Pakistan v Canada: ICC World Cup 2011 – Waqar Younis wants to maintain focus
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/March-c74391 3 at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
The Men in Green are considered to be the “dark horse” of the tournament. So far they have won both of their opening fixtures.
On the other hand, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Canada-c748 are minnows and will be hoping for an upset.
They’ll try to follow in the footsteps of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ireland-c751, who had defeated the 1992 champions in the 2007 edition of the World Cup, and, have produced the first shocker of this year’s tournament by beating England by three wickets.
Waqar Younis, coach Pakistan cricket team, asserts that they are not taking the minnows lightly he said, “I don't think there is any easy match or one that can be taken lightly. We played well against Sri Lanka, but it's still early days. There are bigger
teams ahead. It's good that we won against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758, but tomorrow's another game and we need to come out and keep the momentum going”.
Shahid Afridi wants his side to give it their best and keep on winning. He hopes that his side can top group A so they can avoid playing in India and they can play the knock-out phase in Sri Lanka or Bangladesh as the conditions in these countries suit
them better.
Afridi concludes, “I want to play in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 because we are completely used to the conditions and in neutral games we would even get the crowd support”.
The Cornered Tigers will most likely experiment with their line-up, left-arm spinner, Abdur Rehman, has picked up an injury and will be rested for the game. Vice-captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, may also be rested as he suffered from a slight hamstring strain. Veteran
bowler, Shoaib Akhtar, is also doubtful for the match as they don’t want to put too much strain on this aging bowler.
Team form
Pakistan’s cricket team is under supreme form, as they defeated Sri Lanka, co-hosts and favourites to lift the 2011 World Cup, in a thrilling encounter on Saturday, February 26. The Men in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Green-c60723 have won four of their last five fixtures.
Canada will go into the match as underdogs. They have lost both games they have played in the World Cup so far. They have won two and lost three of the last five they have featured in.
Key players
Younis Khan has been in good form and he’ll look to build on that. Abdul Razzaq has played just 10 balls in the first two matches. He has been coming in at number eight and he usually don’t have much time to bat but with Misbah being rested he may get a
chance to bat higher in the order. Wahab Riaz will look to inspire with the ball and earn a permanent spot in the playing XI.
Rizwan Cheema played well in the warm-up against England and he’ll be hoping to repeat that performance.
John Davison is the most experienced Canadian cricketer and his team will be expecting him to fire this time around as he failed to score in the first two games.
Pakistan (probable XI):
1 Ahmed Shehzad, 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Kamran Akmal (wicket-keeper), 4 Younis Khan, 5 http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 (captain), 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Shoaib Akhtar/Wahab Riaz.
Canada (probable XI):
1 John Davison, 2 http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Khurram-Chohan-c1791, 10 Harvir Baidwan, 11 Balaji Rao.
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