Sunday 27 June 2010

Why Pakistan Might Beat The Aussies In England!

I'm a bit of a father of optimism as you may have noticed by now. Well, Pakistan stand a good chance of beating Australia this summer in the Test series in my view and I am being downright serious. Even with their amazing capability where they amazingly lose from the jaws of victory! Even after their disastrous winless tour of Australia and the continuous losing streak against them. Because, the bottom line is : "Anything is possible with Pakistan cricket;" unfortunately, this analogy is often worse than good.

Series Possibilities:
2-0 to Aussies= unacceptable/poor/shambolic/embarrassing even more
1-1= Perfectly Acceptable/Very reasonable/ I will be happy in other words
2-0 to Pakistan= I will be stunned as I'm sure many of us will be but its not out the window
1-0 to Australia= Average, probably most expected
1-0 to Pakistan= Top result, will be a top achievement considering our lack of....
0-0= Rain is king, but this is very unlikely as you would know even in the UK, the home of rain but in Pakistan, the home of bad light and non-conductive test cricket it would have been a possibility...

WHY Pak May Win:

1) Ashes flashbacks. The last two times Australia have played Test Cricket in England they have lost ; 2005 and 2009
2)Pakistan will most probably have the bigger support.It is supposedly meant to be a "home" series for Pakistan. Certainly fans are expected at both Lords and Headingley with the vast Pakistani population in the UK.You might find me aka Maz there too, do say hi!
3)In contrast, with Australia, Pakistan have phenomenal memories in their minds of England; its where they won the 2009 T20WC after beating the Lankans at Lords on 21/06/09 by 8 wickets. Actually so have Australia; the 1999 WC final where they THRASHED Pakistan, oh who cares; we have the latest glory to savour upon in terms of tournaments played at the UK, yeah its lame but psychologically it all adds up in the end !
4)Australia are out of form and are not playing well at all against England in the ODI series. However, one can argue this would make them more determined to revive their form against the Pakistanis, but we'll certainly fancy our chances against them considering thier most recent international cricket form in England too!
5) Pakistani players have more county cricketing and league cricketing experience which could be useful. This includes the likes of Danish Kaneria, Afridi, Malik, Gul whereas the likes of Azhar Ali and Zulqarnain Haider have played league cricket for a few years now.Therefore, adapting to the conditions shouldn't be a problem at all for quite a few of the players

Overall, I am expecting Pakistan to have a successful summer of cricket, despite the poor selection and absences of YY and YK and hope they are able to put in some top performances to please their supporters, something they were unable to do in Australia this 09/10 winter.Pakistan play their first Test on the 13th of July at Lords.

10 comments:

Freehit said...

Hi BBK,

Pakistan is a very talented and yet a very unpredictable side.However,inspite of the injuries to Australia and the fact that they are doing badly right now against England,I think it will be really tough for them to beat the aussies.
The problem for Pakistan is that team management is pretty poor.Great talents haven't been used properly and hence they underperform.Though I am sure they will fight for sure.

Mayank Jhaveri
Freehit(freehit-cricketanalysis.blogspot.com/)

Stani Army said...

Maz, are you feeling alright?! Stop with the optimism as the Pakistan team will only bring you down with a bump.

Despite all the things that may point to us doing well, the one over-riding factor is that Australia have wiped the floor with us recently. I think we cannot use our unpredictable tag when it comes to us playing the Australians and the recent stats prove it.

I don't think we'll win a single Test. We simply do not have the runs in the team.

Abdullah said...

TJ

Yes our batting is an area of concern but have you been following the current ODI series between England and the Aussies? England have dominated proceedings. Australia are by no means playing their best cricket which should raise our hopes, although Test cricket is a different game!

I think Umar Akmal holds the key in the batting department...

Abdullah said...

Umar Akmal currently in top form with the bat it can be said!

Scored 153 yesterday against Kent CCC and a 50 in the MCC game! Looks to be in good form which is promising! I hope he uses his head more in this series!

Mudassar @ CricketVibe said...

@Maz, well well well, I too think batting is a big big worry. It is bcoz we don't have a test class with us. YK and YY make a lot of difference in test cricket. Umar is great talent but he has a lot to learn specially in his head. Afridi, oh well move on. Malik is hot-cold and nothing more than an odd fifty here and there. what else? Probably Salman Butt and Umar has a lot to do which they probably can't do alone.

So this was one of the most ugliest egoistic decision by bloody Ijaz Butt for not allowing at least Younis.

We might do good in bowling but batting is a very very big concern and you know better about fielding and catching. Only a life time performance from someone can save us. Will it be Afridi? Dammit

PS: Nice theme this time and nice optimism wish it proves like this too.

Abdullah said...

@Mudassar

Yeah, to ignore YK was a thoughtless, idiotic and brainless decision from a real destroyer of Pakistani cricket in Ajaz Butt...

We didn't make the best of selections in the bowling department either.

Sohail Khan
Asad Ali
Sami
Irfan
Raza Hassan

However, our very own friend, Zulqarnain Haider made it to the test squad! But it will be unexpected for him to play in the starting 11 when they take the pitch on the 13th of July at Lords.

Abdullah said...

Those bowlers names who I have listed, some of them should have been included for sure

Purna said...

Maaz, you know, as optimistic as you sound, you may some solid points there. Also, their wonder boy opener Twatto seems to be running out of his great form (I hope) and their middle order is still shit (who are we kidding, Hussey will collapse as soon as he comes to the crease).

Abdullah said...

Purna

Thanks!

So you fancy our chances too!

Abdullah said...

Just for the FACTS:

1) Australia have beaten Pakistan in the last 6 Tests played between the two nations, however they were all based in Aussie land!
2)Australia have won the last 3 T20's played between the two nations
3)Australia have beaten Pakistan in the last 6 ODI's played between them.

I think there is only one clear favourite here........

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