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Windies Show Some Heart
By Tabrez Janjua for Stani Army in International Cricket, Pakistan Cricket
42 ViewsSo, Pakistan stumble over the line against a second string West Indies eleven but maybe this was a good thing. A completely resounding victory may have seen them going into the remaining games with a sense of over confidence which can’t have been a good thing.
When the match began and the West Indian batsmen capitulated, I was beginning to question what the West Indians were doing there and whether it would have been more worthwhile, for a top 8 tournament, for Bangladesh to have been included instead. Yet the West Indian fight back with the ball was encouraging even if the Bangladeshi players may feel they probably deserve to be at the Champions Trophy. Maybe the ICC could have told the West Indies board that if their contract dispute was not resolved in time, the Bangladesh team would go to South Africa instead. Let’s just hope the Windies carry on holding their own in the next two games at least.
As for Pakistan, the two stars of the show were teenagers, Mohammed Aamer and Umar Akmal. Aamer continues to impress after a successful T20 World Cup and Umar has just burst on the international scene and looks at home already. His innings today prevented a possible embarrassment. Being a usually attacking batsman, with a ODI strike rate above 100, he assessed the situation and played an intelligent innings along with Afridi to carry Pakistan over the finishing line. When Afridi was asked what he liked about him he said, “I love brave heart people and he is brave”. Watch out for him and Mohammed Aamer, 19 and 17 years old respectively, in the rest of the tournament, the latest fresh off the unmatched Pakistan cricket production line.
For Pakistan to win the tournament the batsmen need to perform but with arguably the best bowling attack in the world, we’re always in with a chance. India are up next yet have been dealt a major blow with Yuvraj out of the tournament with a broken finger. This I think will have a major effect on what was deemed to be India’s strongest part of the game, their batting. The three others in the group, Pakistan, West Indies and Australia, will see this as a boost.
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September 24th, 2009 at 4:40 am
You played West Indies and lost 5 wickets? When? Where? I could have sworn the Windies players are on strike.
September 24th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Fawad didn’t play! Argh I should have taken your advice and rated the Pak bowling higher than their batting man.
Well atleast I got the west indian batting and bowling ratings right!!
Did you check your email by the way?
September 25th, 2009 at 12:52 am
Purn,
At least we beat them comfortably unlike your Bengali boys. Your lot let Charles Coventry of Zimbabwe equal the highest ODI score in history. Don’t forget that. Tigers? More like pussy cats.
MTJAG,
See! Na, you wasnt far off, it’s just that I know my lot quite well and they are brainless when batting. I’d be surprised if Fawad gets a game to be honest. One for the future.
Will check my mail.
September 25th, 2009 at 12:57 am
Yes Stani, because Shakib had to work oh so hard to get wickets everytime he came to bowl
. And Tonge had your lot by the balls there for a while. Where are you getting comfortably from?
We did that intentionally to piss Saeed Anwar off
.
September 25th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Stani
The Windies had a really good pace attack other than Tino Best the rest were on the mark and I think they would have tested any batting line up in the world on this track, so I am not feeling that bad about losing five wickets especially when Yousaf was not out.
However Pakistan should have not allowed their tail to survive so long they were 47/7 at one stage. Afridi and some of the bowlers were the main culprits. The bowlers were trying to buy the wicket by allowing a lot of runs and Afridi became a bit to selfish when it came to his own bowling.
September 25th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Purn,
How can you upset Saeed Anwar? He’s such a nice man. Evil Bangladeshis. If you really wanted to upset him why didn’t one of your batsmen beat his score themselves? Why? Because you’re rubbish.
Wasim,
Yes, Windies will always have decent quickies. Was Best the one who bowled that beamer at Akmal? Did you see Darren Sammy’s face when Best bowled that!!! Hilarious, he was thinking ‘bloodfire you bumberclart!’
Agree about Afridi’s selfishness but I think we can still be surprised by how bad he bowled. I suppose he’ll learn from it as you become a better captain after every game.
September 25th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Meanwhile yesterday Pak cruised to victory against an inexperienced weakened WI side. The seamers operated with skill and frontline initiative to rattle the WI top order. Hats of to Miller whose lower order contributions helped WI achieve something reasonable from a situation of disaster. Despite this late order flourish and slight top order struggle Pak won end of story: “All well that ends well”. But undoubtedly they will need to brush up in some aspects to beat the big powers in Aus and Ind i.e. top order will need to “click”. Nazir should be used lower down the order and not against the new ball. This must be stressed that his technique is not advanced enough to open at international level but lower down he will simply be able to dominate proceedings in his free scoring manner such as when the ball has lost its movement and the platform has been set. Here he will be a handful and be able to emulate that approach of sheer uniqueness like he did in the 2nd edition of the Icl and other domestic competitions where he simply became a mouth-watering dominant prospect. This is wear an adjustment needs to realised. He is only a valid opener in T20 and nowhere else.
Umar Akmal showed good temperament and maturity along with the new watchful style of Afridi to help Pak cross the line maturely. Now as Sept 26th approaches let the battle of the titan’s excitement unleash in a virtual knock out scenario.
I must also mention that the shortness of the tournament is all but positive as it maintains the excitement and competitiveness throughout rather then dragging on pointlessly for several weeks. The introduced structure makes each match seem full of meaning.
September 25th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Stani, we thought about breaking the 194 ourselves. In fact it’s what Tamim was thinking of when he scored his 160 in that match. But then we realized that Anwar might be happy if it was a Deshi getting it. So we gave it to an obscure Zimbabwean. Put him on the map as well. We are generous like that.
September 25th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Purn,
154 actually….and what was he thinking when got out?
If you wanted to be generous and put Coventry on the map (no pun intended…Coventry, a place in England, for the slow ones), why didnt you just give him 6 sixes in an over or something?
September 25th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
He was thinking let’s give them a chance to win this at least. We are going to take the cup anyway.
Because we don’t copy Pixie’s like Broad. He can have that glory all to himself. Along with that Dutch guy.
September 26th, 2009 at 2:13 am
Forget the depleted Windies side. Today’s match is the best against India.
September 26th, 2009 at 10:24 am
A meaningful much anticipated neighbourhood rivalry! National pride and patriotism at stake. Aren’t those ever so wonderful things! Fasten your seatbelts, may the contest commence ………
September 26th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Posh, Maz,
Should be a fascinating contest. West Indies are doing well against Australia at the moment (99-1) so this game is becoming increasingly more important for India. Should they lose today they’ll be chasing one spot along with Aus, and WI.