Lahore Eagles will give a tough time to Sialkot Stallions, believes Manzoor Elahi – Cricket News Update
Manzoor Elahi, the coach of Lahore Eagles and former Test cricketer, is not bothered about facing Sialkot Stallions in the semi-final of the Faysal Bank T20 Tournament 2011 and believes that his team has the ability to match the brilliance of the Stallions.
Lahore Eagles and Sialkot Stallions will be up against each other in the first semi-final of the event at the National Stadium Karachi on the 1st of October, 2011.
The Stallions are considered the best team of the domestic cricket of Pakistan since the last eight years as they have won this illustrious tournament five times in a row. They are led by former Pakistan captain, Shoaib Malik and have the services of Test
cricketers like Imran Nazir, Rana Naved ul Hasan and Abdur Rehman. On top of that, Sialkot have some extra-ordinary domestic players in their ranks like Sarfraz Ahmed, Shahid Yousuf, Ali Khan and Raza Hasan.
Whereas, the Eagles are considered the weaker team of Lahore but they also have some Test cricketers in their ranks like Imran Farhat, Taufeeq Umar, Azhar Ali and Adnan Akmal.
Majority of the cricket analysts and fans are of the opinion that Sialkot will storm into the final of the tournament by crushing the Eagles.
However, the coach of Eagles is very confident that his team is going to give a tough time to the Stallions.
Manzoor said, "We have nothing to be worried about, we are ready for them and there's nothing to be afraid of. It's eleven versus eleven at the end of the day. I've told my players to enjoy the match, don't get overawed by the opposition and concentrate
on their own game-plan.”
Sialkot’s strength is its bowling line-up but Manzoor believes that his batsmen would be able to tackle the likes of Rana Naved, Sarfraz Ahmed and the spinners.
“We've analysed the Sialkot bowling line up and I feel we can upset their rhythm. I've looked at the bowlers for Sialkot and I feel that our batsmen can get on top of them. They (Sialkot) have some very good players in their side but they are not invincible,”
he added.
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