Pakistan Tour of England: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Razzaq-c84421 Guide Pakistan to Victory Over Essex
Pakistan played their first Twenty20 match of the England tour against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kent-c802.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 in the semifinal of the T20 World Cup. With the services of Umar Gul and Shoaib Akhtar in the fast bowling area and Saeed Ajmal in spin, their bowling attack is second to none. With the inclusion of Gul, they have more strength at the end of innings, as the controlled yorkers by him are unplayable during the last few overs.
The openers gave Pakistan a wonderful start. Butt and the all but forgotten Shahzaib Hasan had first wicket partnership of 84 runs, before Shahzaib, after scoring 49 runs, was caught behind on the ball of veteran http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Grant-c60671 Flower. Butt scored 41 and Kamran Akmal, at one down, scored 27 (from 18 balls). After the dismissal of the 3 top batsmen, Shoaib Malik and Umar Gul put up 75 runs with a run rate of 14 runs per over to score a total of 204 runs in the allocated 20 overs. Umar and Malik scored 38 runs each with a strike rate of more than 200.
Essex started their innings by facing the Rawalpindi Express, Shoaib Akhtar. They couldn’t adjust to his fast bowling, and played very defensive cricket. While saving their wicket against the pace of the world’s fastest bowler, they were preyed by the seam of Abdul Razzaq and their first two wickets fell in his first over, leaving them 5/2 after 2 overs. Razzaq struck again in his second over, clean bolding Matt http://www.senore.com/Cricket/John-Maunders-c1719 put some resistance to the Pakistani attack, but couldn’t sustain the pace of Wahab Riaz, as Maunders was caught behind by Kamran Akmal when the hosts were on 34. Maunders scored 10 runs off 11 balls.
After the pace attack, Essex faced the kings of spin, and they couldn’t negotiate the doosra of Ajmal and Malik, and continued to give their wickets in the hands of the Pakistanis. Only Tim Phillips played an innings of 57 runs which included 33 runs in a 10th wicket stand that separated Pakistanis and victory for 4 overs. Essex was 138/9 at 20 overs, and Pakistan won by an impressive 66 runs.
This is a good victory for Pakistan, who is in drought of victories since the 2009 T20 World Cup. Their opening batsmen played well and scored a decent partnership with continuous support from middle order batsman. Youngsters like Shahzaib and Umar Akmal are the future of Pakistan, and their adjustment to the conditions at England are very necessary, as they will be sharing the load of batting in the absence of Younis and Yousuf, two great middle order batsmen.
Speed star Shoaib Akhter was impressive with the ball; although he couldn’t take any wickets, he gave only 8 runs in his quota of three overs, and that is a positive sign. The return of Umar Gul in the squad is a booster for the visitors, as this will give them more depth in the bowling line-up, as he can be destructive in crucial overs, with the capability to bowl six yorkers in a row. Wahab Riaz was also in the side and he bowled beautifully.
Pakistan will be facing http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Northamptonshire-c824 tomorrow in Northampton. This will give them a good opportunity to familiarize themselves with the local conditions before playing two Twenty20 matches against Australia and two Test matches against the top ranking side England. Afridi’s fitness will be crucial for the upcoming matches, as his natural leading skills are necessary for inculcating a fighting spirit in the team.
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