Well despite there being so many drop catches by Pakistan against Sri Lanka, it is a point to wander about by the Sri Lankans who are one of the favorites to at least make it to the semi-finals of the tournament. Having dropped uncountable number of catches against the co-hosts of this world cup, ending up on the winning should be on one side enjoyed to the fullest extent and on the other side worry about their fielding. Pakistan have always been poor fielders especially in crunch games like the world cup knock-outs though this is not one such game for the Pakistanis.
On the other hand as well, for Sri Lanka, being unable to make use of the opponents' poor fielding definitely needs a re-thinking when they are set to face Australia in the days to come. One need not remind me writing earlier about Sri Lanka's chances to beat Australia with their spin potent and Australia's lack of will power. I have to re0thing upon that since the day Australia beat New Zealand a couple of days back in a one sided encounter at Ahmedabad. And, even Sri Lanka's chances look slim after their debacle against Pakistan and so would be Pakistan with their opposition-friendly fielding.
One only can think about the reduction in the power of the Australian team that is found touring this world cup but, hardly anybody is able to sense the caliber of the teams which are set to face Australia-be it Pakistan or Sri Lanka. Of course, New Zealand is a matter of the past. Or else, Canada, Kenya and Zimbabwe can only be a last minute hope for any team which can at least make it to the quarter-finals of the tournament. Coming to the game between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, this was Sri Lanka's fifth defeat to Pakistan in world cups.
Scorecard reflects the team work that the Pakistani team got right when four of their top and middle order batsmen able to contribute along with a little bit from Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi. In the beginning, it looked as though the Pakistani total would go past 300+ and no credit to the Sri Lank bowlers when it was the Pakistani batsmen who made fools out of themselves. Afridi's caliber is seen in the area which he rarely concentrates and seems to fail in that area where he is expected to do a killing. Or else, a dashing batsman is seen scalping 4 wickets something which frontline bowlers couldn't manage.
Showing posts with label Sri Lanka vs Pakistan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sri Lanka vs Pakistan. Show all posts
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Friday, 27 August 2010
Pak must learn from Zimbabwe
Well in the past decade, there have been three major developments in international cricket with the first one being the granting of test status to Bangladesh, for reasons best known to the ICC alone. The second on the list would be the stripping of the Zimbabwe team of its test status in 2006 owing to the political instability in the country though that had hardly got anything to do with the game of cricket. And then would be the harsh decision on Pakistan which is a deserving one as far as Pakistan is concerned. Pakistan has been the last country for any team to tour.
First it all started with most of the teams from across the world taking a back seat when it came to tour Pakistan, that included the likes of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England and India (of course). As a matter of fact, even Zimbabwe didn't turn up to tour Pakistan though they had shown interest in traveling to that country with little bit of hesitation. When a country whose political stability itself is a matter of question decides to boycott touring Pakistan, nothing specially needs to be said about Pakistan specially. The only team that bravely decided to continue to tour Pakistan was Sri Lanka.
But, that gave answers to all the questions posed by the five teams mentioned above. At that time, even Sri Lanka was not a safe country to head. But, no team ever decided against touring the island. Despite the ICC dropping Pakistan as one of the hosts for the upcoming world cup in 2011, Sri Lanka's bravery to tour the nation needs to be appreciated whatsoever. At last, Pakistan themselves had to boycott their own nation and go to England and play their home series against Australia and England. The situation in Zimbabwe was hardly any different from that in Pakistan.
With the political turmoil in that African country, that was also a country where touring had to be given another thought. Still, there was no hesitation from teams like Kenya and Afghanistan who went on with plans to tour the nation for the intercontinental cup. Now, the latest we hear is that Ireland has decided to go ahead with its tour to Zimbabwe neglecting all fears of the political instability there. One has to recall England boycotting their pool match against Zimbabwe in the 2003 world cup owing to the same reasons. Now, if at all Ireland and Scotland have decided to tour Zimbabwe, then Pakistan will have to do something with the situation in their country.
First it all started with most of the teams from across the world taking a back seat when it came to tour Pakistan, that included the likes of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England and India (of course). As a matter of fact, even Zimbabwe didn't turn up to tour Pakistan though they had shown interest in traveling to that country with little bit of hesitation. When a country whose political stability itself is a matter of question decides to boycott touring Pakistan, nothing specially needs to be said about Pakistan specially. The only team that bravely decided to continue to tour Pakistan was Sri Lanka.
But, that gave answers to all the questions posed by the five teams mentioned above. At that time, even Sri Lanka was not a safe country to head. But, no team ever decided against touring the island. Despite the ICC dropping Pakistan as one of the hosts for the upcoming world cup in 2011, Sri Lanka's bravery to tour the nation needs to be appreciated whatsoever. At last, Pakistan themselves had to boycott their own nation and go to England and play their home series against Australia and England. The situation in Zimbabwe was hardly any different from that in Pakistan.
With the political turmoil in that African country, that was also a country where touring had to be given another thought. Still, there was no hesitation from teams like Kenya and Afghanistan who went on with plans to tour the nation for the intercontinental cup. Now, the latest we hear is that Ireland has decided to go ahead with its tour to Zimbabwe neglecting all fears of the political instability there. One has to recall England boycotting their pool match against Zimbabwe in the 2003 world cup owing to the same reasons. Now, if at all Ireland and Scotland have decided to tour Zimbabwe, then Pakistan will have to do something with the situation in their country.
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Bad Luck Yet Again For Pakistan
Well after their triumph in the T20 world cup finals on Sunday, most all of the Pakistani cricket fans would have rejoiced their team's victory by getting crazy. Of course..who on earth would not like to do so when something major has happened unexpectedly for Pakistan after 17 long years. After winning the world cup in 1992 that was held in Australia/New Zealand, Pakistan have just managed to enter the finals of two major ICC sponsored events when they were lucky to make it to the finals of the world cup in 1999 and then they entered the finals of the inaugural T20 world cup in 2007.
If anyone gives me an opportunity to have a say, I'd rather say that this is Pakistan's first ever major cricket title sponsored by the ICC. The 1992 world cup was just a fluke. Oh! C'mon..let us just go back to the league stages of the Benson & Hedges world cup 1992 where Pakistan had losses against arch rivals India, South Africa and West Indies. Pakistan until then had wins only against Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Of course not to mention the win against Zimbabwe. The match against England was a virtual knock out between Pakistan and Australia. Victory for England meant that Pakistan gets knocked out and Australia advance to the semis.
And much to one's surprise, Pakistan were bowled out for a paltry score of 74 which would have sealed Pakistan's fortunes. But, it was rain that came to Pakistan's rescue that day. And the rest that followed is well in front of our eyes. Anyway, that was a better result for, had Pakistan lost to England, the 2007 world cup win for Australia would have been their fifth world cup and 6 world cup finals in succession. And in 1999, Pakistan won matches against West Indies and Australia in a close finish only to lose to South Africa and India in the super six stage. It was the victory in league stage that helped Pakistan enter the semis. Pakistan had to win just 1 match to advance further to the semis and there was Zimbabwe to that came to their rescue.
Now, this victory is bound to remove the fluke tag from Pakistan. Pakistan beat two teams in Sri Lanka and South Africa who were unbeaten until then in the tournament. May be that, had some other team like say Australia had made it to the super 8 stage in place of Ireland, Pakistan would have had problems after their loss to Sri Lanka. But, that luck could be overpowered by their semi final win against the Proteas. However, their days of glory are numbered. They can enjoy being the T20 champions only until next April when another world T20 championship kicks off in the Caribbean. Meaning Pakistan can remain as T20 champions for only 10 months unless they win the next competition as well. And in the mean time we have the ICC Champions Trophy in September and incase Pakistan loses, that will surely overshadow their T20 win.
If anyone gives me an opportunity to have a say, I'd rather say that this is Pakistan's first ever major cricket title sponsored by the ICC. The 1992 world cup was just a fluke. Oh! C'mon..let us just go back to the league stages of the Benson & Hedges world cup 1992 where Pakistan had losses against arch rivals India, South Africa and West Indies. Pakistan until then had wins only against Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Of course not to mention the win against Zimbabwe. The match against England was a virtual knock out between Pakistan and Australia. Victory for England meant that Pakistan gets knocked out and Australia advance to the semis.
And much to one's surprise, Pakistan were bowled out for a paltry score of 74 which would have sealed Pakistan's fortunes. But, it was rain that came to Pakistan's rescue that day. And the rest that followed is well in front of our eyes. Anyway, that was a better result for, had Pakistan lost to England, the 2007 world cup win for Australia would have been their fifth world cup and 6 world cup finals in succession. And in 1999, Pakistan won matches against West Indies and Australia in a close finish only to lose to South Africa and India in the super six stage. It was the victory in league stage that helped Pakistan enter the semis. Pakistan had to win just 1 match to advance further to the semis and there was Zimbabwe to that came to their rescue.
Now, this victory is bound to remove the fluke tag from Pakistan. Pakistan beat two teams in Sri Lanka and South Africa who were unbeaten until then in the tournament. May be that, had some other team like say Australia had made it to the super 8 stage in place of Ireland, Pakistan would have had problems after their loss to Sri Lanka. But, that luck could be overpowered by their semi final win against the Proteas. However, their days of glory are numbered. They can enjoy being the T20 champions only until next April when another world T20 championship kicks off in the Caribbean. Meaning Pakistan can remain as T20 champions for only 10 months unless they win the next competition as well. And in the mean time we have the ICC Champions Trophy in September and incase Pakistan loses, that will surely overshadow their T20 win.
Monday, 22 June 2009
Reasons For Sri Lanka To Smile As Well
No one, after being unbeaten until then would be happy after losing a match when it really mattered. No one on earth would continue smiling after losing to a team against which it had won in its previous encounter. Pakistan in this tournament had lost matches against England and Sri Lanka prior to lifting the trophy. And Sri Lanka, needless to be said had won all of its earlier matches with some worth mentioning teams being West Indies (twice), Australia, Pakistan and New Zeland. However, Sri Lanka's win over minnows Ireland can never be counted as a victory not only for Ireland's inexperience but due to the fact that it was a close encounter when Sri Lanka should have gone in for a clean sweep.
And on the other hand, the wins that Pakistan have tasted are worth rejoicing. They had a clean sweep against New Zealand & Ireland and a close encounter with South Africa. But, that close win against South Africa was also as good as a clean sweep, when most of the odds had opted for South Africa to advance further and more so because that was a semi finals of a world cup. Not to mention, it was a clean sweep for Pakistan yesterday as well in the finals of the world T20. In the earlier game between the 2 teams, it was all because of the start given to Sri Lanka by their openers that they ended victorious. Sri Lanka had scored 80 runs in the first 8 overs, with the final score reading 150.
Sri Lanka were never in the game from the beginning. At one stage of the match, it was as though Sri Lanka would not even be able to put on 100 runs on the board after the scoreboard read 26/3 at the end of the fourth over. The highest run getter of the tournament Tilakeratne Dilshan was out for a duck and so was Jehan Mubarak. On the other hand, Pakistanlost their first wicket at a score of 48 (a score when Sri Lanka had lost 3 wickets as said earlier). Nonetheless, Pakistan never ever showed any signs of pressure at any moment in the match. All the four batsmen who made it to the crease did what best they could do.
Despite losing the tournament, Sri Lankan captain should feel a little bit satisfied that his team never lost out on his face. They put up a decent total of 138 and lost only 6 wickets after at one stage being at 70/6 at the end of the 13th over. Meaning 68 runs in the last 7 overs at a run rate of just less than 10 an over. Perhaps! Some initial contribution from either Dilshan, Mubarak and Jayasuriya would have made the finals more challenging. And one more thing that Sangakkara should be proud about is that he has taken his team unbeaten to the finals of the world cup just few months after taking over from Jayawardane as the Sri Lankan captain. Finally, Dilshan was handed the man of the series award should add another feather to Sri Lanka's cap.
And on the other hand, the wins that Pakistan have tasted are worth rejoicing. They had a clean sweep against New Zealand & Ireland and a close encounter with South Africa. But, that close win against South Africa was also as good as a clean sweep, when most of the odds had opted for South Africa to advance further and more so because that was a semi finals of a world cup. Not to mention, it was a clean sweep for Pakistan yesterday as well in the finals of the world T20. In the earlier game between the 2 teams, it was all because of the start given to Sri Lanka by their openers that they ended victorious. Sri Lanka had scored 80 runs in the first 8 overs, with the final score reading 150.
Sri Lanka were never in the game from the beginning. At one stage of the match, it was as though Sri Lanka would not even be able to put on 100 runs on the board after the scoreboard read 26/3 at the end of the fourth over. The highest run getter of the tournament Tilakeratne Dilshan was out for a duck and so was Jehan Mubarak. On the other hand, Pakistanlost their first wicket at a score of 48 (a score when Sri Lanka had lost 3 wickets as said earlier). Nonetheless, Pakistan never ever showed any signs of pressure at any moment in the match. All the four batsmen who made it to the crease did what best they could do.
Despite losing the tournament, Sri Lankan captain should feel a little bit satisfied that his team never lost out on his face. They put up a decent total of 138 and lost only 6 wickets after at one stage being at 70/6 at the end of the 13th over. Meaning 68 runs in the last 7 overs at a run rate of just less than 10 an over. Perhaps! Some initial contribution from either Dilshan, Mubarak and Jayasuriya would have made the finals more challenging. And one more thing that Sangakkara should be proud about is that he has taken his team unbeaten to the finals of the world cup just few months after taking over from Jayawardane as the Sri Lankan captain. Finally, Dilshan was handed the man of the series award should add another feather to Sri Lanka's cap.
Friday, 12 June 2009
Sri Lanka Make It To The Semis
Well two wins out of the three matches in the super eight stage of the ongoing T20 world cup in England would see that particular team through to the semi finals of the same. And now since Sri Lanka have won their first super eight match against Pakistan, they have not only come closer to blocking the semi final berth but also have made it almost theirs, for a win against minnows Ireland is taken for granted unless the ghost doesn't haunt them. For that matter, Sri Lanka have a better chance of making it three in all, with the odds favoring Sri Lanka against New Zealand as well.
It was all because of the opening pair of Sanath Jayasuriya and Tilakeratne Dilshan who put on 80 runs on the board at the end of the 8th over, thus making full use of the powerplays and the lack of cricketing experience of the Pakistan team who have not been found playing serious cricket since the past one year or so. If not for these two, the mission would not have been accomplished no matter what the Sri Lankan bowlers had to say. For, the remaining 12 overs could fetch just a mere 70 runs at a run rate of just less than 6.0 an over.
The scores that followed after the dismissal of Mahela Jayawardane read 8, 5, 9*, 0 & 2, with just a boundary inbetween that came after 7 overs. The lone six of the game came from the bat of Sanath Jayasuriya (which is as obvious) and after the fall of Mahela Jayawardane, only two boundaries were seen in the Sri Lankan innings. On the other hand, the Pakistani batsmen showed a better class if not for their initial loss of Salman Butt who was out for a duck. The trio viz Younus Khan, Shoaib Malik and Misbah threatened to take the game away from the Sri Lankans. I am indeed sorry to say that the Pakistani team was inexperienced to take on any other major team of the tournament.
This victory of Sri Lanka against Pakistan was the first one (for Sri Lanka against Pakistan) in any ICC Cricket tournament till date. They had lost to Pakistan in the 2007 edition of the T20 world cup held at South Africa after Sanath Jayasuriya went in for 64 runs from his four overs. And prior to that was Sri Lanka's loss to Pakistan ion the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 and before that it was in 1992 where Sri Lanka once again had lost to Pakistan. Since the 1992 world cup held at Australia/New Zealand, Sri Lanka have never faced Pakistan till date.
A knock out before the semis is expected in the match between Pakistan and New Zealand not to forget the run rate which would decide who would go in to the semis.
It was all because of the opening pair of Sanath Jayasuriya and Tilakeratne Dilshan who put on 80 runs on the board at the end of the 8th over, thus making full use of the powerplays and the lack of cricketing experience of the Pakistan team who have not been found playing serious cricket since the past one year or so. If not for these two, the mission would not have been accomplished no matter what the Sri Lankan bowlers had to say. For, the remaining 12 overs could fetch just a mere 70 runs at a run rate of just less than 6.0 an over.
The scores that followed after the dismissal of Mahela Jayawardane read 8, 5, 9*, 0 & 2, with just a boundary inbetween that came after 7 overs. The lone six of the game came from the bat of Sanath Jayasuriya (which is as obvious) and after the fall of Mahela Jayawardane, only two boundaries were seen in the Sri Lankan innings. On the other hand, the Pakistani batsmen showed a better class if not for their initial loss of Salman Butt who was out for a duck. The trio viz Younus Khan, Shoaib Malik and Misbah threatened to take the game away from the Sri Lankans. I am indeed sorry to say that the Pakistani team was inexperienced to take on any other major team of the tournament.
This victory of Sri Lanka against Pakistan was the first one (for Sri Lanka against Pakistan) in any ICC Cricket tournament till date. They had lost to Pakistan in the 2007 edition of the T20 world cup held at South Africa after Sanath Jayasuriya went in for 64 runs from his four overs. And prior to that was Sri Lanka's loss to Pakistan ion the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 and before that it was in 1992 where Sri Lanka once again had lost to Pakistan. Since the 1992 world cup held at Australia/New Zealand, Sri Lanka have never faced Pakistan till date.
A knock out before the semis is expected in the match between Pakistan and New Zealand not to forget the run rate which would decide who would go in to the semis.
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