Pak India Clash on 19th June

Well played Pakistan but it wasn’t your day

The iconic clash on 19th June 2010, in the Lankan city of Dambulla was a treat to watch for both Pakistani and Indian cricket fans and players, as it was an edge of the seat contest which although ended in favour of Indians but it also cemented a fact that importance of ODI’s have not dimmed (although I might sound like Ricky Ponting or ICC CEO and their other managers 😉).

At first the way Pakistanis played, I personally was disappointed with their efforts at the depth of the inning where they had to accelerate, and its my personal opinion that players like Younus Khan and Mohammad Yousuf could have steadied the ship in order to touch the magical 300 mark, which they didn’t and was admitted even by Shahid Afridi in his post match press conference. It would be unfair just to criticize Pakistan for bad fielding as during Indian fielding, Indians too dropped catches and miss-fielded, but yeah they managed to reduce Pakistan to a par score which India’s batting power could easily manage to chase under-lights.

But it is justified to criticize on the decision making and field setting according to situation, for instance they way Shoaib Akhtar was bowling today against the Bangladeshis, if he could had bowled with the same zeal and enthusiasm against the Indians and specially to so called Indian Hero Harbhajan Singh aka Bhajji, i.e. bowling in-swinging yorkers instead of short pitch and short of the length (not SoAL blog guys =P) deliveries, things would have been difficult for Bhajji to score that much, although must give credit to Bhajji for keeping his cools and showed courage, but it could have avoided.

So its literally unfair and useless to criticize Pakistani players for losing the match on small points, Pakistan did fought and even in the Indian Dressing Room, till Bhajji didn’t hit the penultimate sixer, they were tensed. For Pakistan it was more like the same what happened in the Wedding City i.e. St. Lucia where Pakistanis were stunned with the heroics of Mike Hussey last over spanking to Saeed Ajmal and this time it was Mohammad Aamer, the legacy continued.

Any how, now the 19th of June 2010 has gone and Pakistan and Bangladesh are the two countries who’d be boarding their tickets for the UK, as India and Sri Lanka would be competing with each other in the finals (may the best team win), Bangladesh to complete their later leg of bilateral ODI series with England and Pakistan to compete against the Aussies in their home-series following bilateral series against the English in difficult conditions in English summer where Pakistanis would complete their English summer.

Well played Pakistan, but the tour ended quickly for you…

Pakistan played well but lost the match when it really mattered!

right now when I am writing this blog, approx 2 hours after Pakistan India match concluded with result favouring in India, although Pakistan fought well and took the game to the last delivery, and in the first half Pakistan unexpectedly played relatively well. Again like I mentioned earlier failed to capitalize on the gained advantage!

And now the need for creating backup can be observed as these old horses are starting to show fatigue in their performance too, performed well with bat, average with bowling but null with fielding (read Mohammad Aamir dropping Gambhir, which contributed Pakistan for costing a match), but no backup plan can be seen from our authorities, see India, they rested Tendulkar, Yuvraj and paved way for the Juniors and they showed liveness in the field (read Salman Butt runout).

Played well but seems the legacy from St. Lucia is haunting Pakistani team and will haunt for a while! till then other teams would enjoy playing and winning against Pakistan (my heart hurts while writing this but its reality and we should admit that). God forbid but I am seeing interest of cricket game in Pakistan in shatters in coming years, already unlike in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka where I heard school cricket is mandatory, in Pakistan situation is unlike, when there are alot of institutions in Pakistan but without facilities of sporting arenas, even in the biggest city of Pakistan, Karachi does not have the same ratio of sports grounds like the way we have population, so similarly the passion for cricket might also disappear like that if we get to see such performances.

Pakistan on India Asia Cup clash

It’ll be a tough match barring friendships between the players of both teams

Its the most awaited match of the tournament, and even Nimbus would be expecting high profits and TV ratings from this match as this is the match between two arch rivals Pakistan and India. Off the ground they’re good friends (as the image shows) but on the field they can be fiercest of rivals, even more than Aussie-English rivalry.

Last time when these two sides clashed with each other, Pakistan had won in the Champions Trophy 2009 group match in Centurion, South Africa and now things have changed for Pakistan as in that team we had support of Muhammad Yousuf and Younus Khan who contributed in whatsoever circumstances and after that Pakistan had its bad times started when they started the series against the Kiwis in the UAE, because a turmoil sorta situation was starting to stitch by some of the players which completed in Aussies tour, resulting in which we lost players like MoYo and Younus in return.

Many say both teams are evenly poised with India weaker on bowling and fielding and Pakistan on batting and fielding but my personal gutsy feeling that India would have an upper hand as they have the tendency to stay on the wicket, finding it sans in Pak players, plus the humidity suits more to the Indians than Pakistanis.

Still wish Pakistan wins the match with flying colours.

Match almost won

Well played Afridi

Don’t wanna say that team didn’t play well, but it was without planning of any sort. The stage where Afridi left Pakistan could have easily won that match, but as the legacy going on with Pakistani players, of not capitalizing on the advantage in later part of the inning. Similar was the case here when Required rate was under 6 so it was just the case of taking single doubles with Razzaq at one end, was an easy job. No doubt Lankan kept their cools but it was more of Pakistan loosing the match.

Now matches further in the tournament are tough but must win for Pakistan to proceed into the finals of the Asia cup which Pakistan only won once, in 2000 in Bangladesh. Pakistan can do it but very difficult.

On the other hand, on paper team India looks stronger opponent with players like Sehwag, Gambhir, MSD, Raina in their lineup (thank god they didn’t included the wall known as Dravid 😉)

Lets hope after this performance what would be the conclusion of Pakistan-India ODI, which I am not very optimistic of, because already in the first match of a tournament, in disciplinary actions were shown by Pakistani players, clearly exposing the lack of management interest of those who’re on the job.

God saves us from such managers, who can’t control 15 players.

Asia Cup KickOff

Asia Cup 2010 to be kicked off today with the game between Pakistan and Sri Lanka

Asia cup will be kicking off today just inside an hour’s time when I am writing this blog. I personally feel this time it would be more tight contest as this time there are limited teams and no useless games like last time in Pakistan when there were games like UAE and Hong Kong and so interest level in each of the games would be high, although one might say and rightly so that parallel to this tournament is FIFA world cup where they’ve increased the number of teams and allowing the minnows to compere against the tough fishes in the tournament just for the sake of expending this already famous game, so why can’t the same be applied for cricket?

I disagree with them as with quantity increase results in quality decrease and this tournament can prove to be a quality tournament which isn’t played for formality but I personally feel it should have the same importance as other bilateral tournaments being played for centuries, here the application of this tournament isn’t decided whether it would be a bi-annual or quad-annual tournament, something to think about. Heard this time Nimbus (which is also the official broadcaster of Board of Control for Cricket in India) got hold of the contract for broadcast of Asia Cup till 2014, so it would want a bi-annual tournament compared to a quad-annual, and all cricket played these days is dependent on the broadcasters how they manage to do so and maintaining its quality to attain its viewership aswell.

As far as the team is concerned I don’t expect Pakistan to go at the scratch and win the tournament but to take this tournament to get accustomed to the conditions in Sri Lanka as during the ICC World Cup 2011, Pakistan is scheduled to play its league games in Sri Lanka, so Pakistan should enchash this opportunity and develop a stable combination (which I personally think not possible under current PCB Management) Still being optimistic with my team that even if you loose but loose with a fight just like you had against the Aussies at St. Lucia, you lost there but had shown a fight, similar sorta things we Pakistanis want only.

If you performed more than that, it would be a bonus than.

Best of Luck

Asia Cup 2010

Mother nature not in a good mood for Sri Lanka

The Asia cup is right on the corner but there are chances of it being distracted by the weather. Just look at the cloud cover over whole Sri Lankan island (I wished some of it were diverted to Karachi instead 😉), jokes apart but literally, this was not a good time to stage an international tournament in Sri Lanka, although its mentioned Dambulla has been the driest of all places in Sri Lanka, still the amount of cloud cover would not allow matches to be completed, (read ICC Champions Trophy 2002 played in Sri Lanka and there were many rain disrupted matches including the final)

Similarly was the reason the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy, which was scheduled to be stage in Pakistan, but was shifted to South Africa giving preference over Sri Lanka amid the same reason. I know it would be a tricky situation for ACC as-well, to convince teams like India and Pakistan who’ve a tough schedule ahead and even Bangladesh would be arriving directly from England after completing their ODI series against the hosts, to shift this bi-annual tournament somewhere later this year. Leaving Pakistan because of security conditions, it would have been shifted to India and the next one, in 2012 to be Sri Lanka in compensation, else it wont be possible that in this season, even the central parts of Sri Lanka not receiving their shares of rains.

On the other hand being positive, bowlers would get ample support on this track as on normal circumstances, this track is known for its bowler friendly conditions as its windy, humid and sweaty, so I suppose we should not expect high scoring matches over here compared to Premadasa Stadium or SSC in Colombo.

Even Pakistan just after winning the ICC World T20 Title in 2009, found it difficult to handle the winds and the conditions here which suits Lankans. So I just hope inspite of the weather game, we would expect a good game of cricket.

Leaving Younus Khan!

Leaving Younus Khan for a tough series in Sri Lankan Asia Cup and England might prove harmful for Pakistan Cricket

For a batter, having a consistent track-record in tests in a team more famous for its unpredictability than anything else, how can you expel him from all forms of cricket when you don’t even have the evidences against him regarding creating disturbance in the team and demoralizing the team spirit during New Zealand and Australia tours, where he was literally present in ODIs against Australia!

Shame upon the current management of Pakistan Cricket Board alias Pakistan Cricket Butt since Mr. Ijaz Butt has taken the position as the chairman of the Cricket board, acting more like the circus elephant who got free from its cage and now wants to settle score with the circus master.

Just imagine saving Malik with expense of greats like Mohammad Yousuf and Younus Khan is a big mistake and will haunt Pakistan Cricket for long, similarly the case with Justice Qayum’s report on involvement of Pakistani players in match fixing, which still haunts Pakistan and Pakistani Cricket 10 years after the report was first published.

Still yesterday when team was announced from the pool of 35 players for upcoming Asia Cup to be played in Sri Lanka, Younus Khan was literally ignored saying he was not impressive. On the other hand, PCB kept their stance of taking U-Turns, and this time they again took one when they claimed that there was no such ban on Younus and he can be selected on wish of the chairman.

Why wasting and insulting such a player? I don’t know which kind a managerial skills are they showing, its neither scientific nor human side management, now which kind of new managerial table have they define? For god’s sake don’t humiliate players like that, first clear you own collars when all problems are started from your end.

Click image to enlarge!

Summary from Wikipedia

This graph details the Test Match performance of Younis Khan. It was created by Raven4x4x. The red bars indicate the player’s test match innings, while the blue line shows the average of the ten most recent innings at that point. Note that this average cannot be calculated for the first nine innings. The blue dots indicate innings in which Younis finished not-out.

This graph was generated with Microsoft Excel 2002, using data from Cricinfo and Howstat.

The information in this chart is current as of 16 December 2007.

Skipper announced for Asia Cup and England Tour

Shahid Afridi has been announced as the skipper for Asia Cup and off-shore home-series in England against Aussies and England

Shahid Afridi has been announced as the skipper for upcoming Asia Cup to be played in Sri Lanka, featuring India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. After that they are gonna travel to England where they have to play against Aussies and later against England.

The importance of this series is that this is a full fledged home-series Pakistan has able to play against any opponent since the attack of Sri Lankan team convoy in Lahore on 3rd of March 2009. After that incident Pakistan played a ODI and one only T20 series against Aussies in Dubai and Abu Dhabi just before the 2009 edition of World T20 in England.

Another big news is that some of the seniors minus Mohammad Yousuf have been recalled in the 30 member probables, like Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik and Shoaib Akhtar to name some.

I personally feel the inclusion of Shoaib Akhtar would benefit Pakistani team as what I saw in the Pentangular ODI cup recently concluded just before the start of ICC World T20 2010, and he was impressive aswell. Shoaib last played an international for Pakistan in May 2009 and his last Test back in December 2007, but has this season turned out in domestic cricket in a bid to prove his fitness; he was particularly impressive in the Pentangular ODI cup in Karachi recently.

Again being personal, this time selectors did the right thing in dropping Misbah-ul-Haq, I’ve a great regards for him but his stay on the pitch isn’t benefiting Pakistan as much as he’s expected to. Plus he has been included in the team since Pakistan started their tour to New Zealand and than not to mention Aussie tour where he didn’t perform up-to-the-mark, and even in the World T20 2010, he wasn’t in his prime form like he was once in 2007 edition of World T20 in South Africa and later in tests in India, so I personally think it was time to give that space to someone more deserving.

Inclusion of Shahzaib Hassan is a good omen for the team, I personally think (maybe I am saying too much) that he’s a similar sorta player compared to Sanath Jayasuria, the way he played in RBS Pentangular ODI cup, he deserved a place in playing national team squad.

Kamran Akmal has been named with another keeper on his back Zulqarnain Haider, so that now Kamran Akmal has performance pressure on his shoulder, as during the New Years Sydney Test 2010, he dropped Mike Hussey 4 times in second innings of almost won test match and than fluffing a easy run-out, this sorta performance needed some check and balance and selection committee did the right thing by pressurizing him by placing a second wicket-keeper with him in the squad, the only edge which Kamran Akmal has on Haider is of batting, he’s a much better batsman than Zulqarnain Haider.

The only drawback in this squad I feel is of absence of Mohammad Yousuf whom Shahid Afridi told the media that he [Shahid Afridi] insisted Yousuf to withdraw his retirement decision but Afridi said Yousuf was unwilling to change his mind. He was the successful run-scorer for Pakistan in their last trip to England against the looks of Steve Harmisons, James Andersons etc and now in this trip Mohammad Yousuf’s absence would be greatly felt as I personally feel their isn’t any player of MoYo’s caliber in this currently announced squad.

Probables for Pakistani team:

Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed, Khurram Manzoor, Shahzaib Hassan, Azhar Ali, Azeem Ghumman, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Faisal Iqbal, Fawad Alam, Hasan Raza, Asad Shafiq, Umar Amin, Aamer Sajjad, Mohammad Hafeez, Shahid Afridi (capt), Abdul Razzaq, Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Sami, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Irfan, Tanvir Ahmed, Aizaz Cheema, Danish Kaneria, Abdur Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Zulfiqar Babar, Kamran Akmal (wk), Zulqarnain Haider (wk)