AUSTRALIA VS PAKISTAN 2ND SEMI FINAL PREVIEW

The second semi-final of ICC T20 will be played between the defending champions PAKISTSAN and hot favourites AUSTRALIA. Pakistan has just won 2 games out of the 5 they played whereas Australia has won all the 5 matches convincingly. Considering the current form of Australian team, there is no match for them.
Pakistan can still create upset and Australia must be aware of it. Pakistan team is facing problems with its combination; they have tried sami, asif n Khalid but they all failed. I reckon the team winning the toss will bat first and try to put runs on the board and then put opposition under pressure. Australia has chased only one match and that was against West Indies so Australia wont fancy chasing considering Pakistan spin attack.
If Pakistan bats first, kamran akmal will be the key, it is important for him to get start and give the coming batsman a platform for big hits. Shahid afridi played brilliantly against south Africa so he will also be a potential threat to aussies and they will be testing him on short pitched deliveries. If Pakistan socres more then 160, Pakistan will have an outside chance to win, bad nes for Pakistan is that, their start youn batsman, umer akmal has injured his back and probablt debuatant hammad azam will play instead of umer so Pakistan will be having a challenge to fulfil umer’s place who played exceptional cricket against southafrica and don’t forget, he is the current best fielder in the team so if he missed out, Pakistan will definitely miss him.
Australia has a perfect combination with smith impressing every one with his leggies. Australian openers have got starts, their middle has got starts, they have proved that even if their middle order fails, they still have the capability to score big.
St.lucia pitch might favour Pakistan because it is not a bouncy pitch, supports spinners so Pakistan must look to win this game.
I just hope that the match should be cracker, not a one sided contest.

ONE OVER CAN CHANGE THE OUTCOME OF THE MATCH

Most of the people would have slept in India thinking that India will win this game by more then20 runs and will still be in contention for the magical semi final spot. After scoring 163, dhoni would be feeling confident that he will defend not only this target but also beat them by 20 runs to remain in contention for semi final spot.
Srilanka required 107 in the last 10 overs, and considering the history of this tournament, it was near to impossible, book makers would have listed india favourites for the 39 overs but nobody thought that one over will change everything.
Srilanka required 32 runs to win from the last two overs, with no sangakara, no dilshan, no jayawardene and no jayasuria on crease; it was Mathews and kaugudere on the crease with vinay kumar, the debutant to bowl the penultimate over and ashish nehra to bowl the last over. I personally thought that india will win by a margin of at least 15 runs but i proved to be wrong.
They got 19 runs of vinay kumar over and they were left with 13 to win from the last over. Ashish nehra bowled the last over, who at the moment is the most dependable bowler for dhoni at this tournament, his first ball went for six, and srilanka required 7 to win from 5 balls, there was another twist in the over when Mathew got run out on the second last ball of the over with srilanka still requiring 3 to win. It would have been the greatest moment for kapugedare, he was confident and passionate, he hit nehra for six to long off and with it , left india thinking why did they kept playing IPL? :P
Now srilanka has almost secured place in the semi and they will be playing England.
This is new cricket for u, the modern day cricket. One over can change everything!

LUCKY PAKISTAN

Pakistan must invite england team for a dinner to show them how much they are greatfull to england team. pakistan surpsingly has qualified for semi finals. incredibly, pakistan has just won 2 games out of 5 and still managed to get into semi final, that what you call luck !
pakistan played good cricket against south africa, after losing 3 early wickets, two good partnerships lifted them to 148, and 148 would never have been easy for south africa considering pakistani spin attack. gibba was stunned by misbah's catch and it was the time for a awful, colorless team to get united and play like a team.
afrid must be appreciated by the way he marshalled his troops in the field, he was agrressive and at times, yelled at some of his fielders for sloppy work. every pakistani wanted to see pakistan team playing with passion and that is what was reflecting from pakistan yesterday.
ajmal and rehman bowled extremely well with ajmal taking 4 wickets was an exception on a pitch where south african spinner went for plenty.
pakistan watied for england to win the match, and it was a big relieve on part of afridi's head. probably, pakistan will be facing australia in the semi-final.
what should it be called? A blessing in disguise? an opportunity to take revenge of all the defeats in one match? will it be cracker or an one sider?
on paper, australia is too good for any team but considering the T20 format, any team on a given day can fall part so we will wait and see what happens ! :P

pakistan did well to reach 148

well after losing 3 quick wickets,pakistan still managed to score 148. that was a good effort. akmal brothers played really well especially the younger one, umer. he was the man who took the charge and left smith wondering about how to use his spin option.
razzak and misbah again failed today,but afiridi played well for his 30.
it will be interesting to see how south africa go about their chase considering pakistan has 4 spinning option and 1 quicky and 1 medium pacer.
cricket is a funny game, only one score of above 145 has been chased in this tournament, and it was against pakistan which england chased. cant wait for the match to start......

LONG BOUNDARIES IN ST.LUCIA will play its part

well pakistan is batting first after winning the toss and i think they are going with wrong 11, they are one bowler short and with razzak coming at 8, they basically have strengthen their batting by bringing in extra batsman.
dont think, south africa will mind chasing here at st.lucia becuase its a big ground with long boundaries ( approx 80meters). southafricans know that it is important to get 2's n 3's rather then going for big hits. whereas on the other hand, i think they have done the right thing by bringing an extra spinner van der merve instead of mornbe morkel because he has been struggling in this competition.
both the teams know that there is no other option to win, so both teams will be going for a kill.
i personally feel southafrica have the edge because one bowler short, pakistan will already be 15 runs short so it is important for pakistan to score above 160 to give its bowlers a chance.
match is about to start, so lets hope for a cracker !

positon in group F for semi final

Here are the permutations for the teams to qualify for semi-final in group F

Australia (points 4, net run-rate +3.250)
they are almost through to the semifnal with their two convincing wins,their net run rate is an incredible +3.25; the difference between their runs scored and conceded is 130. if West Indies beat Australia by 87 runs, and Sri Lanka beat India by a 68-run margin. Then both West Indies and Sri Lanka will have a higher NRR than Australia. It's a possibility, but only in theory


Sri Lanka (points 2, net run-rate -0.600)
They are currently in second place, thanks to a run rate that is better then West Indies. they need to beat India, and hope Australia beat West Indies, in which case Australia and Sri Lanka will qualify for the semi-finals on points. Sri Lanka will also be through if they lose to India by less than 20 runs and Australrefia beat West Indies.

However, even a win against India will not assure them a spot in the last four, if West Indies beat Australia. Currently, Sri Lanka have conceded 24 more runs than they have scored, while for West Indies the corresponding number is 43. If both teams win their final games and West Indies win by a margin that offsets that difference, then they will go through. Thus, if Sri Lanka beat India by a run, and West Indies beat Australia by 21 runs, then the home team will progress to the semis.
ref:cricinfo
West Indies (points 2, net run-rate -1.075)
The win against India has kept them in contention, but the huge defeat against Sri Lanka means their NRR is still languishing at -1.075. They'll qualify without the run rate coming into play if they beat Australia and if Sri Lanka lose to India. However, if they beat Australia and Sri Lanka beat India, then NRR will come into play. West Indies currently have a handicap of 19 runs compared to Sri Lanka (refer to the paragraph above), and they'll have to win by a margin that offsets that handicap. A defeat against Australia will put them out of the tournament, regardless of the result in the other match.

India (points 0, net run-rate -1.575)
For India to make the cut, they'll have to beat Sri Lanka by a margin of at least 20 runs, and then hope West Indies lose to Australia. Currently India have conceded 63 more runs than they have scored, compared to Sri Lanka's 24. If they win by 20 runs, their difference will reduce to 43 while Sri Lanka's will increase to 44, which will do the trick for India. If India bat second, and assuming Sri Lanka have scored 160, they'll need to chase it down in a maximum of 17.4 overs to lift their NRR above Sri Lanka's.

position in GROUP E

Here are the permutations for the group E for the semi final spot,

ENGLAND (2 wins, nrr +1.12760)
They are, quite obviously, the safest one to make it to the semi's. For them to be knocked out, New Zealand will have to beat them by 30 or more runs, and South Africa will have to beat Pakistan by 43 or more runs. Then New Zealand and South Africa will both have higher net run rates than England.

New Zealand ( 1 win, nrr-0.3)
equation is simple for newzeland, they win and go to semi, if they lose, then go home.What happens in the other match doesn't much matter to them. If South Africa win the first match, they will go to four points, and New Zealand will have to win to come level on points, and then their better net run-rate should carry them through. If Pakistan win, New Zealand know they can't afford to lose because that loss will leave them level with Pakistan at two points, but Pakistan will have a better net run-rate.

Pakistan ( 0 wins, nrr -0.215)

They need to beat South Africa, and then hope that England beat New Zealand later in the day. they have the best run rate among the three. if they lose to south africa, then the team will be packing back. if they best southafrica and newzeland beat englandm they are still out, so therefore, pakistan would be hoping that they beat southafrica and england beat newzealand and they will be through with better run rate.

South Africa (1 win, -0.650)

They can't sneak in based on net run-rate, because they are the worst among the three right now. They will need to beat Pakistan and then hope that England beat New Zealand. If New Zealand win, South Africa will most likely be out, unless they beat Pakistan by a mammoth margin, and New Zealand win very narrowly.