A Fan's Insight Into The 4th ODI at DSC

Perfect view of the stadium is displayed below. Taken by HR.

HR aka Harry was lucky enough to be able to witness the 4th ODI at DSC which Pakistan narrowly won by 1 wicket thanks to a brilliant knock from the number 3 batsmen Younis Khan who scored a patient and hard working 73 as Pakistan successfully chased down 275 with 1 wicket and 1 ball to spare for the second time in the series. Without further a do here is Harry's insight.

http://www.cricinfo.com/pakistan-v-south-africa-2010/engine/match/461569.html

Watching the match at DSC was a great experience, the crowd was fantastic but what you see is the inside picture, shit happens outside the stadium, you gotta park your car 1 KM away from the stadium because there is no space anywhere near the stadium they have made special arrangements for VIPs and Royals who get the best parking space close to the stadium, after a walk of 30 minutes once you reach the stadium doors and if you have bought your tickets already from somewhere outside the stadium then it would take you 1 hour to enter the Cheap stands, but if you will buy the ticket from the stadium then it will take you like 2 hours to enter the stadium because as you know Pakistanis does not know what a queue is or for that matter they don't know what manners are or what discipline is. Well, in the last few series the crowd was less because the tickets were very expensive, they have reduced the price of the tickets by 50% and that’s the reason you saw this much crowd in there. The crowd was really loud and supported both the teams which I really liked about them, every South African boundary or good shot was really appreciated, but when Pakistan was batting then for every single the crowd gave a roar, Shoaib Akhtar still got it! People love him each time he runs in to bowl the crowd goes crazy and it seems they just came to watch him bowl and Afridi bat, I wonder what cricket will be without them. I also observed the teams, Pakistan fielders were really all over the place, the thing is that Afridi does not settles the field always, most of the time it is the bowler who does this job, I even noticed some fielders yelling kahan jaon Kahan jaon, Fawad Alam was very vocal and used to direct the fielders which was nice to see, Afridi was really not doing much in this, he also over bowled, shouldn't have really bowled 10 over's because he knew he wasn't performing well and being captain does not mean you become a dictator and do what you want. Whereas on the other hand Smith was really great to see, he seems to be not playing cricket but in a battle or something because the way he was giving those speeches during intervals was really amazing to see and the way he showed his disappointment at bad fielding was really a learning experience. During the innings break and the start of the match, I saw the South Africans and the Pakistanis practicing, the difference was really evident, Saffers were using modern techniques and nets and some really cool equipment during practice, whereas Pakistanis where scattered all over the place no proper practice Younis bhai practicing alone, some players just running around catches being practiced but really not up to the mark compared to the South Africans and yes Harry Potter did his magic to help Pakistan win. (Harry)

Zulqarnain Haider scored 19* to guide Pakistan to victory and keep the series alive as its now sitting very nicely poised at 2-2 with one to go and all to play for as they say. The series decider will be on Monday at 11am GMT. It's about time Pakistan win a meaningful ODI series after such a long time. Will Monday be the day this happens?

Pak vs. Bangla Review By HR

Pakistan has started their campaign with a win against Bangladesh by 21 runs, Pakistan started with announcing the squad 3 hours before the start of the match surprisingly dropping Mohamad Asif from the starting XI. Shahid Afridi won the toss and elected to bat first on a decent batting track, a foundation of 142 runs for the opening wicket was posted with Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal scoring 73 each of 46 and 55 balls respectively. Bangladesh usually depends on their spinners to get them wickets but unfortunately for them they failed miserably against Pakistan who are considered to be good players of spin bowling, some wayward bowling from Bangladesh helped Pakistan post a healthy total of 172 runs. Salman Butt answered his critics well with his batting that got him the Man of the match award as well, scoring at a good strike rate of 158.69 proving that T20 is not only the game of hitters and unorthodox batsmen.

Bangladesh started their chase by loosing Imrul Kayes in the very first over who faced just 2 deliveries for his duck, Mohamad Aamer carried on the tradition of taking wicket in his very first over of a tournament. Sooner losing Tamim Iqbal it was all upon the shoulders of Mohamad Ashraful and Captain Shakib Al Hasan. The pair batted brilliantly and proved to be very dangerous for Pakistan, they played some outstanding shots in their stand of 91 runs which was finally broken by Mohamad Sami who got rid of Shakib Al Hasan by getting him caught in the deep, Bangladesh never came out of that blow and Mohamad Ashraful followed soon to the pavilion. Bangladesh fell 21 runs short of Pakistan total, Mohamad Sami ended up with figures of 3-29 whereas Mohamad Aamer was very economical and went on to take 2 wickets by just giving 16 runs in his quota of 4 overs. However Pakistan always missed a 3rd seamer especially when Ashraful and Shakib were batting.

Pakistan will be playing their 2nd league game today against a strong Australian side that starts at 13:30 local, 17:30 GMT.

The Proteas are in for a challenge, 2010 ICC T20 WC South Africa Preview.

South Africa: Graeme Smith (captain), Jacques Kallis, Loots Bosman, Johan Botha, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Rory Kleinveldt, Charl Langeveldt, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn, Juan Theron, Roelof van der Merwe.


Blessed with six All-Rounders Graeme Smith men will take field on the 2nd of May at the Beausejour Stadium in St Lucia looking forward to beat former T20 champions India, South Africa are seeded 3rd in their group along with the mysterious team of Afghanistan and the Capable Indian side.

We need to rewind a little bit and have look back at some history, we understand that South Africa has always performed well in the initial stages of the tournament with the 2003 world cup being an exception where there captains and coach carelessness took hold of them. We start from 1992 when the saga of bad luck struck them first and since then they have been unable to recover. South Africa needed 22 runs from 13 balls when rain intervened and when the play resumed in order to progress they were asked to score 22 runs off one ball as per the laws of cricket in 1992. Favorites in the 1996 world cup but knocked out in the quarterfinals. They performed quite well in the 1999 world cup and qualified for the Semis, in came the semi finals and the picture of Allan Donald being running out became one of the most iconic pictures of cricket history and a nightmare for The Proteas. In the 2003 cricket world cup they misunderstood the calculations in a rain affected game, what a way to choke that was an act of lack of knowledge despite playing for many years was never expected from Shaun Pollock.

They were ranked number one in ODI rankings in the 2007 world cup, the tournament went on and enjoying the ride were The Proteas up until the semi finals where they met once again The Australians, scoring just 149 while batting first was too less a target for the OZs to chase down and once again the dream of a South African World Cup victory was shattered by a rookie Shaun Tait.

Bad form was the reason of defeat in the 2007 T20 WC, but they still had another crack in the 2009 T20 WC. Unbeaten till the semi finals where they met the unpredictable Pakistan side of which Nasser Hussain has already said/warned that on that day it was the Pakistan to fear of, Pakistan gave South Africa a testing target of 150 runs and everything was going well for The Proteas when Jacque Kallis along with JP Duminy were marching towards the total but a defeat by a narrow margin of 7 runs saw them returning back home and once again their semi final opposition this time Pakistan won the world cup, it was the third time this happened where South Africa lost the semi final and the opposition went on to win the world cup with the previous two being ODI world cups of 1999 and 2007.

The Proteas has never been short of talent but somewhere down the line they lose focus, this time around once again they will be the most feared side in the tournament blessed with six All-Rounders, five clean hitters and some quality bowlers, South Africans are there to chase it down to the wire. Juan Theron will be joining the South African squad for the first time in his career, the thing about Juan is that he is a match winner he has won his side many matches with the ball at domestic level, this seamer from the Eastern Cape is the one to watch out for, he is the perfect replacement for the injured Wayne Parnell. Rory Keith Kleinveldt is another unfamiliar face making only his 2nd appearance for South Africa, a guy whose bat speed can destroy any bowling attack but also can destroy a batting line up with his bowling speed, but The Morkels, Steyn, Kallis, Langeveldt and Keith won’t make it easy for him to get into the starting XI neither will the 5 of them make lives easier for each other, its five because the veteran Kallis is an automatic selection for the seamer position.

South Africa are also taking with them Johan Botha and Roelof van der Merwe to fill their spaces in the spin department, these two can bat too and when it comes to T20 they can be called good batsmen. Batting department needs no introduction a strike rate of 150 runs per 100 balls Mr. Loots Bosman will open the innings for The Proteas, he has in company with him Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs, AB Deviliers, Mark Boucher and the veteran Jacques Kallis. All in all it’s one of the most talented side of the tournament and if they are able to keep their focus on and may be have a fair bit of luck it can see them through the Semi Finals and then who knows what they show us when they play in the finals, haven’t seen them in a final or have we? Other then the Knockout cup 1998.

Strengths: All-Round capabilities, fielding.
Weakness: Lose focus in important matches.
Predictions: Final

Key players
Jacques Kallis

AB Deviliers

Dale Steyn

JP Duminy

Graeme Smith



at 16:28 3 comments

A record worth mentioning

Pakistani blind cricket team creates history by chasing a record England score of 438 for 3 and winning by 4 wickets. It was the highest run chase in blind cricket, the match was played in Sharjah.

Final scores were as follows:
Pakistan beat England by four wickets. England 438 for 3 in 40 overs (Nathan Foy 246, Luke Sugg 90, Matt Dean 54) Pakistan 439 for 6 in 38 overs (Amir Ishfaq 120, Abdul Razzaq 57, Muhammad Shahbaz 50, Mohammad Jameel 59n.o Muhammad Zafar 40n.o).

Pakistani Players and Their List of Controversies

Here is a small list of our great players & there tiny controversies:

1. Shahid Afridi = Ball tampering
2. Mohamad Yousuf = ICL, Infighting
3. Shoaib Malik = Playboy, Infighting
4. Kamran Akmal = Match Fixing, Infighting
5. Umar Akmal = Faking Injury
6. Nasir Jamshed = Cheating in exam (L0L)
7. Imran Farhat = Sifarish
8. Faisal Iqbal = Sifarshi
9. Fawad Alam = Sleeping till late missing meetings, Discipline
10. Shoaib Akhtar = King of controversies, Clubbing, coach slapping, bad attitude etc
11. Mohamad Asif = Drugs, cocaine, Nandralone don't know wat else
12. Rana Naveed = Match Fixing
13. Younis Khan = Missing, Quitting, Fishing


Please let me know if I have missed something.