Yousuf played a couple of sweet lofted shots and looked good for the long innings before proving yet again that he was a terrible runner between the wickets. Yousuf on 30 tried to steal a single from extra covers but his legs were not quick enough to beat a direct throw.
Pakistan slipped back into trouble at 57 for 3 and looked hopeless at 75 for 4 when young gun Umar Akmal was outsmarted by a dream delivery from Daniel Vettori. It was a ball that was drifting around middle but turned away enough to hit the off stump leaving Umar Akmal playing along the wrong line. The Kiwis looked very good at this stage to bowl out Pakistan for less than 200. It was expected that the next man in Shahid Afridi would play a reckless shot and get out soon. But Afridi proved his talent and came good with the bat after quite some time. He didn’t curb his natural game and went after both spin and pace alike without any inhibitions.
The Kiwis were struggling to break the partnership between Khalid Latif and Afridi and that brought Pakistan right back in the game. Latif slowly worked his way to a maiden fifty while Afridi blazed away past his 30th ODI fifty in no time. Just when a 100 was in his reach, Afridi got out playing a cute paddle off Oram flat in the air to short fine leg. He scored a superb 70 in just 50 balls with 4 fours and 3 sixes to rescue Pak from 75 for 4 to 176 for 5 in the 39th over. Latif followed him back into the pavilion after getting bowled off Vettori. The opener played an ordinary knock taking as many as 112 balls to score just the 64 runs.
New Zealand at this stage failed to take any wickets in the batting powerplay which was taken in the 43rd over with Kamran Akmal and Abdul Razzaq at the crease. Instead it was Pakistan smashing away more than 50 runs to take the match away from the Kiwis’ reach. All of a sudden, Younis Khan’s 280 was very close by. Kamran Akmal slashed some brilliant sixes over point and covers to finish the innings in style with 67 not out from just 43 balls (5 fours and 4 sixes). Abdul Razzaq joined the party too with a couple of consecutive sixes, he made 26 from 20. The two all-rounders put on 86 for th 7th wicket in 7.1 overs! Pak reached a formidable total of 287 for 9 which was just beyond the reach of the Kiwis.
The New Zealand innings never got going with Mohammad Aamer troubling Brendon McCullum and Aaron Redmond with his slippery pace off the wicket. Aamer was unlucky not to get any wickets initially but his new ball partner Umar Gul got Brendon McCullum (21) and Guptill (4) to play onto the stumps to make the inroads by the 10th over. Aamer finally got a wicket to his name, the big one of Ross Taylor (0) who was caught behind slashing a wide away going one. In the 16th over, NZ slipped to 50 for 4 when Styris was caught well in the deep off a pull to Imran Farhat.
A partnership for the 5th wicket between opener Redmond and Skipper Vettori got going to keep Pakistan waiting. Off Spinner Saeed Ajmal broke the 69-run stand after striking the pad of Redmond (52 from 91 balls with 6 fours) with a quicker one in an attempted sweep. A few overs later, Shahid Afridi came up with two wickets in two balls that of Vettori (38) and Nathan McCullum to have the Kiwis at 139 for 7. The leggie almost got a hat-trick when he pinned back Butler and struck the pad with a googly that just spun past the legstump to defy an lbw. New Zealand were cleaned up soon in just the 40th over for 149. The last six wickets fell at the cost of just 30 runs in the space of 59 balls.
All the five bowlers used by Younis Khan were amongst the wickets and each of them looked penetrative including Abdul Razzaq. Aamer and Ajmal were the most special of all of them as the batsmen could hardly score at a rate of 3 runs an over from them. The Man of the Match was given to Shahid Afridi for his 70 and 2 for 46. The second ODI is at the same venue at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Friday.
© 2009, CricketMove.Com. All rights reserved.
Afridi, Kamran demolish Kiwis in first ODI was first posted on November 4, 2009 at 7:14 pm.
Pakistan Vs Australia
Pakistan Vs Australia: This match will decide whether India will stay with a mathematical chance of reaching the semi-finals by beating the West Indies or whether it will be curtains for the Men in Blue. Consequently, there will be a huge amount of interest generated before the match, and frantic Net Run-Rate calculations should Pakistan win. 
Aus vs Pak, As the tournament has progressed, the pitch at Centurion has seemed to ease out for batting. The forecast is for mostly cloudy weather though, which could give the seamers some hope. However, if the rains should come down, then India will be out of the semi-final race and Australia will be through.
Australia: Their primary goal in this match, will of course be to win it outright, and comfortably seal their last-four spot. However, the secondary goal has to be to try to minimize the extent of defeat, so that their Net Run-Rate does not suffer and they can still make it through even if they are on level points with India. Currently they enjoy a healthy lead over India in the Net Run-Rate stakes, and are thus, favourably placed to qualify even if they lose. Thoughts of losing, though will be far from the minds of the Australians, who have been in great One-Day form for the past several weeks. They will be without Michael Clarke in this match, but they have not felt his absence so far in the tournament. Ricky Ponting will lead the batting challenge, and with a support cast of Hussey, White and Fergusson, backed by late hitters such as Johnson and Lee, they have the batting firepower to chase or set big targets. The bowlers have not really been tested so far in the tournament – not getting a bowl against India, and bowling to an under-strength West Indies team – but on the evidence displayed in England, there are no immediate worries on the bowling front. Mitchell Johnson has regained his confidence, while Brett Lee is back to doing what he does best – steaming in and hurling the ball. Peter Siddle is no slouch with the ball, while Hauritz had performed creditably. The only area that could cause concern is the question of what would happen if Ponting fails. With Clarke absent, Ponting’s success is essential to Australia’s plans, and his presence at the crease often inspires the younger batsmen to greater heights.
Pakistan: Pakistan have been the form-team of the tournament so far. In fact, they’ve been so impressive that JP Duminy has picked them as his favourites for the title. In the two matches they’ve played so far, the bowlers did a sterling job in one (against West Indies) and the batsmen came to the party in the other (against India). And they’ve been on a roll without a major contribution from Shahid Afridi – who at some point in the tournament is sure to murder a bowling attack. Pakistan have not played Mohammad Asif yet, which is probably the right call, especially since the other bowlers have performed well so far. Asif’s match-fitness in physical and mental terms is still suspect, and while there is no doubting his talent, there is even lesser doubt about his ability to consistently make wrong decisions. A spell of working his way back into the team might actually do him immense good, and Pakistan will profit in the long-term from it. However, considering the fact that this game is inconsequential for Pakistan, they may well want to test him out here. Pakistan’s main weakness is their inconsistency, especially while batting. When the batting clicks, they are hard to stop, but when it falters, they resemble a house of cards falling down. Even in the match against India, Pakistan fell at least 20 runs short of what they should have achieved given the platform laid by Yousuf and Malik.
Pakistan Vs Australia was first posted on September 30, 2009 at 3:03 pm.
©2009 “News Trends“.
