Pakistan v Australia A, One-day matches, Adelaide

[Maranello]

Pakistan beat Australia A by 13 runs earlier today to win the first of their two one-day matches. A close finish in the end, with Australia A collapsing from a good position towards the end.

Full scorecard and Cricinfo bulletin:

Brad Haddin's sparkling century could not prevent a fighting comeback from the Pakistanis in the VB Series warm-up match at Adelaide Oval. Twice the tourists' cause seemed lost, but they regrouped through Abdul Razzaq's blistering 89 off 61 balls, and then sealed the match with three wickets to Rana Naved-ul-Hasan.

Finally some cheer for Pakistan after the weak results in the Test series, if only the likes of Abdul Razzaq batted like this in the Tests, the results would have been quite different!

Pakistan played a near full-strenght team, with the previously injured Inzamam and Abdul Razzaq returning to the side, though they were without the still-injured Shoaib Akhtar (replaced by Azhar Mehmood). Other notable ommissions from the Paksitan team were the indispensable Shoaib Malik (replaced by Muhammad Hafeez) and Younis Khan (replaced by Yasir Hameed). Muhammad Sami and Danish Kaneria are not part of the one-day squad in any case, and were replaced by Rao Iftikhar Anjam and Afridi. Interesting experiment to send the young keeper Akmal at no.3, which did not quite come off but I would like us to stick with that through the VB series, the boy needs some batting time out there.

Australia A were led by Brad Haddin, and had most of the notable candidates for Test selection, eg Hodge, the two Hussey brothers, Tait, Thornely, White and Hauritz.

Teams:

Australia A: R Hopes, *+BJ Haddin, BJ Hodge, DJ Hussey, MEK Hussey, DJ Thornely, CL White, DG Wright, NM Hauritz, ML Lewis, SW Tait

Pakistan: Salman Butt, Yasir Hameed, +Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez, *Inzamam-ul-Haq, Yousuf Youhana, Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi, Azhar Mahmood, Naved-ul-Hasan, Rao Iftikhar Anjam.

[Shaka]

Well Razzaq's performances in the tests never blinded me to the fact that he is a very destructive ODI batsman. Doesn't surprise me in the least that he still performs in limited over circket, it suits his game much more. My only question mark would be whether his bowling will be able to contain the top Aussie batsmen. They haven't paid him much respect so far, and he needs to compliment his line and length with the movement he seems to get far too rarely these days.

Interesting to see Mohammed Hafeez get 62. Last time i saw him was when he was struggling to score as an opener against the Bengali medium pacers in Pakistan. I wasn't too impressed to be honest. He's a very decent off spinner though and a good fielder.

[Maranello]

Shaka I think Hafeez struggles against any movement from medium pacers etc, does not have the technique to play the new ball (he is not alone in our team on that front!) but otherwisehe he is a decent flat-track batsman, as good as (if not better than) the likes of Saleem Elahi and Misbah etc. What he does have is a very strong personality, a fighting temperament and a good cricket brain; he did well in one of the games when Pakistan last toured England a couple of years ago, and at 22 was one of the youngest captain in Pakistani first-class cricket. I would rate Malik (if one can discount the problems with his action) as a more effective ODI off-spinner than Hafeez. No doubt they are both excellent fielders.

[Seamer]

To me, this game was classic Pakistan. 5-117 after 30 overs and looking terrible. Then a turn of brilliance and suddenly Pakistan look like world beaters finishing on 8-279 after 50. Australia A 4-254 after 45 overs and Pakistan looking terrible. Then suddenly a turn of brilliance, Pakistan takes 6 -12 and wins. This is why i love watching Pakistan and watch them every chance i can! You never know whats around the corner when you play those guys. Unpredictable, enigmatic, terrible, brilliant! Unfortunately never consistant which is the only thing holding Pakistan back.

[Shaka]

Actually I rate Hafeez's bowling more. Malik's batting is a lot more destructive. I haven't really seen enough of Hafeez as a batsman, but against the BD bowlers he was struggling badly. Maybe he likes the ball coming onto the bat more. I don't remember him doing too well against England, and from what I remember it was a very weak England side. I'll be interested to see how he does with the bat here. Aussies or the Windies won't take any prisoners. I don't doubt Hafeez's competitiveness, I am just not sure he has what it takes as a batsman. We shall see!

[Maranello]

Seamer, excellent points. Was this match televised in Aus? But you are right, the unpredictability makes Pakistan fun to watch, but also makes life for its followers much harder! Imran Khan was the only person to have ever made us into a consistently high achieving team, and this is the biggest challenge faced by Woolmer. We have some posts on this topic of consistency in a specific thread here, do share your views too!


Shaka - Hafeez's first-class, List A limited overs and ODI (22 matches to date) stats would indicate that you are right, and he is more of a bowling all-rounder, with much better bowling results than with the bat. However, not sure how he himself perceives his own strenghts, since he does tend to open or bat at the top of the order both domestically and for Pakistan, and even domestically, seems to bowl himself as a part-time or support bowler in 4 day cricket.

Given his apparent strength in one-day type bowling, if he can work a bit on his batting with Woolmer there is no reason why he cannot become a very useful ODI player.

On the England point, it was actually a full-strength England ODI team, and as I recalled, Hafeez scored a 69 in the first match as the opener (which Pakistan won), bowled 10 overs for a wicket and he got the man of the match award. Not bad at all. Did not pass 20 in the next two games though.

[Shaka]

Ok thanks for that Maranello. A score of 69 is pretty good in England, especially as he was playing as an opener. England's attack back then, led by Gough and Anderson, was not quite as strong as it is now though. incidentally looking through the score card from that match I see that Umar Gul played that game before getting injured. 7 overs for 33 runs and 2 wickets. Has he been a big miss or what!

[Maranello]

Good point about Umar Gul. And you know what, I have just checked the scorecards, he was dropped for the next two matches (as Akhtar was back)... unbelievable! We have one good line and length bowler, who can get movement in the air and uniquely for Pakistanis, off the wicket... we are playing in England... and we drop him after he has done very well in the first ODI. That's our selection for you...

[Shaka]

It's not just our selectors Maranello. If you go on the other site there's fans who still can't take to Gul because he doesn't bowl at 100mph. Just overlook the facts that he gets lift, seam and movement and has a very impressive record to date...unbelievable! Some fans are so dense I sometimes think they deserve the performances they get.

[Rahul_Dravid_is_No.1]

lol again pakistan pull it out of the bag in the ODI match. with 2 unpredictable forces in this VB series 9windies and pakistan) this is going to be a really interesting ODI series! cant wait

when is the first match? tomorow?