Pakistan vs. Kenya, facts and trivia – World Cup 2011
Pakistan and Kenya are all to set to lock their horns in the 6th World Cup game at Hambantota, Sri Lanka.
Pakistan will be opening their World Cup campaign at Hambantota, while Kenya enters this match on the back of a 10-wicket drubbing by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754.
Pakistan and Kenya have played five One Day Internationals (ODIs) against each other with Pakistan winning all the encounters. In these 5 matches Kenya have gone past 150 only once.
This is going to be first World Cup competition between the two sides as they have never been head to head in the mega event.
Hambantota has hosted only one match where http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Canada-c748 was just able to get 122.
In Kenya’s match against New Zealand, the last five Kenyan wickets fell for only 10 runs, with all wickets being taken by Kiwis’ pacemen.
Hambantota looks to be a typical Subcontinent batting track and a run feast is expected.
However, given the history between Pakistan and Kenya, the team winning the toss may elect to field and try to expose the relative batting frailties of either side. The new Hambantota ground in Sri Lanka has big boundaries so there will be a lot of energy
required to hit the ball out of the park.
Moreover, the wind will be a key factor too as it will depend on the direction of wind which area is favorable for shot-making.
Pakistan has http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972, Ahmad Shehzad, Abdur Rehman, Asad Shafiq, Junaid Khan, Saeed Ajmal, Umar Akmal, Wahab Riaz and Umar Akmal, are playing their first World Cup.
On the other hand, Kenya has 6 players in their 15 member squad, who are participating in the World Cup for the first time. So, it makes Kenya a more experienced side than Pakistan, as far as the mega event is concerned.
Ahmad Shehzad and Misbah will be key players for both sides and it is interesting that both players have never been in a World cup before.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 has the record of hitting the most sixes in ODIs while Shoaib Akhtar, the quickest bowler in the world, is also in the side. Shahid Afridi has been a part of three World Cups, but averages 11 with the bat and nearly 40 with the ball.
Pakistan’s captain made his international debut against Kenya, however, he did not get a chance to bat in that game.
Pakistani players don’t have a bad record on Sri Lankan grounds as Umar Akmal gave his best performance {102*} in Sri Lanka.
Abdul Razzak performed well in 1999 World Cup. He picked up 13 wickets and scored 170 runs in Pakistan's run to the final.
Shoaib Akhtar is also one of the successful bowlers with his 27 wickets in his 16 World Cup games.
Younis http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Khan-c71319 is yet to make any kind of impression at the highest stage. In eight matches, his highest score is 32.
Kenya’s side has both experienced and young energetic players.
Steve Tikolo appeared in every one of Kenya's World Cup matches and scored 65 against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in their first game in 1996. Like Tikolo, Thomas Odoyo is another veteran player, who has participated in all of Kenya's four World Cup campaigns, with 20 wickets
and 361 runs in World Cups.
Pakistan did lose to England in a warm-up match, but should have no problems against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 are favourites to win but Kenya would not give up easily so one could expect a competitive match ahead.
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