Pakistan vs. India: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972 unfazed by history – Semi-final, ICC World Cup 2011
Star Pakistan middle-order batsman Misbah-ul-Haq has claimed that he was not worried about what had happened in the past against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750, and the focus was on the current situation.
Pakistan have never defeated India in a World Cup match and the archrivals will be up against each other in a semi-final clash of the ICC World Cup 2011 on 30 http://www.senore.com/Cricket/March-c74391, 2011.
Misbah said, “You can't just stick to the past. Every game is a new game, it's not like this game is important because of that match. To us every game is special. This one especially; this is the World Cup, it is a semi-final. I really want to do well.”
Compared to the Pakistan batsmen, India have scored the bulk of runs in this tournament. The Men in Blue have scored five centuries until now and five of their batsmen have scored more than Pakistan’s highest run getter Umar Akmal.
However, Misbah claimed, “It's really a plus for teams whose batsmen are in form, are scoring centuries and are in the top 20 run-scorers, but winning is important. If you score a fifty or even a timely twenty or thirty that is vital for a victory, then
that's good enough for the team.”
Pakistan have not played a single match of the ICC World Cup 2011 in India. They have played most of their matches in Sri Lanka whereas a couple of games were in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747. The semi-final encounter with the hosts will be the first chance for the Men in
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Green-c60723 to play in batting friendly conditions.
The vice captain of the Pakistan team stated that one of the reasons behind not scoring the bulk of runs was playing in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He stated that it has been hard for the batsmen to score runs on the slow and spin-friendly tracks.
Although none of the Pakistan batsmen has been able to score a ton in this tournament until now, they have made life hard for their oppositions. Only one http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755. However,
Taylor was lucky in that match, as he was dropped by wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal twice on nought and four.
Other than that, bowling has been terrific for the Men in Green. Captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 and fast bower Umar Gul have not made life easy for their opponents and will test the Indian batting to the maximum on Wednesday.
On the other hand, India struggled to defend massive totals posted by their strong batting line-up. The home team failed to defend 338 and 296 against England and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 in their group matches. However, they have found some stability in their bowling
courtesy Zaheer Khan and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ravichandran-Ashwin-c84208.
The clash between India and Pakistan will be a battle of nerves, but the better team on the day will advance to the final of the mega event to face either http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 or New Zealand.
Tags: