Saturday, February 26, 2011

Pak make a statement



Best Blog Tips

Pakistan took care of business despite the foolishness in the end. By doing so, they have made a very important statement. The old adage that bowlers win matches comes very much into play with Pakistan. Abdul Rehman and Shahid Afridi have got to be the best ODI spinner combination in this world cup. What was surprising for me was the disciplined bowling display by Shoaib Akhtar. In fact, his action looks completely clean now and he's bowling at 142 plus. I wonder what rehab center he was sent to. The results are fantastic.


While the batting is over-dependent on Younis and Misbah, it's decent enough to post a defensible amount of runs. The bowlers are very hard to get away. Umar Gul didn't have a great day. I thought he only four bad balls, but the numbers made him look awful. He bowled reasonably well. But the margin for error being so low meant that he didn't seem as good. Kamran Akmal sucks behind the stumps. Plus, their younger cricketers are terrible fielders. It appears that they take a long time to mature cricketers in Pakistan. But never-the-less my feeling is that South Africa is the only team that can stop the Pakistan team. India is always nervous playing Pakistan and this team can exploit that to the hilt and toy with India.

India have no reasons to lose to England tomorrow. But they'll need to continue to play confident cricket. Sehwag or Tendulkar need to bat through the over regardless of whether they are batting first. And this might Yuvraj's chance to get into the action.

3 comments:

Govind Raj said...

Vidooshak,

India WERE nervous playing Pakistan since Javed Miyandad 6. But this generation has outgrown that and actually India have beaten Pakistan more often that not in the new Millennium.

At the World Cup, they have yet to beat India. But this team looks good because they can still improve a lot during the tournament and that is frightening !

Golandaaz said...

This pak team seems united, different from previous teams and focused. While all of this is good, they don't appear too strong to me. Batting is weak. Bowling is led by 2 very moody characters and fielding is poor.

In today's match they looked good but ultimately I place India and Pak as "somewhat likely" to win the WC.... India's bowling is too weak to warrant a favorites tag.

Lets see tomorrow

straight point said...

India is always nervous playing Pakistan and this team can exploit that to the hilt and toy with India.

vidoo i think you stopped watching india-pak matches since late 1990s or early 2000s... :)