Pakistan vs. Kenya – match 6 of ICC World Cup 2011
Pakistan vs. Kenya: Pakistan are all set to kick off their World Cup campaign today against minnows, Kenya.
However, Kenya has already started their World Cup campaign against New Zealand and lost their first match by a landslide.
The match between Pakistan and Kenya will be played at Hambantota International Cricket Stadium, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758.
This will be the sixth encounter between these two teams. Pakistan convincingly won on all five previous occasions. Last time Pakistan beat Kenya was in a 2004 ICC Champions Trophy in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c749 by a convincing margin of 7 wickets at
Edgbaston.
Pakistan will be playing its first One Day International (ODI) after a victorious ODI series against the Kiwis in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754. This victory has come just at the right time when Pakistan desperately needed a win. Their success in New
Zealand definitely boosted the spirits in the Pakistani camp. The morale of the Men in Green is very high and they are resolute to win the title.
Pakistan have a marvelous blend of youth and experience in all aspects of the game. In batting they have very talented and explosive batsmen. At the opening spot they have two very talented youngsters, Muhammad Hafeez, and, Ahmad Shehzad,
who can demolish any opposition bowling line-up with their blistering stroke play.
In the middle order they have veteran, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972, who will play a key role throughout the mega event. These two are considered as the backbone of Pakistan’s batting line-up.
Besides these two, Pakistan have two very talented and explosive batsmen http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kamran-Akmal-c70122 in the middle order as well.
In the lower middle order they have match winning all-rounders, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Abdul-Razzaq-c41623, who can take their team home single handedly. They can be a nightmare for any bowler. If they click on a particular day, Pakistan are
almost guaranteed to win.
In bowling they possess ace pacer, Rawalpindi Express, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Umar-Gul-c94604 can break the toes of his opponents with his in-swinging yorkers.
Besides these two big guns http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Khan-c71319, who is still waiting to make his ODI debut.
The spinners play a very important role on the Subcontinent wickets and Pakistan have some of the most brilliant spin bowlers. In off-spin bowling they have http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Saeed-Ajmal-c2404, who can easily deceive any batsman with his “Doosra”, while Abdur
Rehman is a new find in the field of left-arm slow bowling, who, is very accurate in his line and length and can restrict the batsmen to score freely.
One department Pakistan really need to work on is their ground fielding because a good fielding side can make the difference on batting friendly wickets.
There is also a renowned proverb “catches win matches”. Pakistan will have to take half chances to win the opener of their World Cup campaign.
On the other hand, Kenya is just a novice in the cricketing world. There is no comparison between these two teams. But http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kenya-c752 has caused upsets in the past, when they qualified for the semi final in World Cup 2003.
They have the potential to tease teams such as Pakistan but they are not strong enough to beat such teams. They still need to groom their players in every aspect of the game. Their match form against the Kiwis showed they need to have
a long way to go before they can catch up with Test playing nations.
Kenya’s captain, Steve Tikolo, 39 is the most experienced batsman in their batting line-up. The remaining players are just time part timers. They do not have any dependable batsmen or quality pacers and spinners.
Therefore, Pakistan will have an upper hand in today’s match. They can easily win the match and they should keep an eye on the net run rate, which will play an important role towards the later stages of the coveted mega event.
Tags: