Ross Taylor shatters Pakistan at Kandy as New Zealand record crucial victory
New Zealand beat Pakistan by a massive margin of 110 runs in the Group ‘A’ fixture of the ICC Cricket World Cup, 2011 at Kandy. With the victory, New Zealand now stand at the top of the points table and seem to be finding form at the right time.
Pakistan on the other hand, will be extremely disappointed with this result as they were rated as the favorites of this encounter.
There were a lot of positives for the Black Caps in the match: New Zealand has faced a torrid time in international cricket since the past six months, and the victory will boost their morale ahead of the knockout stages of the tournament.
Jesse Ryder could not take part in the match because of an injury which was a huge blow for New Zealand; nonetheless the Black Caps succeeded in posting a huge score on the board without him.
Ross Taylor has been struggling for form recently but struck a blazing hundred against Pakistan. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915 was very lucky at the start of the innings being dropped twice by wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal; he was not very fluent in the first half of his innings but
hit sixes on will at the depth of the Kiwi innings and looked in sublime touch.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754’s bowlers bowled exceptionally and were led by Tim Southee who seems to always raise his game against Pakistan. Jacob Oram performed well with both bat and ball after a long time, and he can play a vital role for the Kiwis in this tournament
because of his experience at the international level.
On the other hand, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 were brought back to earth by New Zealand after their three consecutive victories in the tournament. There are some serious concerns about Pakistan’s combination with both the bat and the ball. However, poor wicket-keeping by
Kamran Akmal was one of the major reasons behind Pakistan’s demise. He dropped Ross Taylor twice in the same over of Shoaib Akhtar, who went on to make a stunning hundred which took the game away from Pakistan’s grasp.
Pakistan team is facing problems with their top order ever since the retirement of Saeed Anwar and Aamir Sohail. Both Mohammad Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad showed good signs in the ODI series against New Zealand earlier this year, but they have been too inconsistent.
It remains a mystery as to how long the Pakistan management will persist with sticking with this opening pair.
The green shirts bowled well in the initial 35 overs of the New Zealand innings as they did not allow any of the batsmen to break free. Things started to fall apart for Pakistan at the depth of the innings as New Zealand scored more than a hundred runs in
the last five overs. Shoaib Akhtar went for 28 runs in one over, whereas Abdul Razzaq went one step ahead and conceded 30 runs in the 49th over of the Kiwi innings.
However, one positive for Pakistan was the way Umar Gul bowled. He picked up three wickets and did trouble the Kiwi batsmen throughout his 10 overs. One feels that Pakistan has to play Saeed Ajmal as he does possess the ability to bowl during the power-play
overs and at the end of the innings as well, which he has proved many times in past.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045 as they would still want to finish high in group ‘A’ in order to meet the weaker team of the other group in the quarterfinals.
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