Pakistan v West Indies - Brisbane

[Shaka]

Originally Posted by Rahul_Dravid_is_No.1

if afridi manages to just mistime one shot and it dosnt go all the way, he should be out. hopefully

I was talking about Afridi's bowling. I don't think they've played much against it and he'll be all over them like a rash

[Shaka]

I didn't realise the game was actually starting at 9am. I now revise my opinion and think it's good that we are bowling first.

[Pete]

Shoaib's injured again, hamstring trouble.

[Shaka]

Pakistan once again causing themselves more trouble than the opposition. Hinds dropped off a simple chance at slip by Azhar which would have given a crucial early wicket and Shoaib limping off with his customary injury after bowling barely 3 overs. I feel a bit sorry for Rana who deserved a wicket. One thing I have noticed though is that Pakistani fast bowlers use their main wicket taking ball as a stock delivery (inswing to the left-hander). They should use that weapon more sparingly otherwise it's effect is negated.

[Zainub]

Originally Posted by Pete

Shoaib's injured again, hamstring trouble.

Yawn! Tell me something new, he's always injuired or hurt or ill...I don't know what the problem with him is, but I seriously haven't come across a person who frustrates me more.

I think it was a good effort by our bowlers, being one man down, to restict the Windies to 273-5, when at one stage with Lara and Sarwan batting they probably looked like getting a lot more. Naved ul Hassan bowled well with the new ball as well as in his other spell late in the innings - probably didn't deserve to go for five and over, and should have taken at least one more wicket had that catch been taken. His dismissal of Lara was particularly impressive: short one, banged in, Lara not expecting it was in an awkward sort of position and couldn't bail out of the shot, result it balooned to Hafeez at about point, or backward of it just. Shahid Afridi was brilliant. Period. To go for less than 4 an over when the team has conceeded a total in excess of 270 runs was a valuable contribution, and once again, showed, why he such in important member of our one-day outfit. Abdul Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood and Mohammad Hafeez all bowled all right without showing any sort of penetration. With Mohammad Hafeez not scoring any runs again in this match, it seems we are under the inevitable situation of picking him just for his offies, since Malik cannot bowl, those restrictions on him not being allowed to bowl have really hampered us from selecting our most balanced 11 one feels. The fast bowling lacked bite, I don't think we can beat Australia with an attack comprising Mahmood Razzaq and Rana, we need Shoaib to be a fit and running, which is unlikely at least for the meanwhile, for his injury looked serious to me from first sight, perhaps we should be considering giving a game to Rao Iftikhar or Khalil at the expense of Azhar Mahmood - I will not want to get rot of Naved from my team.

The batting, continued to carry on the form it showed in Hobart - the innings followed pretty much the same trend: quick wickets in the early part of the innnings (Butt was cleaned up by a beauty from Dillon for 10, and Mohammad Hafeez made 2 before becoming Dillon's 2nd victom, we were in significant trouble at 36-2) consolidation, rebuilding and then some agression in the middle (Shoaib Malik batted once again with the same measure of fluency as he has been displaying for much of last season and before that, and made 60 at a run a ball, as he and Akmal add 123 for the 3rd wicket partnership), and than controled finishing in the end. Akmal strolled to 124 of just 125 balls before being caught by Lara playing that shot once too often, it was a brilliant innings from the keeper batsmen nevertheless, and it will give most of the journalists in Pakistan, who have been super highly critical of his promotion to the opening slot, and to those to claim Moin Khan should still be a part of this side. To follow up with a hundred after a near perfect display with the gloves earlier in the day, not to mention a breathtaking catch to dismiss the dangerous Ricardo Powell, he has now made it even more clear, if it wasn't in the past, that as far as the wicket keeping job is concerned, for Pakistan, he is the man for the future. About time I think for the likes of Khan and Latif to gracefully retire . Credit must go to Woolmer and Inzi here too, they backed his potential, and though its still early days as as far as his position as an opener in the long terms in concerned, they probabaly do deserve a mention here.

Inzi remained not out on 68 in the end, (typically sublime innings from the big man again, and its great to see him back in form) alongside Youhanna who managed to progress to 9 of 22 balls as we won 3 overs to spare, this was a comprehensive victory, our first victory against an international side in this tour - this surely will do a lot of good to the team confidence, and increase our chances of making it to the final.

ps: I'm just wondering, what it is that makes bowlers like Abdul Razzaq and Rana Naved ul Hassan such affective bowlers inl limited overs cricket, the former boasting of nearly 200 ODI wickets, yet they are un unknown and unrated entities in test cricket?

pps: good to see a decent crowd in for matches not involving the home team.

[Rahul_Dravid_is_No.1]

nice match summary Zainub!

I said around 270 would be enough, turns out i was very wrong. pakistan batted very well, most noteably akmal and malik. deserved the win. pakistan are a very well balanced ODI unit, although it hurts me to say it. you got guys in all departments covering all necessary roles.
Honestly, before the match, who would have predicted akmal to be man of the match? he did very well.

what i want to know is, why wasnt Bravo playing ? we should have stuck with this guy, our bowling looked much more lacklustre without him. alsoi more importantly, whats happened to fidel edwards, tino best, corey colleymore and ravi rampaul?!?!?! they would make our bowling much more effective. are they all injured or something?

Highlights for me have to be gayle's innings, kamran's innings and dillon's sweet sweet yorker to Butt. i never saw kamran's catch of powell, supposed to be class though

[Shaka]

You summed it all up quite well there Zainub. A crucial win because it has allowed us to make our mistakes without costing points. Quite a lot learned from this game, one of the critical points for me being that we should get Kaneria out to Australia asap. With our seam attack quite limited, another spinner, especially a wicket-taking one would be very handy. It was definitely Afridi and Hafeez who caused the Windies to stumble mid-innings with their spin bowling. Windies batsmen didn't look comfortable at all.

Rana bowled very well and his figures don't reflect how dangerous he was today. He was consistently hitting speeds of 140km which is pretty sharp by any standards. My one criticism which I mentioned earlier, is that his most dangerous ball - swinging in to the left hander - is used as a stock ball and loses some of it's shock value as a result.

Batting was a breeze with Hafeez at no 3 being the only concern. With Shoaib Malik having scored well in nearly every match he's played for us there, it's quite annoying to see us losing another quick wicket at one down. This is to accomodate Shoaib Malik, but effectively the bowling suspension on Malik is costing us the use of a quality batsman. The obvious solution would be to move Hafeez down the order but he'd be of little use there as he just doesn't hit hard enough. To get the most out of our main batsmen, Inzimam and Youhanna we might need to consider it anyway. At the moment they are coming in when half the overs have gone.

Kamran Akmal - great to see the lad come of age and a big hundred will have cemented his place and given him a huge confidence boost. Super keeper as well, and it's great to see the faith put in him being rewarded. He will have silenced those critics for good now surely. I have liked his hard-hitting style since the first time I saw him, but he's really grown into a proper batsman in Australia, capable of hitting proper scores rather than a breezy 20-30.

West Indies looked very sterile with that attack. It's difficult to see them having much impact against Australia, and if we bring Kaneria into the squad I don't see them winning against us either. There might also be a case for bringing Sami back as well with Shoaib's injury, but I would let him rest a while longer yet. As for Shoaib, while he will be a miss, in a way it's a relief he's out of the picture. At least we know we'll get 10 overs from a fit and healthy bowler in his absence. Having 11 fit guys gives a shot to the team in itself.

[Pete]

Hafeez has been reported for a suspect bowling action by the two umpires.

[Shaka]

Has Kamran Akmal been reported for scoring a suspect century yet?

[Maranello]

LOL...He will be soon, what else do you expect from the "excellent" and "unbiased" Aussie umpires