Stani Army

I’m not sure if anyone else remembers reading cricinfo’s bulletin for the Super 8s match Pakistan played against New Zealand, but there were parts of it that made me wonder. It was written by Sidarth Monga who, in the past, has been accused by various fans of his obvious bias. Here it was in regards to Pakistan being able to recall Abdul Razzaq after the ICL cancelled his contract. Have a read of his bulletin and see what you make of it.

Sidarth Monga:

“How Pakistan would want to thank BCCI for the “amnesty” it accorded the ICL players.”

“Once the euphoria of this performance dies, Pakistan will want to thank the man returning to international cricket for allowing them to go ahead with their preferred bowling strategy.”

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Did the ECB really need the Twenty20 World Cup to finally realise the commercial viability of hosting Pakistan games? Looks as though they did, but Stani Army is certainly glad the slap in the face has woke them up. If Giles Clarke and his sidekicks thought Stanford was a goer, why on earth did they take so long to spot something which quite clearly made sense? Maybe they like dodgy deals better.

A few months back, as the PCB began looking for venues to host their home games, it was becoming increasingly clear that England as a venue was not at the top of the PCB’s list, due to the costs of staying and playing here. Stani Army did suggest at the time that the ECB and PCB should go to all lengths and try to make it happen as it would be a guaranteed success for all parties due to the large Pakistani community in England.

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Was I the only one who thought Umar Gul was darn unlucky not to get the player of the tournament award? It went to Tillakaratne Dilshan for scoring the most runs in the tournament. But in a batsmen’s game, surely a bowlers achievements should be recognised more? Shorter outfields and flatter wickets; certainly it was easier to bat well than bowl well no?

Of course, Gul’s was not just any achievement but a record, a first ever 5-wicket haul in International Twenty20s with his spell of 5 for 6 in three overs against New Zealand. Maybe the ICC didn’t want a Pakistani clean sweep so decided to spread the awards out. It’s either that or Daniel Vettori must have been on the ICC judges panel.

The other issue I had was the fact that the next Twenty20 World Cup is going to be held in April 2010, meaning that we will not even hold the title for a year. I will not go over it in detail as to why as Q has done a fine job of this over at Well Pitched, but it all stems from the cancellation of the Champions trophy in Pakistan in 2008. I suppose it does make sense but it’s just sad we will probably be the shortest holders of the World T20 title

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As Pakistan clinched the Twenty20 World Cup, Lalit Modi’s business brain must have went into over drive about how he could use the Champions to make more money. Well Lalit, you and your honchos at the ICC should have been more fair on the Pakistanis shouldn’t you? First of all, let’s make it clear that the argument that it was the Pakistan government that prevented it’s cricketers from playing in the IPL, doesn’t hide the fact that they would have been banned by the IPL and/or the Indian government anyway. Anyone who thinks this would not have happened is just fooling themselves. In fact, the Pakistan government did the IPL a favour and Lalit must have breathed a sigh of relief.

The above view is strengthened by the fact that the IPL did nothing to try and reinstate the Pakistani players with their respective franchises when the tournament was moved to South Africa. Yes, it would have been difficult as the franchises had spent on other players and there was not much time. Yet no attempt to include them or even a suggestion was made. As for the time excuse, Modi was commended for organising a tournament in such a small space of time so that doesn’t hold much water.

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Pakistan have won the ICC World Twenty20 2009 and can now rightly claim to be the best national Twenty20 side in the world after reaching the final last time around and narrowly missing out. Yet, victory did not escape them this time with all this, in the words of their captain, being just a bit of “fun”. Can you imagine if they had taken it seriously?

Pakistan needed to pounce on the Sri Lankan openers early on and that’s exactly what Mohmmad Aamer and Abdul Razzaq did. Tillakaratne Dilshan was peppered with short balls from Amer and fell going for his trademark scoop shot. Had he heeded the warning of our fellow Stani Q at Well Pitched, then Dilshan would have known not to attempt that shot in the final. Before they knew it, Sri Lanka were 32 for 4, thanks mainly to Abdul Razzaq (3 for 20). There was also some very good captaincy from Younis Khan who crucially kept a slip in place, and slightly wide, for the wicket of Mahela Jayawardene, who had been in excellent touch. Though now in trouble, they were given a life line with captain Kumar Sangakkara making a steady 64, and constructing a crucial partnership with Angelo Mathews (35). The two had managed to drag their team off the floor and and set a very tricky 139 for Pakistan to get.

It was certain that Pakistan had to play the type of innings that they were not known for. Wickets had to be kept in hand whilst the run rate had to be steadily maintained. Kamran Akmal and Shahzaib Hasan duly obliged, knocking the ball around and getting boundaries at vital points. In the 8th over, Akmal fell and in came Shahid Afridi. He started off cautiously, having the youngster Shahzaib at the other end. Shahzaib hit two crucial fours off Mendis before he fell in the next over to bring Malik to the crease. The two men that did it for Pakistan in the semis were now at the crease as they went along steadily picking up singles. As Pakistan fell behind the rate, then came a crucial over in which Afridi decided to attack Murali, hitting him for a six, a four, and getting 14 off the over.

Nerves began to settle as Malik and Afridi went back to intelligently picking up the singles and not allowing the rate to rocket whilst keeping wickets in hand. As the rate began to increase once more, another big over was required and that man Afridi obliged once again. His victim this time, Udana

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In a semi-final that can’t have been any good to the health of Pakistani hearts, Pakistan have managed to beat South Africa and reach the final of the ICC Twenty20 World Cup 2009.

After getting off to a great start thanks to Kamran Akmal (23 off 12) and then Shahid Afridi (51 off 34), Pakistan were set for a total of 170 upwards. This did not happen as the South African bowlers, Parnell and Steyn in particular, reined Pakistan in, conceding just 29 runs off the last 5 overs. One thing Younis Khan could have done is send in Misbah Ul-Haq instead of himself as coming to the crease in the 13th over, Younis hit just one boundary in his innings of 24. Even sending Misbah in ahead of the rusty Razzaq would have been a good option. It was good that they sent Afridi at three yet this is one other place in which they could have been flexible with the line up. Misbah has a unique ability of finding the boundary from full pitched balls, something Younis and Razzaq struggled with.

We mustn’t underestimate the contribution of Shoiab Malik’s batting also. If you have a look at most decent Twenty20 totals, you will see they include at least one innings of 30+ which is around the run a ball rate. It’s a kind of stabiliser to the fast paced innings this form of the game requires in order for a large total to be set.

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With an emphatic win over Ireland, Pakistan do not now have to worry about run rates becoming a factor in qualification for the semi-finals.

Batting first, it was a weird kind of innings with Pakistan always threatening to charge but not quite getting away. Credit must go to the Irish bowlers, in particular big Boyd Rankin who gave a measly 11 runs off his four overs.

Kamran Akmal had another brilliant game both with the bat and with the gloves. With his 57 off 51 balls, it was the perfect innings for the batsmen coming in at the other end to have a go. Afridis 24 off just 13 balls was probably the other valuable innings because of his strike rate.

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It was said to be the more difficult group and so it proved as the current holders India went out of the tournament. It was sad in a way as the favourites, and rightly so, did not manage to quite galvanise themselves when it mattered after two easy pre-tournament games. The loss of the brilliant Sehwag and talk of unrest behind the scenes can’t have helped.

There’ll be lots of ifs, buts and maybes from the Indians; would India have did it had Yuvraj stopped the 5 byes in Harbajan’s last over? Yuvraj himself would say that he made up for that with a ridiculously good first ball 6. Then there’s Jadeja who faced 3 overs of dots. Many said that he played too slow yet he will argue that he got two important wickets including that of Pietersen’s and took an important catch.

It was clear what Pietersen and Collingwood felt fired the English up and that was the booing their team got at the beginning of the game. It was a strange thing to have occurred

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