Saturday, May 1, 2010

IPL absentees ready for clash

The defending champion of previous ICC T20 cricket world cup, Pakistan will take on Bangladesh in an interesting group A match here in st.lucia. Pakistan has played only six international T20's since the last year final whereas Bangladesh has played only two. No player from either side was featured in IPL, both the team players have just played domestic T20's coming into this WORLD CUP whereas the majority of other international players featured in money rich but now considered corruption rich IPL.
Both the teams favours this short format, as we all know PAKISTAN is a real champ in this format and as far as Bangladesh is concerned, the shorter the format the greater their opportunity.
Cricket is a funny game as said by many famous cricketers but T20 adds more fun to it. Unmatched teams in a test match can provide you a thriller in a T20 match. The format is such that the margin of error is very low, your small mistake can cost you a match therefore you need to be on your toes for the whole 40 over’s.
Considering this match, Bangladesh can turn out to be a big threat for Pakistan as their recent performances against England and India speaks of their improved performances. Players like shakib ul hasan, mortaza, razzaq, ahraful and mahmudullah are all threats to any teams because on their day, they can turn the tables around. Pakistan will be without their T20 specialist umer gul, but still tell me is there any side more flexible than Pakistani team? FIVE all-rounders in the team and 3 of them would feature in any starting 11, my vote is for Pakistan in this cricket match.
Both the teams are blessed with quality spinners and it could be another low scoring match as the pitch would play slow.
Pakistan has to choose between sami and butt, if they play sami they will be with four fast bowlers and 3 spinners to back, but if they play butt, it adds an extra batsman to their line up. It will be interesting to know who plays.
Starting11 (PROBABLE)
Salman butt/sami, hafeez, kamran, umer, misbah, afridi,razzak, amir, asif, ajmal,amir

SPIN WILL BE THE KEY IN THIS CRICKET WORLD CUP

By looking at the warm up matches scorecards and after what happened in the first match of the tournament between NEWZEALAND and SRILANKA, it is obvious to say that spin will be the key succes factor in this tournament. scott styris said in an interview to cricinfo, it seems like these pitches are tired, lot of cricket has been played on these surfaces and we know that these pitches will not support faster bowlers, it is nice to know it suits my kind of bowling so i am looking forward to be a valuable part of the team.
In the business world, only those organization succeeds in the long run who adapt themselves with the external environment as the external environment elements are uncontrollable therefore you cannot control or change them ratheer you need to adapt to the environment. now every team is looking to adapt new strategy and it will not be a surprise if we see spinners opening the bowling just as what nathan mcculum did yesterday.
every team is now changing their strategy, one thing is sure the pitches will be slow so rather praying to GOD that a certain pitch plays fast on a given day, why not start working on shots that can give you runs on these slow tracks.
if we analyse the spin armouries of every team, i think pakistan and bangladesh leads the chart. pakistan has 3 specialist spinners, shahid afridi, saeed ajmal and mohammad hafeez, dont forget fawad alam is also a spinner. on the other hand, bangladesh has also 3 specialist spinners. i like srilankan attack, murli, jayasuria and mendis, whereas south africa has only two, botha and van der merve. india has harbajhan singh and chawla,australia struggles in this deparment as they have only one specialist spinner in the squad,newzaealand has 2,WI has 2.
this is modern cricket for you, spinners opening the bowling,taking wickets and slowing the tempo :P