Pakistan's tour to England: Pakistan beat All-star MCC team
The Pakistan cricket team is gearing up for the gruelling tour of England and their first warm-up game against the star-studded Marleybourn Cricket Club (MCC) team at Lords proves that the men in green are in with a chance. However, the Pakistanis only won by a narrow margin of 6 runs, which proves that there is ample room for improvement.
Shahid Afridi won the toss and elected to bat first. Openers Salman Butt and Shahzaib Hassan vindicated Afridi’s decision with a blistering start with 53 brisk runs in the first 5 overs. Shahzaib was the first to go after scoring 34 runs from just 19 balls with 6 fours and a six. The opener was caught by Chaminda Vaas off the bowling of Querl.
Kamran Akmal was next in but could not impress much, the wicketkeeper was sent back after scoring just 2 runs. Akmal was caught by Vaas on the bowling of Muhammad Nabi.
Salman Butt followed suit after he was dismissed for 22 runs from 27 balls with just a single boundary. The opening left-hander was caught by Hamid off the bowling of Harris.
Umar Akmal and Fawad Alam then put together a 28 run partnership for the 4th wicket before Fawad was trapped plum in front of the stumps by Harris after scoring just 14 runs from 23 balls.
Captain Shahid Afridi walked in to join Umar Akmal in the middle. Despite the captain’s presence at the pitch, Umar continued to slash hard at anything remotely wide, and pounced on every short ball.
The pair put on 31 quick runs with Umar Akmal taking the attack to the opposition. Nevertheless, Shahid Afridi departed immediately after trying to play a big shot too many. The captain scored just 11 runs from 7 balls with 2 boundaries.
Pakistan were at 127 for 5 when Razzaq came in as the final 4 overs were quite productive for the visitors as they ended at 165 for the loss of 5 wickets. Umar Akmal was unbeaten at 51 from 30 balls with 3 fours and 3 sixes, while Razzaq played a little cameo of 20 runs from 11 balls.
Pakistan’s bowling took an impressive start as Shoaib Akhtar powered through an early wicket as Simpson was caught by Umar Gul. The opener scored just 4 runs from 10 balls.
However, a brilliant second wicket stand was to follow as Blizzard and Lara put on 94 runs in just 10 overs. Brian Lara showed his class after scoring 37 runs from 32 balls with 5 boundaries. Umar Gul struck back for Pakistan as Lara was clean bowled with the score at 101.
At that time, the match had swayed in favour of the MCC, but Pakistan clawed their way back. Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly came in to bat but he was also undone by an Umar Gul delivery which crashed into his stumps. Ganguly only managed to score 2 runs. Australian Ian Harvey was in next and he put on 37 alongside Blizzard for the 4th wicket partnership before being knocked over by Shoaib Akhtar. Harvey scored 18 runs from 13 balls with a single boundary.
The match was heading for an exciting climax as Blizzard tried hard for an MCC win.
Muhammad Aamer bowled the all important final over and removed the Victoria man as he was caught in the deep by Umar Gul. Blizzard scored 73 runs from 59 balls with 6 fours and 3 sixes.
With 10 to get from 2 balls, MCC managed only 4 more runs to finish at 159 for 5 from their allotted 20 overs. Pakistan hung to a 6 run win in their first T20 match of the tour.
A match against the MCC all-star team was a great way to get Pakistan accustomed to the testing English conditions. TheT20’s against the Aussies should give Pakistan a chance to take revenge of the World Cup semi-final in the Caribbean. According to experts, breaking the run of defeats against the Aussies will be the most important task.
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