Group A Discussion

The only way to bat Malinga is to keep on moving either forward or backward in your crease.  Many the yorker won't allows be the same if he keeps on aiming for the blackhole.  Step out now and again, you might meet it on the full, go deep in the crease, you might be able to whip it away, it's something that I've seen Sachin Tendulkar do to him and played him fantastically well.  If you can't do those stuff, then God help you against him, especially when he comes back with the field spread!

Familiar - 64 for 4 Pakistan in 16 overs. I will be surprised if we end up playing the full quota. I think the Ireland match was not the only upset of the tournament - more is on offer.

Here we go. Next upset is on the cards.Shambolic performance by Pakistan. They played sluggish shots,chased wide deliveries. After all it is Pakistani team, we can expect this kind of performances from them. Yup credit goes to Canada for creating a pressure on them.

Not too sure - we can defend this - but that is not the point. You just can't get out on 184 on this track inside 43 overs. And it was more the ordinary batting than extraordinary bowling that did it.

PAK win thanks to another star performance by Afridi with the ball, 14 wickets now for him in 3 games!!!

Never doubted the win, even when CAN were 100 odd for 3 but yes I was not very happy with the way PAK batted, you can get away with it against CAN but not in a KO game against tougher opponents. Hopefully this was that one bad game with the bat and they won't repeat.

That is hoping against the hope Sam. The openers have been exposed and Ahmed Shahzad is likely to sit out and they will strengthen the middle order with Shafiq and play Kamran as an opener. Pakistan should try and finish in the top 2 to make the most of the QF stage.

Originally posted by sam_ahmed No Zuhair, the batting is long and I do not expect them to falter so easily again. Having Younus and Misbah is a big advantage and I think Umer Akmal is finally starting to show some maturity. Also remember Razzaq is there at 8, just in case things go wrong. About the openers I agree that they have been below par, but I have more faith in Shahzad than in Shafiq. There is no point in bringing in another "slow" player in the middle order, Shahzad is fine, has hit two centuries not so long ago, let us give him more time. However, had it been Malik, I'd have preferred him over Shahzad. Still think they made a mistake by leaving him out.

Hmm I hope our batting line up just had a bad day against Canada.

Originally posted by zuhair_abbasi Not really mate. Pakistan will try hard to finish in the top 2 - and whoever Pakistan faces in the QF - wont be that tough. I clearly see Pak in the semis. Anybody's form there on though.

 
problem is that in the other group things are so tight that we do not know which team will fall where. no matter who PAK play I'll be very nervous for that game, I'm more nervous about the quarters than the semis actually.
 
I hope IRE qualify and PAK face them in QF's, surely they won't slip up against them twice in a WC. It can happen if PAK qualify 1st and IRE 4th.

I do not fancy IRE to go through though, it could well be a toss up between ENG and BAN, I'm expecting BAN to come back very hard against ENG now, so ENG's game tomorrow will be very important!

Originally posted by sam_ahmed so SLN-AUS is a washout and although it is going completely unnoticed, SLN have managed just 5 points from 4 games, they now have only 2 games left, one against NZL and one against ZIM. They better be careful.

Im starting to think that it rains more in sri lanka than it does in NZ Interesting hearing Pontings comments on the pitch  saying it was basically "Rolled mud" Was pretty impressed with the amount of turn Jason Krejza got early on and wa looking forward to seeing Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath have a bowl on that pitch.

CAN beat KEN in the battle of minnows, KEN become the first team to get eliminated from the WC. CAN theoretically are still alive!

NZL v PAK tomorrow in what is expected to be a fast surface with some bounce and a tinge of green. I was thinking if PAK should go in with three pacers and drop a batsmen, even going further into the tournament it won't actually be a bad idea. That batsmen unfortunately will have to be Shahzad.

PAK should play to their strength and that is their bowling. Abdur Rahman is a classified all rounder and he coming in at 8 and Razzaq promoted to 6 is not a bad idea at all. What I am saying is that the following line up will give PAK a good balance and I will feel safe playing this unit because I know that this unit is capable of defending anything.

Hafeez
Kamran
Younus
Misbah
Umer Akmal
Razzaq
Afridi
Abdur Rahman
Wahab Riaz
Gul
AKhtar.

Moreover Riaz and Gul can bat, it is unlikely that one extra batsmen will win you games, I think PAK should go with this come the KO's. it will give them more options with the ball and just a gut feeling that the team will be better this way.

 I doubt if they'll do though! :(


Edited by sam_ahmed - 07 March 2011 at 6:33pm

Yup Sam, this lineup looks strong.Betting and fielding is a big worry for Pakistan now. We are dependent on two people, Afridi in bowling and Misbah in batting and this is not a good sign. We can't afford to rely on only these two specially in case of batting. Other batsmen have to come good now. We need solid opening partnership against NZ but this is not looking possible even today because according to news they are going with same openers(Ahmad and Hafiz). I hope that these two openers click this time.

Edited by Amal - 08 March 2011 at 4:29am

Originally posted by Amal Yup Sam, this lineup looks strong.Betting and fielding is a big worry for Pakistan now.

    Amal , I'm sure this is a typo , but it did make me laugh !!

Zuhair , with 6 points in the bag will that give Pakistan plenty of confidence to just go out there and win , or make them complacent and revert to the bad old ways ?

Ross Taylor looks nervous as already! (still in the sheds I know)9/1 after 2 ovas... I'm not feeling to confident!

Edited by 1Daz - 08 March 2011 at 9:11am