Misbah-ul-Haq joins Pakistan team in NZ
Reliable middle order batsman Misbah-ul-Haq has arrived in New Zealand today to join the Pakistan team ahead of the second Test at Wellington on the 3rd of December.
Misbah-ul-Haq is the replacement of Skipper Younis Khan who had opted out of the NZ tour following a disastrous Cool and Cool Cup Series in Abu Dhabi. Pakistan now has as many as 18 players in its Test Squad.
The 35-year-old Misbah-ul-Haq will most probably get into the playing XI straightaway and making way for him could be either Khurram Manzoor or Imran Farhat. There is a lot of pressure on Pakistan to win the second Test at Basin Reserve after losing the first Test at Dunedin by 32 runs.
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Misbah-ul-Haq joins Pakistan team in NZ was first posted on November 30, 2009 at 4:12 pm.
Gautam Gambhir to skip third Test
India’s dashing left handed opener Gautam Gambhir will miss the third and final Test at Mumbai due to family commitments. The southpaw has been given leave by the BCCI to attend his sister’s marriage. Gambhir has been in cracking form for India saving the first Test at Ahmedabad with a century and then starring in the innings victory at Kanpur with a superb 167 on the first day.
Replacing Gautam Gambhir is most probably going to be another specialist opener Murali Vijay from Tamil Nadu. The right handed Vijay had played one Test so far which was against Australia. The third and final Test at Mumbai is to be played at the Brabourne Stadium from the 2nd of December.
India’s Squad for third Test at Mumbai : MS Dhoni (Captain and Wicket Keeper), Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Murali Vijay and S Badrinath.
Anderson wrecks South Africa in Port Elizabeth ODI
After a crushing 112-run defeat in the third ODI, England have bounced back in style at Port Elizabeth with a demolishing victory. James Anderson took five wickets to have South Africa bowled out for a mediocre 119.
South Africa had won the toss and batted first, a move that clearly backfired. The hosts were not just losing wickets but were also struggling to keep the scoreboard moving with Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan combining well with Anderson. Only Alviro Petersen could stand up against the English attack to score 51 from 79 balls (with 5 fours) to take his team into three figures. The Proteas were bowled out in 36.5 overs with Anderson finishing with 10-3-23-5. Tim Bresnan suffocated the batsmen with his 8-2-15-1 while Broad and Collingwood took two wickets each.
England had a cakewalk reaching the target in 31.2 overs at the loss of three wickets. Opener Jonathan Trott played the sheet anchor scoring an unbeaten 52 from 77 balls with 7 fours. Skipper Andrew Strauss made a patient 32 to seal the chase with an opening stand of 74.
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Anderson wrecks South Africa in Port Elizabeth ODI was first posted on November 30, 2009 at 4:13 pm.
Kiwis hold nerve to clinch 32-run win
Umar Akmal’s heroic knock of 75 (from 174 balls with 5 fours and a six) went in vain as New Zealand won the first Test in a thrilling fashion by 32 runs. The younger Akmal making his Test Debut dazzled with 129 in the first innings as well but the Pakistani top order failed to stand up against the Kiwi attack. The visitors were set a perfectly chasable target of 251 on the last day.
New Zealand resumed the final day at 147 for 8 and could add up just 5 more runs despite having Grant Elliott unbeaten at the end of Day four. Umar Gul finished the Kiwi innings taking the wickets of O’Brien and Elliott to leave his team a target of 251.
The hosts straightaway had Pakistan on the backfoot removing the openers cheaply. They got one more wicket in Fawad Alam before the lunch break and Pak was at a shaky 53 for 3 at the break with Yousuf and Umar Akmal at the crease. Chris Martin provided an important breakthrough by ending Skipper Mohammad Yousuf’s stay for 41 and also a 71-run stand. Umar Akmal kept the fight going with Shoaib Malik (32) and the runs kept flowing before the former got done in by a short ball again.
At Tea, Pakistan was at 165 for 5 with the Akmal brothers at the crease and their side hoping for a repeat of their fighting partnership in the first innings. Shane Bond made sure that the Akmals did not run away with the game by taking a return catch offered by Umar to reduce Pak to 195 for 6. That was the moment for New Zealand and they seized it with both ends taking the remaining four wickets for 21 runs. The important wicket of Kamran Akmal (27) was taken by Iain O’Brien.
It was a perfect team effort from the Kiwi bowlers with Bond, O’Brien taking three wickets each while Martin and Vettori taking two each. Shane Bond picked up the Man of the Match.
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Kiwis hold nerve to clinch 32-run win was first posted on November 28, 2009 at 9:30 pm.
Aamer, Asif will be the Trump Cards for Pakistan
This could be the first time that young sensation Mohammad Aamer will have the wicket taking Mohammad Asif as his new ball partner when the Test Series against New Zealand kicks off tomorrow at Dunedin. Pakistan perhaps is going to have a winning combination with the new ball after quite sometime, may be this is potentially the best pair after Wasim-Waqar.
Pakistan most certainly will be going in with a combination of three pacers and a spinner in Saeed Ajmal. The third pacer to give back up to Aamer and Asif has got to be Umar Gul who is right now the fastest bowler in the Pakistani camp. Abdur Rauf has taken four wickets in the tour match against New Zealand Invitation XI but I suspect his chances of making it to the Dunedin Test are very low. Rauf is a predictable bowler as he has this funny way of showing the seam of the ball clearly to the batsman.
The Kiwis will have the real threat coming from the two As – Aamer and Asif. Both these bowlers are pretty good at bowling accuratley and do get a considerable amout of movement in and out off the seam. Asif is certainly a bowler close to Glen McGrath when it comes to the skills. The thing that flashes my mind when I think of Asif is the way he had gone through VVS Laxman’s gate in one of the Test matches with a magic off cutter.
It’s a pity that Asif had been out of international cricket due to all the wrong (non-cricketing) reasons. Hope he does justice to the wonderful talent that he has got in making the cricket ball talk the way he wants to! Guess what Mohammad Asif’s last Test was way back in October 2007. Fortunately enough he is just 26 years and will still get plenty of opportunities to make a name of himself in being one of the best bowlers in Test Cricket.
Mohammad Aamer has no doubt been the most consistent performer for Pakistan in any format of the game. He is just 17 years of age and has already won the hearts of many fans. I particularly remember a placard in UAE which was asking for Mohammad Aamer to be the Captain of the Pakistani team. The lad seems to be playing each and every game and may be he needs to be rested whenever there is an insignificant match around. Pakistan would do good if they can preserve this youngster and make sure that he lasts more than 10 years at the international level.
The third pacer for me is Umar Gul and he has to improve upon the consistency levels. At times, Umar Gul has this tendency of bugging his captain with plenty of no-balls. It’s a good challenge ahead of Umar Gul to prove that he is a better bowler than Asif and Aamer. Looks like there will be some kind of a healthy competition between the trio.
I would like to see Saeed Ajmal play ahead of Danish Kaneria in the Test Series. Ajmal has plenty of variations up his sleeve and the confidence levels are high because of his recent successes against various teams. Bowling seems to be the strength of Pakistan like always. The batting department and fielding is what needs to be improved by a long way for Pakistan if they have to win Test Series abroad.
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Aamer, Asif will be the Trump Cards for Pakistan was first posted on November 23, 2009 at 11:42 am.
South Africa Vs England – 1st ODI Abandoned
The opening ODI of the 5-match Series between South Africa and England was abandoned due to heavy rain. This ODI was supposed to be a day night affair at the New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. None of the players had even left their hotels to the ground. The second ODI is on the 22nd at the Centurion Park in Pretoria.
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South Africa Vs England – 1st ODI Abandoned was first posted on November 22, 2009 at 12:19 pm.
Sri Lanka ask Indian batsmen to save first Test
Hosts India are under tremendous pressure to force a draw on the final day of the Ahmedabad Test. They have already lost the key wickets of Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid in the 45 overs of batting they had on the fourth day.
However, things do look bright for India with a second innings total of 190 for 2 at stumps today. Gautam Gambhir is unbeaten at stumps with a superb 70 and along with him is night watchman Amit Mishra who has shown good technique to kill some time on his own.
Sri Lanka resuming the fourth day’s play at 591 for 5 went to lunch without losing a single wicket again. Mahela Jayawardene went past 250 and Prasanna Jayawardene notched up his second test hundred. After lunch, Sri Lanka batted for less than hour to take the score to 760 for 7 before declaring their innings.
The lead the Sri Lankans settled for was a monstrous one of 334 runs. Mahela Jayawardene’s marathon knock came to an end when he danced down to hoick Amit Mishra but only to be bowled for a score of 275 (from 435 balls with 27 fours and a six). Mahela put on a new world record partnership of 351 with Prasanna Jayawardene who finished unbeaten on 154 (from 314 balls with 11 fours) at the time of the declaration.
India seemed to have got a bright start as they went to Tea at 77 for no loss but immediately at the start of the final session, Virender Sehwag went for an over confident slog sweep off Rangana Herath but only to get caught at mid on. Sehwag by then had stroked his way to 51 (from 67 balls with 7 fours).
The homeside recovered after losing Sehwag with Gambhir and Dravid batting with plenty of assurance and at the same time keeping the scoreboard busy. During the dying moments of the fourth day, Umpire Daryl Harper gave a well set Rahul Dravid lbw to put India back in trouble. Dravid (38 from 66 balls with 6 fours) shuffled across and missed an inswinger from left armer Chanaka Welegedara but the ball was angling down the legside from round the sticks.
Gambhir and Mishra batted through the remaining few overs to ensure that India went to stumps losing only those two wickets. The pitch still remains good for batting but Sri Lanka have two quality spinners in Muralitharan and Herath to sustain high amount of pressures on the batsmen during the final day. India first needs to wipe out the deficit which has come down to 144 runs.
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Sri Lanka ask Indian batsmen to save first Test was first posted on November 19, 2009 at 8:25 pm.
Pakistan batting disappoints at Queenstown
Pakistanis were bowled out for a moderate 286 in their warm-up match against the New Zealand Invitation XI at Queenstown. The homeside in their second innings are 24 for 1 with Abdul Rauf taking his fifth wicket of the match.
For the visitors, left handers Fawad Alam (77 from 145 balls with 10 fours) and Imran Farhat (52 from 103 balls with 7 fours) came good. Crucial middle order batsmen Skipper Mohammad Yousuf and Umar Akmal had a very brief stay in the middle scoring 21 each. Reserve wicket keeper Sarfraz Ahmed gave some respectability to the Pakistani score in the end with a cameo of 37.
Brief Scores : New Zealand Invitation XI 234 and 24/1 Vs Pakistanis 286 (Imran Farhat 52 Fawad Alam 77 Sarfraz Ahmed 37 Abdur Rauf 26, Tuffey 2/47 O’Brien 2/55 Nethula 2/61 )
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Pakistan batting disappoints at Queenstown was first posted on November 19, 2009 at 8:25 pm.
Abdur Rauf shines for Pak in tour opener
Pakistan bowlers had an impressive outing in the New Zealand tour opener at Queenstown. The New Zealand Invitation XI led by Grant Elliott was bowled out for 234 with seamer Abdur Rauf taking an impressive 4 for 43 in 14.1 overs. Mohammad Asif, Yasir Arafat and leggie Danish Kaneria picked up a couple of wickets each.
The Pakistanis had a bad start though with the bat losing Khurram Manzoor cheaply. They finished Day 1 of the 3-day match at 14 for 1 in 9 overs of batting. Imran Farhat on 10 and Fawad Alam on 0 are at the crease for the tourists. This match could be a good eposure for young Umar Akmal who is lining up for a Test Match Debut at Dunedin.
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Abdur Rauf shines for Pak in tour opener was first posted on November 18, 2009 at 8:08 pm.
Pak’s New Skipper Yousuf wants Misbah in New Zealand
Pakistan’s new Test Captain – Mohammad Yousuf has expressed his desire to have Misbah-ul-Haq to join the squad for the 3-Test Series in New Zealand. Misbah-ul-Haq who was dropped from the Pakistan Squad in all the three formats of the game gets a possible chance to comeback into the team following Younis Khan’s exit recently. Younis had asked the PCB to give him a break after leading the side to a 1-2 defeat in the Cool and Cool Cup ODIs against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi.
Pakistan already has a 17-man squad in New Zealand but their middle order looks brittle with only Skipper Mohammad Yousuf having significant amount of experience. Misbah is most likely to be flown in although the PCB has maintained that no decision has been taken yet regarding Younis Khan’s withdrawal. Misbah is fresh with a score of 284 which he made last month in the ongoing Quaid-i-Azam Trophy. Most likely Pakistan will not be having the services of Misbah-ul-Haq for the first Test at Dunedin which begins on the 24th as the Selection Committee and the PCB is not expected to come to a decision until this weekend.
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Pak’s New Skipper Yousuf wants Misbah in New Zealand was first posted on November 17, 2009 at 8:53 pm.
