Stani Army

Pakistan take the last spot of the super eights with a very comfortable win over the Netherlands.

Though Pakistan did reach a total of 175, the batting was not as easy as it seemed. The Dutch came back very well in the middle of the innings with Pakistan taking 43 balls to go from the 50 to 100. Credit to the Dutch, the boundaries dried up and Pakistan were left nervous, needing to bowl well to secure their last eight place.

The Pakistan fielding was still poor. Why Salman Butt is still being persisted with I do not know. It’s the same old issue of players being picked because of seniority. He was guilty of a dropped catch again just like in the previous game whilst all the players went for catches looking like they did not believe they’ll catch it. When Borren hit the ball in the air for the catch Butt did actually take, the silence from the rest of his team mates rather than shouting “catch it”, told us everything.

Another mistake by Younis was not to take off the injured Tanvir for a sub. Why not bowl him out and bring on a sub fielder or take him off without bowling him out? Tanvir let one four go and possibly two half chances which, against a better side, could have cost us the game.

As we said on Stani Army yesterday, its the spinners that made the difference as much for their lack of pace as for their spin as the Dutch had to use their feet and so it proved. A world class performance from

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Cricket can be a great leveller. Stani Army is not the biggest fan of Stuart Broad. His attitude on the pitch, especially to officials, for someone his age and with his lack of talent is very bad. Then consider the fact that daddy is a ICC match referee and Stewy’s indiscipline becomes even more surprising.

His last over against the Netherlands was lovely to watch. Four run-out attempts (three Broad’s) and a dropped catch. Even in the end, Broad just had to hold onto the ball which would have forced a super over in which England must have been confident of getting it right.

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