Friday, October 31, 2014

Pak Cricket Stunning World

RIYADH: Lahore Lions scored a thrilling six-wicket win over King Faisal Specialist Hospital in a seventh round match of the American Express Twenty20 cricket tournament, organized by the Riyadh Cricket Association, here.
KFSH Blues batted first and put on board 187 for 7 on board. Nasir Abbasi played a blistering knock of 71. Imtiaz 32 and Ayaz 27 were the other run getters. Obaid picked 3 wickets while Muzaffar got 2. Lahore Lions reached their target off 19.4 overs. Obaid scored a match winning innings of 81 supported by Muzaffar’s 31, Mubashir 29 and Sarfraz 23. Imtiaz and Nadeem Babar picked one wicket each. 
In another match, Shouraim thrashed Sama Steel also by six wickets. Sama Steel took the wicket first posted 175 runs. Hashim top-socred with 52 and Asad got 31. Amin Bakhti bagged 4 wickets including a hat trick while Abbas and Zeeshan took 2 wickets each. Shouraim reached their target after 15.2 overs. Azam scored 83 and Amin Bakhti blasted 52 off 16 balls. Asif picked two wickets. 
Brief Scores:
Al Kharj League: Pak Shaheen 241: (Faisal 89, Ishaq 74) beat Lahore Badshah 239: (Abdulaziz 3, Abdulwahab 2 wkts) by 2 runs. 
Huraymala League: Sulaiman XI 211 for 8: (Afzal 73, Faraz 59; Moazzam 3 wkts, Mohsin 2, Mubashir 2 wkts) beat Crescent 175: (Mubashir 32, Yassir 32; Irfan 2, Mudassar 2, Afzal 2 wkts) by 36 runs. FUCHS 214: (Javed 79; Abdulghafoor 2, Shakeel 2, Abdulrahim 2 wkts) beat Riyadh Warriors 180: (Ayaz 74; Rizwan 2 wkts) by 34 runs. Stallions 219: (Imran Younes 53, Sohail 49; Sabtain 3 wkts) beat AKCC 197: (Nadeem 45, Kamran 34; Junaid 2, Asif 2 wkts) by 22 runs. Star XI 217: (Imtiaz 112, Waseem 48; Shakeel 3 wkts) beat Tigers 140: (Kamran 57; Qasim 2, Afaq 2, Ghulam 2, Waheed 2, Imtiaz 2 wkts) by 71 runs. 

Hayer League: Kingdom Warriors 190: (Raheel 2, Fahim 2 wkts) lost to Grundfos 191 for 7 off 17.4 overs: (Tahir 70, Zain 53) by 3 wickets. Rawdah Heats 199: (Abdulrahman 63, Atif 53, Hassan 50) beat Seham 77: (Shahbaz 2, Shadab 2, Umer 2 wkts) by 122 runs. Flynas Avengers 170: (Zahid 97, Daim 35; Ashraf 3, Salam 2 wkts) lost to TBCC 171 for 4 off 16.1 overs: (Ashraf 113) by 6 wickets. Imran XI 121: (Jahangir 3, Atif 3 wkts) lost to Lahore Badshah Green 122 for 5 off 19.1 overs: (Afzal 43, Atif 35, Khurram 31) by 5 wkts. 
Diriyah Cricket League: Delhi Dare Devils 214: beat Strikers 115: (Ahmed 27; Sultan 3 wkts) by 99 runs. Al Momen International School 185 for 7 (Anees 2, Ali 2, Athar 2 wkts) beat Friends XI 141: (Abdulrahman 23) by 44 runs. Kashmir Strikers 210: (Bilal Wani 127) beat Sinmar CC 138: (Ishtiaq 40, Nawas 36; Mushtaq 4, Ishfaq 3 wkts) by 72 runs. Kashmir XI 140: (Shoukat 40; Ayaz 3 wkts) beat Pakhtunkhawa Gladiators 80: (Basit 5 wkts) by 61 runs.

make sure you check out my American Cousins' Blog  at:
http://ssggen.blogspot.com/

Thursday, October 30, 2014

The Big hurt

Big Picture
In November 1994, Pakistan batted out day five of the third Test in Lahore to complete a 1-0 series victory over Australia. They did so despite surrendering first-innings leads in all three Tests, and despite the dual withdrawals of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis from the team for the deciding match. Their deliverer was the captain Saleem Malik, who mastered the previously rampant Shane Warne over the course of 557 series runs at 92.83. It appeared to have been a meeting between two teams set to dominate the next decade or more. But this only turned out to be true for Australia - Mark Taylor's team would beat the West Indies the following year and establish a thirteen-year global supremacy. Their opponents would do something like the opposite.
Twenty years and nine series later, Pakistan have weathered more storms than it is possible to mention here. Australia have commonly trampled all over them in the first Test of a series and then carried on to win. Not once in the intervening years have the sub-continental team had something to hang onto as the encounter developed - until now.
The victory in Dubai was not simply a rousing result, for it was among the most complete Test match performances seen anywhere in recent times. After winning a key toss, Misbah-ul-Haq's team soaked up the pressure applied by Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle before attacking Nathan Lyon and milking the more limited offerings of Steve O'Keefe. Rahat Ali, Imran Khan, Zulfiqur Babar and Yasir Shah then proceeded to tie Australia's batsmen in familiar knots. Those knots had been glimpsed during the tour match, and it will take a major change of mindset to prevent them from returning in Abu Dhabi.
Nonetheless, the biggest question this week will be how much Pakistan truly believe they can beat Australia, and how much Michael Clarke's team are prepared to accept the prospect of being defeated by an opponent they have become so accustomed to swatting aside, even after the baggy green XI was no longer a gathering of giants. Twenty years is a long time, but so too are five days.
Form guide
Pakistan WLLWL
Australia LWLWW
In the spotlight
As happens to many captains, consistent runs are growing increasingly difficult for Michael Clarke to attain. When he rebuked critics of his tour match form for noting that he made a brave century in Cape Town during Australia's previous Test match, they might have responded that he went five matches without reaching 50 before that. Clarke's usually nimble feet against spin were nowhere to be seen in Dubai, and he has taken up the Rahul Dravid gambit of batting without pads against Lyon and O'Keefe to try to get them moving in Abu Dhabi.
There is not much Shane Warne and Steve Waugh agree on, but they have been rare unison when discussing the quality of Pakistan's wrist spin debutant Yasir Shah. Spin, accuracy, subtle variation were all evident in his seven-wicket display, and on an Abu Dhabi surface that may not turn as much as Dubai, the extra revolutions imparted by Yasir's wrist may give him a useful edge over the finger twirlers. Australia, though, will be wiser this time, leaving Pakistan to discover how their new find can cope with greater scrutiny and expectation this time around.
Teams news
Mohammad Hafeez will be under pressure from Taufeeq Umar for his spot in Pakistan's XI after being one of few underwhelming performers in Dubai.
Pakistan (possible): 1. Ahmed Shehzad, 2. Mohammad Hafeez, 3. Azhar Ali, 4. Younis Khan, 5. Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 6. Asad Shafiq, 7. Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8. Zulfiqar Babar, 9. Imran Khan, 10. Yasir Shah, 11. Rahat Ali
Australia's only likely adjustment would be to include Ben Hilfenhaus or Mitchell Starc at the expense of Steve O'Keefe, but an unchanged XI appears the favoured scenario.
Australia (probable): 1 Chris Rogers, 2 David Warner, 3 Alex Doolan, 4 Michael Clarke (capt), 5 Steve Smith, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Peter Siddle, 10 Steve O'Keefe, 11 Nathan Lyon
Pitch and conditions
Abu Dhabi's pitch appears dry as expected, and though it may not spin quite so much as Dubai's, variable bounce may come into play as the match wears on.
Stats and trivia
  • Pakistan's last series win over Australia took place in 1994, when a one-wicket victory in Karachi was followed by draws in Rawalpindi and Lahore
  • Sarfraz Ahmed - who already has the most runs as wicketkeeper in 2014 - needs 84 runs to go past Kamran Akmal as the Pakistan wicketkeeper with most Test runs in a calendar year. He has hit 523 runs this year at an average of 65.37
  • For a Pakistan victory by a margin of more than one match, one must go back as far as a 3-0 sweep of Kim Hughes' tourists in 1982
    Quotes
    "If you're trying to sell a newspaper, it's an absolute disaster and you'll mention India. If you're part of the Australian cricket team then you'll look at the last 12 months and how well we've played and accept that we've lost a game."
    Michael Clarke isn't losing too much sleep over the Dubai defeat

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

100 Pieces of Art YK

Younis Khan and the art of scoring hundreds

Out of 70 batsmen who've scored 15 or more Test hundreds only five are from Pakistan, but Younis Khan's appetite for hundreds matches that of some of the top contemporary batsmen

Younis Khan has scored a Test century every 6.52 innings, which, among Pakistani batsmen with at least ten hundreds, is second only to Mohammad Yousuf's average of 6.50 © AFP
On the opening day of the Pakistan-Australia Test in Dubai, Younis Khan, already the leading run-scorer in Tests in the UAE, further increased his lead by scoring 106, thus confirming his affinity for these conditions. It was his sixth Test century in the UAE - no other batsman has more than three - but the hundred was a special one for another reason: it was his 25th in Tests, which put him level with Inzamam-ul-Haq as theleading centurions for Pakistan. Inzamam played 198 innings to get his 25, while Younis has played 163 (though Inzamam's tendency to bat down the order hurt his conversion ratio - he scored 15 from 98 innings when batting at No. 4, and nine from 77 when batting at Nos. 5 and 6). Younis turns 37 next month, but given his recent form - he averages 60.20 in his last 11 Test innings, which includes three hundreds - it's likely he will get quite a few more before he is done with Test cricket, and be sole leader in terms of Test hundreds for Pakistan.
In a country which has produced the likes of Inzamam, Mohammad Yousuf, Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas, Saeed Anwar, Hanif and Mushtaq Mohammad, perhaps Younis hasn't always received the kind of recognition he should have. His batting style isn't as elegant and effortless as some of the other greats, and the relative lack of aesthetics has probably hurt his cause. Yet, in terms of converting starts and getting hundreds, he is surely among Pakistan's greatest.
The century in Dubai was Younis' first in Tests against Australia, and it made him the only one among Pakistan's batsmen to score a century against all nine other Test-playing nations. Both Inzamam and Yousuf failed to score hundreds against South Africa, but Younis has four against them, including one in South Africa. (Click here for Younis' career summary in Tests.)
In terms of innings per century, Younis, along with Yousuf, are clearly Pakistan's best: they both average around six-and-a-half innings per hundred, while the next-best, Ijaz Ahmed, scored one every 7.67 innings. Inzamam's average was one every 7.92 innings - though he scored one every 6.53 innings at No. 4 - while the others, including Miandad and Anwar, averaged more than eight innings per hundred.
Pakistan batsmen who've scored ten or more Test hundreds
BatsmanInningsAverage100s/ 50sInngs/ 100
Mohammad Yousuf15652.2924/ 336.50
Younis Khan16351.7825/ 286.52
Ijaz Ahmed9237.6712/ 127.67
Inzamam-ul-Haq19850.1625/ 467.92
Hanif Mohammad9743.9812/ 158.08
Javed Miandad18952.5723/ 438.22
Saeed Anwar9145.5211/ 258.27
Asif Iqbal9938.8511/ 129.00
Mushtaq Mohammad10039.1710/ 1910.00
Saleem Malik15443.6915/ 2910.27
Zaheer Abbas12444.7912/ 2010.33
Mudassar Nazar11638.0910/ 1711.60
In the overall list, though, there are 13 other batsmen who've scored 15 or more hundreds at a rate that's better than Yousuf, who has been Pakistan's best. Don Bradman is obviously on top, well clear of anyone else, while Clyde Walcott is the only other with a rate below five. Among the modern-day batsmen, Kumar Sangakkara is the only one with an average of less than six innings per hundred - he has 37 from 221 innings, a rate of one every 5.97 innings. He has been especially prolific since the beginning of 2013, scoring seven hundreds in 25 innings.
Matthew Hayden was outstanding too over a long career, scoring more hundreds than fifties, while Hashim Amla is going at the same rate as his former team-mate Jacques Kallis, though he currently has half the number of centuries. Two of India's finest are in this list too: Sunil Gavaskar scored 34 in 214 innings, while Sachin Tendulkar an average of less than six-and-a-half innings per century over an even longer period.
Out of 70 batsmen who've scored 15 or more Test hundreds, there are only five from Pakistan, which is a bit of a surprise: Younis, Inzamam, Yousuf, Miandad and Saleem Malik. On the other hand, there are 18 from England - though none have scored more than 25 - 16 from Australia, 13 from West Indies, and eight from India. Pakistan and Sri Lanka both have five each, though Sri Lanka have played 150 fewer Tests than Pakistan.
Best inngs per 100 ratio for batsmen in Tests (Qual: 15 hundreds)
BatsmanInningsAverage100s/ 50sInngs/ 100
Don Bradman8099.9429/ 132.76
Clyde Walcott7456.6815/ 144.93
Herbert Sutcliffe8460.7316/ 235.25
Everton Weekes8158.6115/ 195.40
Kumar Sangakkara22158.7637/ 515.97
Matthew Hayden18450.7330/ 296.13
Garry Sobers16057.7826/ 306.15
Jacques Kallis28055.3745/ 586.22
Hashim Amla13751.3222/ 276.23
Greg Chappell15153.8624/ 316.29
Sunil Gavaskar21451.1234/ 456.29
Wally Hammond14058.4522/ 246.36
Sachin Tendulkar32953.7851/ 686.45
While Pakistan have only five batsmen who've scored 15 or more Test hundreds, their overall conversion rates aren't very different from those of the other top teams, which only means they've spread around the centuries among their batsmen more evenly than some of the other teams. Pakistan have averaged 19.27 innings per hundred over their entire Test history, which is similar to the averages for India (19.13) and West Indies (19.08). Australia are well ahead of the pack with an average of 17.11, while Sri Lanka are next with 18.17, thanks to the prolific century rate in the last few years. New Zealand have generally struggled to score hundreds, which is reflected in their average of 29 innings per century; they only have one batsman who has more than 15 - Martin Crowe, with 17. John Wright has 12, while Nathan Astle and Ross Taylor have 11 each, and Stephen Fleming and Brendon McCullum nine each.
Since 2000, though, Pakistan's rate has slipped up slightly compared to some of the other top teams during the same period. While South Africa have improved to 13.52, Australia to 12.09, and Sri Lanka, India and England are all below 15 innings per century, Pakistan average 17.15, indicating that their batsmen haven't been quite as prolific, especially in an era when batsmen have generally prospered. Younis has kept the flag flying, especially after the retirements of Inzamam and Yousuf, but it's clearly time for the younger players to step up and take over the mantle of scoring centuries. With none of the currently active Pakistan batsmen having scored more than eight hundreds, though, expect the record to stay with Younis for a significant period of time.
Centuries for each team in Tests
 OverallSince 2000
TeamTests100s/ 50sInngs/ 100100:50Tests100s/ 50sInngs/100100:50
Australia768785/ 169817.112.16166233/ 40612.091.74
Sri Lanka233223/ 48318.172.17137154/ 29915.251.94
West Indies500463/ 108519.082.34146127/ 31721.492.50
India483437/ 107019.132.45153169/ 37315.752.21
Pakistan383343/ 79319.232.31122129/ 27917.152.16
England952822/ 199520.062.43188207/ 43215.932.09
South Africa387339/ 84420.292.49149182/ 32913.521.81
New Zealand394249/ 778429.083.1511895/ 26222.622.76
Zimbabwe9449/ 19937.494.065528/ 12239.464.36
Bangladesh8535/ 16151.144.608535/ 16151.144.60
S Rajesh is stats editor of ESPNcricinfo. Follow him on Twitter
RSS Feeds: S Rajesh
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Love them Hate Them?

Pakistan's Ahmed Shehzad
 Pakistan's Ahmed Shehzad, third from right, celebrates during the win over Australia in Dubai. Photograph: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

A GLORIOUS AND INEXPLICABLE MYSTERY

Last 25 May, during a talk about Pakistani cricket at the Southbank Centre, I found myself lost for a word. Just one. I couldn’t find it because, so far as I know, it doesn’t exist. I needed something to capture the embarrassment I felt when I thrust my arm confidently into the air, fully expecting it to be one in a thicket, and found, instead, that I was one of the very few people in the room willing to admit to be being a fan of Shahid Afridi. Raised hands were so few and far between, in fact, that the speaker, that talented man Osman Samiuddin, as he surveyed the rows of seats from the theatre stage, was able to pick me out, a way away in the gloom at the back, and say: “Oh look, it’s Andy Bull.” At which point heads turned to see the lone fool with his arm up. Umm … Hi. I would say Afridi has achieved the impossible and exhausted the patience of the Pakistani fans. Except that he is still in the team.
If you’re a neutral, Afridi is an easy player to love. A ball-biting, boundary-hitting, pitch-ripping, wicket-tricking, cricketing lunatic. Even Geoff Boycott loves to watch Afridi play. “Fantastic, great for the game,” says Boycott. “And daft as a brush”. For many Pakistani fans, on the other hand, Afridi is insufferably infuriating. I thoroughly enjoyed what was, to me, one of the archetypal Afridi performances when, at Lord’s in 2010, recalled to the Test team for the first time in four years, and as captain no less, he was caught at cow corner off his fourth ball. Off the bowling of Marcus North. In a fourth-innings run chase. He then told the press “with my temperament I can’t play Test cricket” and quit the game for good. Others, those who have an emotional investment in the success of the side, seemed, surprisingly, somewhat less amused by it all.
What a curious affliction it must be to be a full-time Pakistan fan, to follow a side who go through such giddy swings of form. Does anyone in cricket suffer so much? And is anyone in cricket rewarded for their suffering with such exquisite performances, such paroxysmic peaks of pleasure? In the last week the world watched, ever-more slack jawed, as they destroyed Australia in the first Test at Dubai. The result gave just as much pleasure to cricket-lovers in this corner of the world as Pakistan’s 3-0 demolition of England in 2011 must have done to those Down Under.
Advertisement
And yet it was only a fortnight ago that Pakistan lost two wickets for no runs at all in the final over of an ODI whenthey only needed two to win. Off Glenn Maxwell’s bowling. They won this Test with a bowling attack who had all of nine caps between them, two rookie spinners, one of them 35 years old, the other a leggie playing his very first game. Their batting lineup was propped up a green wicketkeeper, Sarfraz Ahmed, who rattled along lickety-split at a run-a-ball, and the 36-year-old Younis Khan, who had just been dropped from the ODI side and who was so pissed off with his own cricket board that he made a point of refused to thank them when he was asked to do so. All marshalled by a 40-year-old skipper, Misbah-ul-Haq, who has just dropped himself from the ODI side because of his slow-scoring, and whose own coach attributes his good form in this very Test to the fact that he has put on weight.
It has been over five years now since Pakistan’s fans last got to see the team play a Test at home. Among the current side, only Younis, Misbah, and Mohammad Hafeez have ever played an international game on their own soil. And though the first two of them seem to be altogether impervious to the effects of advancing age, it is likely even they will be in retirement by the time the team is able to play in their own country again. There will be an entire generation of Pakistani cricketers who have no idea what it is to play for their country in front of their own fans. An entire generation of Pakistani fans who have only seen their side on TV.
And that isn’t the half of it. The current attack is the third Waqar Younis has had to build in his two stints as coach. The first, of course, was torn apart by the spot-fixing scandal orchestrated by Afridi’s successor as captain back in 2010, Salman Butt, who seemed such an impressive skipper at the time. The second was built around the spin of Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman, the first of them now suspended from cricket while he fixes his crooked action, the second dropped from the squad because he failed a fitness Test. English cricket seems to have been torn apart by injuries, egos, and Twitter accounts. Imagine the state of the game here if we’d had to cope with even half of what Pakistan have put up with.
For Pakistan, the sacking of the best batsman in the side seems to be an annual event. Younis has been dropped five times in the last four years. Which is nothing at all when you compare it to the hokey-cokey going on with the country’s cricket board. In the last 18 months Zaka Ashraf has been appointed as chairman, suspended as chairman, reinstated as chairman, dismissed as chairman, re-reinstated as chairman, and sacked again. They have had five chairmen in the last two years. And yet, despite it all, they still find a way to win more than they lose, and as often as not they do it in style. It’s a mystery. A glorious, inexplicable mystery. Samiuddin has a book out soon, a history of Pakistani cricket, which has, understandably, taken him years to put together. I’ve rarely felt so much relish for a new publication. I’m hoping to find a few answers in it. Because Pakistan are, to this England fan, a team I’m delighted to watch and at a loss to explain.
 This is an extract taken from the Spin, the Guardian’s weekly cricket email. To subscribe just visit this page, find the Spin and then follow the instructions.

Bring it Home Boys!!!!

Pakistan Cricket Team
Pakistan and Australia in UAE, 2 Test Series, 2014, Game 2
Thursday, October 30, 2:00 AM
Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Pakistan
vs.
Australia









Wed, Oct 22
Pakistan
Pakistan won by 221 runs
Australia









All times are in Eastern Time