Pakistan All Set To Make A Start

Match facts
September 23, 2012
Start time 1530 local (1000 GMT)
Big Picture
Pakistan, we've been expecting you. The team with the best World Twenty20 record is the last to open its campaign in Sri Lanka. Pakistan have World Twenty20 pedigree. In the first tournament in 2007, they were finalists, and so nearly champions. They won in 2009, and in 2010 they had one foot in the final before Michael Hussey blind-sided them.
They've been put in the toughest group in 2012, with New Zealand and Bangladesh, and will play their first game against the stronger of those teams. Win against New Zealand, and Pakistan are almost certain to make it to the Super Eights; lose, and they will face a must-win against Bangladesh.
The strength of Mohammad Hafeez's side is unquestionably its bowling. In Saeed Ajmal, Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi, three bowlers of varied skills, Pakistan possess the highest wicket-takers in Twenty20 internationals. Any of those bowlers can turn a Twenty20 game single-handedly and a collective performance can be devastating. Their batting is less formidable; it can be hot or cold. In the two warm-ups for the World Twenty20, Pakistan chased 186 successfully against India but failed to achieve 112 against England. The challenge, as ever, will be for Pakistan to combine their enviable talent with discipline.
New Zealand go into this game with the opportunity to win Group D. Doing so will make their progress to the Super Eight independent of the result of the Pakistan-Bangladesh fixture. Their evisceration of Bangladesh by 59 runs on Friday was almost faultless. The key battle in that game was tipped to be between New Zealand's batsmen and Bangladesh's spinners. They took 117 off 12 overs from the slow men. A strong performance against a more formidable Pakistan will make people sit up and take notice of a team that isn't considered to be a strong contender for the 2012 title.
Form guide (completed matches, most recent first)
Pakistan: LWWWL
New Zealand: WWLLL
Watch out for
The majority of New Zealand batsmen: Brendon McCullum, with his 123 off 58 balls, demolished Bangladesh single-handedly. So aggressive was his approach and so clinical his execution that there was almost no pressure on his team-mates. All they needed to do was give McCullum strike. It's unlikely that anyone will play as explosive an innings against Pakistan, so the contributions need to be more collective to reduce the reliance on McCullum and Ross Taylor.
Saeed and Shahid: In Ajmal and Afridi, not only do Pakistan possess the highest and third highest wicket-takers in this format, but also the third and fourth lowest economy-rates among bowlers who've played at least 20 Twenty20 internationals. Ajmal goes at 6.03 per over on average and Afridi 6.10. They strike and they stifle.
Team news
New Zealand may not make any changes to the XI that beat Bangladesh, but it is likely they will change their batting order. James Franklin, the left-handed allrounder, opened with Martin Guptill in the first game to combat Bangladesh's left-arm spin, but Rob Nicol could return to the top on Sunday.
New Zealand (probable): 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Rob Nicol, 3 Brendon McCullum (wk), 4 Ross Taylor (capt), 5 Kane Williamson, 6 James Franklin, 7 Jacob Oram, 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 Nathan McCullum, 10 Tim Southee, 11 Kyle Mills.
The four players Pakistan are likely to leave out of their starting line-up are Asad Shafiq, Mohammad Sami, Raza Hasan and Yasir Arafat.
Pakistan (probable): 1 Mohammad Hafeez, 2 Imran Nazir, 3 Nasir Jamshed, 4 Kamran Akmal (wk), 5 Umar Akmal, 6 Shoaib Malik, 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Sohail Tanvir, 10 Umar Gul, 11 Saeed Ajmal.
Pitch and conditions
The forecast is for some showers in Pallekele. It threatened to rain during the Bangladesh-New Zealand game as well but there were no interruptions. The spinners didn't get much turn either, with the ball coming on to the bat.
Stats and trivia
Pakistan played New Zealand in Pallekele during the 2011 World Cup and fed Ross Taylor a diet of full tosses and deliveries that were too straight. He scored 131 off 124 balls.
New Zealand and Pakistan have played eight Twenty20 internationals and the head-to-head record is 5-3 in Pakistan's favour. New Zealand's three wins, however, came in the last four matches.
In Twenty20 matches over the last 12 months, Afridi and Ajmal have economy-rates of less than six an over. Mohammad Hafeez and Sohail Tanvir conceded 5.82 and 5.94 on average during this period.

Pakistan to Face England In a Warm Up Game

Match Facts
Wednesday 19th September 2012.

Pakistan to face England in a warm up game. Earlier Pakistan defeated India by 5 wickets on Monday in RPS. England Defeated Australia by 6 wickets. According to the Geoff Boycott he thinks it will be a battle of Champions. Pakistan is expected to bring in Abdul Razzaq, Asad Shafiq and Raza Hassan. Though England is expected to go unchanged. Both teams collided last time in Dubai Sports city in February 2012 when England defeated Pakistan.

Pakistan Form
W W L W
England Form
W L W W

The Battle for t20 world supermacy begins today

Match Facts
September 17th 2pm G.M.T

The battle for the t20 Championship begins today when the hosts take on Zimbabwe. Srilanka and Zimbabwe have been head to head in 2 t20 matches and Srilanka has won both of em'.

Pitch Conditions
With heavy gusts expected in the afternoon and evening in Hambantota, some steadying adjustments will have to be made all round. Matches there have been low scoring, largely because the surface area of the field is larger than the MCG, but the boundary rope is being brought in for this tournament. The pitch is expected to have something in it for the seamers, so much so that Brendan Taylor said he does not expect much turn. Temperatures are expected to be warm, between 26 and 28 degrees Celsius, with up to 80% humidity but little chance of rain.

Match will be telecasted on Ptv Sports, Sky Sports 2, ESPN Star Cricket.......

Pakistan starts with a huge Morale Booster

Pakistan 186 for 5 (K Akmal 92*, Hafeez 38, Malik 37*) beat India 185 for 3 (Kohli 75*, Rohit 56, Ajmal 2-22) by five wickets

A day before the t20 world cup Pakistan has defeated India by 5 wickets in a crunch of a game. India won the toss and decided to bat first which proved to be a worthy decision. Pakistani bowlers went for a lot when they started the innings but they came back when they took wickets of Sehwag and Rohit Sharma. India ended their innings on 185 for 3 with Kohli finishing on an unbeaten 75*.

In response Pakistan's start wasn't the best of the starts you would have for a t20 game. Pakistan lost their first wicket at 30 runs when Imran Nazir played an uppish drive. Wickets column then soon changed to 2 when a misunderstanding between the wickets caused Nasir Jamshed his wicket. Hafeez was the next to go. He departed on 38. Afridi came in next but then departed on a second ball duck. The scoreboard read 84-4. Umar Akmal then went for 2 leaving Pakistan in despair at 91-5. It was then the Kamran Akmal show began. Malik along with Akmal provided resistance and Got Pakistan home with 5 balls to spare.
After the match Hafeez said "We knew if India could post that total, we knew we could get it if we worked hard. Kamran Akmal was exceptional. The experience of Malik was also the key. He supported Kamran really well. The bowlers tried hard, but things didn't work out for them today." Dhoni Said "We gave a few too may runs with the new ball, but apart from that it was a good game for all of us. It's a difficult choice [whether to pick an extra bowler]. I have part-timers who can be used, and we are a side that is comfortable playing seven batsmen." 
As per Paper Its Pakistan's first t20 win against India.
Pakistan will play their first match against New Zealand on September 23th.
While India will play their first against Afghanistan on September 19th.

Pakistan Vs India Warm Up Match (Match Summary)

Gul and Ajmal deny England at the death

 Pakistan 144 for 6 (Malik 39, Swann 3-13) beat England 136 for 6 (Bopara 39, Gul 3-18) by 8 runs

For the first time since Pakistan and England locked horns in the United Arab Emirates, the atmosphere came alive. The advent of Twenty20 attracted a raucous crowd under Dubai Cricket Stadium's ring of fire and such was the delight at the outcome that Pakistan might almost have imagined they were at home.

As the clock ticked around towards 11.30pm local time, Pakistan squeezed to an eight-run victory, recovering their self-belief after a 4-0 caning in the ODI series with an excellent bowling display in defence of a competitive but far from daunting total. Umar Gul, who began the night with a maiden, was back to his best, Mohammad Hafeez burst with competitive edge and Saeed Ajmal's penultimate over was masterful. England needed 18 off the last over, from Junaid Khan, who had been the weak link in Pakistan's attack, but they never came close. 

Pakistan's captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, had termed this series a "decider" after his side had pulled off a clean sweep in the Tests and England had responded in kind in the ODIs. There was plenty to play for and one of the most passionate cricket crowds Dubai has ever witnessed galvanised Pakistan.

Kevin Pietersen excelled with the bat for England, a batsman convinced that he is heading for the IPL with his superstar status reconfirmed, his 33 from 21 balls beginning with a calculated assault on Junaid and ending unluckily when he pulled Shahid Afridi and picked out the only fielder within many a mile, Asad Shafiq, at deep forward square. For the rest of England's batsmen it was a struggle, a succession of scrambled ones and twos.

Craig Kieswetter backed away so far to the leg side that he could not reach a delivery from Hafeez even though it bowled him leg stump. Ravi Bopara's 39 from 32 balls kept England in contention, but it was a gruelling affair, his sweep shot malfunctioning so often that he will be able to count the bruises.

Jos Buttler was out to his signature shot, shovelling Gul over his left shoulder but picking out Ajmal at short fine leg. When Samit Patel fell lbw to Gul first ball, at 121 for 6, England needed 24 from 16 balls, but they failed to hit a single boundary in the last six overs.

Stuart Broad, England's third captain in 17 days, inserted Pakistan, perhaps sensing their batsmen were low on confidence, but Awais Zia's debut had been eagerly awaited and he did not disappoint, playing with wanton aggression before he was undone by a slower ball from Steven Finn.

Zia has already been called "Young Boom Boom", and such is the reputation in Pakistan of the original "Boom Boom", Shahid Afridi, that accolades of that kind are not given lightly. The name might stick. He is a slim, lightly moustached 25-year-old and displayed a sharp eye and an appetite for swinging from the hip.

Pakistan need an injection of youthful ambition into their Twenty20 team, especially at a time when they need to proclaim they can renew despite being precluded from playing internationals at home because of fears of terrorist attacks.

Finn had looked all but unplayable in the ODI series, but Zia deposited the second ball he faced over midwicket and, in Finn's next over, top-edged a murderous pull for six. He will be loved for his freewheeling style. Finn, though, gave him a send-off - a tyro himself, transformed into a bit of a grump. Finn had a bad night, his four overs costing 39.

It was a late start in Dubai - 8pm, not too far short of the time when Graeme Swann begins to wonder where his cat is. He responded with his best T20I figures, 3 for 13 as his off-spin removed Hafeez, Afridi and Umar Akmal in the space of eight balls - and he began with the run out of Asad Shafiq for good measure.

It was left to the two old salts of a Pakistan side with only two players under 30 to organise a recovery from 73 for five. Misbah and Shoaib Malik staged a sixth-wicket partnership of 71 in 9.2 overs, only halted on the final ball of the innings when Shoaib fell to a brilliant diving catch in the deep by Jonathan Bairstow.

Swann, not one of the most natural athletes in the England side, has had a modest time in the field throughout England's stay in the UAE. Another blemish came when a slower ball from Dernbach should have accounted for Shafiq, but was dropped by Swann over his shoulder at mid-off.

Swann then ran out Shafiq , breaking the wicket with his elbows after the wicketkeeper, Craig Kieswetter, had gathered a loose ball sharply at short square leg. His mood lifted, he dismantled the Pakistan top order. Hafeez slog-swept to deep midwicket, then "Boom Boom Senior" fell for seven when he clipped Swann tamely to short midwicket. The most headstrong dismissal of all was that of Umar who was out before scoring as he planted his third ball into the hands of the diving Dernbach at long off.

Sixes in the hands of Zia smack of youthful confidence; when Misbah and Shoaib cleared the ropes it felt like needs-must, a calculated show of aggression once a full risk assessment had been carried out. Shoaib slugged Samit Patel over long-on, Misbah put him over long-off. Thanks to some magical bowling later in the night, they judged their requirements perfectly.

Pietersen century wraps up series for England

England 226 for 1 (Pietersen 111*, Cook 80) beat Pakistan 222 all out (Afridi 51, Finn 3-24) by nine wickets
Scorecard

	Kevin Pietersen made 111 not out, his first ODI century in 37 innings © Getty Images Enlarge

Kevin Pietersen was captain of England when he struck his last hundred in a one-day international. It sounds so long ago that it might have belonged to a different world. In some ways it did.

As the England coach left Cuttack that night he could hardly have imagined what lay in wait. A major terrorist attack on Mumbai was already underway and was about to force the postponement of England's tour of India. After England returned for a Test series played under heavy security, his relationship with the coach Peter Moores broke down irrevocably and both men lost their jobs.

It is a history that has played heavily upon him. Pietersen toyed for a while, nobody quite knows how seriously, with abandoning one-day cricket as his star began to wane. It has taken three years, three months and 37 ODIs to draw a line and when he walked down the pitch in his audacious style of old, and flicked Aizaz Cheema through the leg side, the intervening years seemed more aptly summed up not by his routine kneel and punch of the air as a slightly rueful raise of the eyebrows.

It is no longer Pietersen's one-day side now but Alastair Cook's, and it was perhaps appropriate that his batting renaissance contributed to Cook's achievement in leading England to a rare one-day series victory in Asia. England now hold an unassailable 3-0 lead with one match to play and a nine-wicket victory with 12.4 overs remaining, fashioned by an opening stand between Cook and Pietersen of 170, could hardly have been more emphatic. Whitewashed in the Test series against Pakistan, they will now be bent upon returning the favour in the final match in the same stadium on Tuesday.

Cook's only regret will be that he narrowly failed to become the first England batsman to make hundreds in three consecutive ODIs. He had reached 80 when he pushed gently forward at the off-spin of Saeed Ajmal and gave Adnan Akmal a faint catch. Cook had again been in unruffled form, his cut shot more to the fore than it had been in Abu Dhabi on a quicker batting surface, but his exit cleared the way for Pietersen to claim the limelight.

This has been an opening partnership assembled partly through adversity as Pietersen looked forward to a few sighters against the fast bowlers after a traumatic Test series against Pakistan's spinners. It now looks bedded in and that coud spell trouble for Craig Kieswetter, whose keeping has been patchy - he dropped Umar on 28 off Broad - and whose range is too limited to convince as a No. 6 in Asia.

Pietersen's habitual pre-match claim that he was in "fantastic" form was backed up by adventurous footwork and flowing strokeplay. He passed 4,000 runs in ODIs in spectacular fashion as he danced down the pitch to strike the offspin of Mohammad Hafeez over the sightscreen for six.

He was dropped on 45 when a fierce, flat pull against Aizaz Cheema smacked into the body of the onrushing Azhar Ali at deep square. That apart, his most awkward moments came against the Akmal brothers. Adnan, who had replaced his brother Umar behind the stumps, ill-advisedly tried to run Pietersen out after he had tapped the ball back to him, and apologised. Umar tried to run him out more legimately only for the ball to ricochet off the stumps and career away for five overthrows. 

A sandstorm had disrupted the practice day and when the Kaus - meaning "bow" in Arabic - a vigorous south-westerly off the desert, cleared in the nick of time it revealed the same flaky Pakistan top order. They lost three wickets in 15 balls to slump to 50 for 4 before Umar, his lips daubed in luminous green sun cream, and the ageing swinger Shahid Afridi, who needs no war paint to convey his belligerence, summoned half-centuries to keep Pakistan in the match.

Umar's last two dismissals have taken Samit Patel's fielding reputation to new heights. In Abu Dhabi and Dubai, on off side and leg side, he has flung himself to the ground to hold an excellent catch. He knows that his fitness remains borderline - if you enquire innocently about the weather there is every chance he will reply "chicken and salad", and guiltily wipe the trace of an imaginary beef burger from his lips - but he is a decent cricketer and should be seriously considered to bat No. 6 for England in the Sri Lanka Test series.

Afridi was at his most restrained: that is he gambolled along at only a run a ball. He began in haywire fashion but then played responsibly, a straight six off Graeme Swann's offspin his most emphatic moment. Like Umar, he fell soon after reaching his half-century, bowled by James Anderson as he whipped to leg.

For the third successive match, Finn pronounced himself as fine a young fast bowler as anyone in the world. He took two wickets with the new ball, bowling straight and finding steep bounce at close to 90mph. He finished with 3 for 24, taking his series' tally to 11 wickets at 8.36 runs each.

Pakistan had won 13 ODIs out of 14 going into this series and had also whitewashed England 3-0 in the Test series, but such statistics seemed from another age. The loss of Imran Farhat, caught at the wicket as he struggled to cope with Finn's hostility, seemed a blip. But Stuart Broad caused Azhar Ali to flirt with one outside off stump, Mohammad Hafeez was lbw to an inducker from Finn and Misbah-ul-Haq dangled his bat at Broad to edge to first slip.

Broad conceded 16 from his first over, his mood not enhanced by a no-ball that prevented him from dismissing Azhar to a catch by Eoin Morgan at gully. His interrogation of the umpire Aleem Dar was borne out of frustration, but it looked disrespectful. Broad does not need sand stinging his face to become a bit irascible; a ball in his hands normally does the trick.

Shafiq's first run would have brought his downfall if Pietersen's flat throw had hit the target and he did not learn his lesson. He was unsettled by Swann's lbw appeal as the ball ran into the legside and had to dive back into the crease as Cook threw the ball to the wicketkeeper, Kieswetter, but the third umpire, Kumar Dharmasena, ruled that his bat was not grounded behind the line. It summed up Pakistan's day.

PCB issues showcause to Miandad

Javed Miandad, the former Pakistan captain, has been issued a showcause notice by the PCB for criticising the board's policies in a newspaper interview.

Miandad, who is currently the director-general of the PCB, apart from being a member of the governing board, had said he was "disappointed" with the functioning of the board as well as the lack of authority vested in him.

"While closely watching the functioning of the PCB, I am disappointed and feel that 90% decisions [taken by the board] are wrong, and are spoiling the sport in the country," Miandad told Dawn on Wednesday. "I am not part of the PCB planning only because I require power and freedom to work, since I have given 35 years to Pakistan cricket and earned a good name.

"People around the world regard my services as a cricketer but the PCB doesn't want to give me authority to improve [Pakistan] cricket.

"I have already brought this matter to the notice of PCB patron, President Asif Ali Zardari. Soon I will meet him again to apprise him of the poor condition of cricket in Pakistan. I will request him to either take necessary steps [to improve cricketing matters] or allow me to leave the DG post."

This is not the first time Miandad has been critical of the Pakistan board. In February last year he wrote a letter to president Zardari, criticising the appointment of Ijaz Butt as the board chairman. In January 2009 Miandad had resigned as director-general of the PCB over differences concerning the exact scope of his work. 

A month later, Butt and Miandad had traded allegations over Miandad's resignation at a senate hearing on the decline of Pakistan cricket. The chairman had alleged that Miandad had demanded more money, interfered with matters concerning selection, and was an incapable administrator. Miandad had said at the time that the scope of his role in the contract letter was significantly reduced from what he had initially discussed with the chairman. Though Miandad was reinstated as the director general in March that year, his relationship with Butt has been frosty since.

Miandad, who has been the coach of the national team on three occasions in the past, was not included in the recently formed committee to appoint a new coach for the national team, after Waqar Younis' decision to quit as national head coach after the ongoing Zimbabwe tour. In April, Miandad turned down the role of Pakistan's batting coach due to personal reasons.

Miandad has been asked to submit his reply within seven days. 

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Saad Mahmood Ali

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