Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Pakistan vs India, Kitply Cup, Match #2 - Updates

This is not a LIVE blog as I'm not sure how often I'll be updating it, but I will try and do so every hour at least.

The Toss

India has won the toss and is batting first.

Dhoni says pitch will spin later and keep low.

Malik says he would have batted as well.

Rains are expected later in the day according to the forecast. Lets hope we get a 50 over game here.

The Teams

Pakistan have gone in with a 4-man pace attack, though it is not the one I wanted and spoke of yesterday - Iftikhar Anjum comes into the side in place of Fawad Alam.

I wonder why the continue to bench Sohail Khan.

The rest of the team is unchanged from the match against Bangladesh.

India has gone in with a very strong XI with the top 6 reading: Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Raina.

And they are to be followed by Dhoni and Pathan.

Add to that Chawla, Kumar, and Sharma and that is one solid team.

The IPL has definitely influenced the Indian XI here as Robin Uthappa, a regular in the ODI side, finds himself on the bench, while Yusuf Pathan is granted an ODI debut and Raina is also given a game.

Both Yusuf and Raina had succesful IPL campaigns as compared to an indifferent one for Uthappa.

Play

Delhi Daredevils' openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are taking strike and the Kolkata Knight Riders' Umar Gul has the new ball in his hand.

Its a shame that the Daredevils' Mohammad Asif is still stuck in Dubai with drugs, otherwise it would have been a good battle seeing him bowl to his IPL captain and team mate.

Over Number 1

Drama has already unfolded in the first 6 deliveries. A Gambhir 4, Younis dropping a catch, 4 byes, Gul jagging the ball of the pitch, Sehwag playing and missing, Gambhir jumping around, its all happening out there.

And that was only over number 1.

Team Thoughts

Apart from the Mumbai Indians, all the IPL teams have representation in today's ODI.

A total of 19 players involved in this ODI took part on the recently concluded Indian Premier League.

The IPL champions, Rajasthan Royals, have the largest representation with 4 players on the field today - Y. Pathan, Tanvir, Akmal, and Younis.

3 members each from the Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab, and the Kolkata Knight Riders are out there, along with 2 each from the Deccan Chargers, Chennai Super Kings, and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Each one of the 8 Pakistanis who took part in the IPL has an IPL team mate on the opposing Indian team. However, the 3 Kings XI players and the 2 Super Kings players on the Indian side didn't play alongside any Pakistani.

Does that give India an advantage?

Over Numbers 1-8: India off to a flier!

Sehwag and Gambhir have taken it to the Pakistan bowlers and are off to a flier with the 50 coming up half way into the 7th over.

Umar Gul was bowling well with the ball seaming off the wicket but his figures won't tell you that as Sehwag seems to be in punishing mood. He has countered Gul extremely well.

The Daredevils' opening pair is continuing here from where they left off in the IPL.

Gambhir is on 26 with 4 boundaries and Sehwag on 18 with 3.

Sohail Tanvir has looked good and has managed to keep Sehwag quiet. He needs to pick up a wicket soon though otherwise India will get to an unreachable total.

Wahab Riaz came on instead of Gul to bowl the 7th over and was doing a great job in keeping Gambhir quiet who came down the wicket and missed before he slashed him for 4 over point of the final delivery of the over.

Tanvir bowled another good over not giving any boundaries, which seems like a rarity thus far.

Score: 59-0 in 8 overs.

Over Numbers 9 - 11: Drop the Dropper!

Younis Khan has dropped Gambhir twice now. And that too in the same position. Gambhir's on 33 currently and looks like he's on his way to a big one thanks to Younis Khan.

Younis you dropper, you need to be dropped. He never scores in ODIs but atleast he used to take catches in the slips. Now even that is slipping away.

Go away Younis Khan. Stick to test cricket.

There were 3 boundaries in these 3 overs, all by Sehwag.

Rao Iftikhar came on to bowl instead of Wahab, which was strange cause the young boy was doing alright. Maybe Wahab will come on instead of Tanvir, changing ends.

No wicket yet, India 82-0 after 11.

Comment on Email

This came into my inbox from a friend:

Younis khan ki banda b%£d maarey bh3$%!0d ke bachey ki…Da11a.. kuni… maa y@£$.. B$%"ri ne 2 catch chor diye gambhir ke…Kuttey ka bacha hai yaar yeh ….

Apologies for the censoring, families and children visit this blog. Translation is a big difficult thus apologies to our non-Pakistani and non-Indian readers.

Over Numbers 12-17: India March On.

Sehwag reached his 50 with a guided 4 down to thirdman. He seems to be in ominous form, though he was also dropped in the 13th over. By Akmal this time.

Fielding today has been very bad by Pakistan, and this after Lawson said that he was looking to beat Indian by a huge margin.

Catching has been abysmal and there have been several misfields.

No surpise then that India's 100 came up in the 14th over and they're currently scoring at 7.5 an over with Sehwag and Gambhir both scoring at over run a ball.

Shahid Afridi needs to come on soon and provide that breakthrough.

Score: 126-0 in 17 overs.

Over Numbers 18-22: Finally the Breakthrough

A rare 2 overs went by without a boundary. But in the next one Sehwag sent one over long on for 6!

Afridi came on but didn't get the breakthough in his 1st over, but Wahab did in the next - Akmal held on to one and Gambhir went for 62 of as many balls - 56 more than he should have got.

Yuvraj has joined Sehwag in the middle.

India meanwhile have raced to 160 in only 22 overs and Sehwag looks good for century. He's batting on 80 right now.

Recently on Well Pitched I did a post on when we may see the first double hundred in ODI cricket. Some commenters mentioned Sehwag as the someone who potentially could be the first to get there.

If he continues to bat the way he has today, he very well may be the first one there.

India look good to get to 400!

Score: 160-1 in 22 overs.

Over Numbers 23-24: Double Hundred

Here is the post: http://www.wellpitched.com/2008/06/double-hundreds-in-odi.html

It was Straight Point who mentioned Veeru and Naked Cricket did so too.

Sehwag hasn't scored a 100 in ODIs since March 2007 last year when he hit one against Bermuda in the World Cup. Strangely this is also Sehwag's 1st 50 in ODIs for over a year. His last one was 52 against an Africa XI in June 2007 - that was an official ODI.

And as I write that he's gone. Akmal holds on again and Wahab Riaz has his 2nd wicket. It was a very good ball that jagged back off the pitch and had Sehwag in trouble who was trying to guide it down to 3rd man.

Sehwag scored 89 of only 79 balls with 13 fours and a six.

That brings the debutant Yusuf Pathan to the crease. You can expect even more fireworks here.

Score: 177-2 in 24 overs.

Over Numbers 25-27.

The players are taking the 2nd drinks break in just the 27th over. India have surely turned the heat on out there.

Wahab Riaz is getting his first taste of real international cricket after turning out impressive performances against the minnows. He's picked up Sehwag and Gambhir but he's gone for 55 of only 7 overs.

Afridi has also been toyed with and he doesn't look like half the bowler he did the other night. But the Indians are the best players of spin and they even made Shane Watne look ordinary.

Yuvraj has just blasted his 1st 6 and Yusuf is getting his eye in. 400 is definitely on the cards.

Score: 196-2 in 27 overs

Over Numbers 28-30: The IPL Face Off

Finally IPL team mates came face to face for the first time in the game in the 28th over when Malik handed the ball to Sohail Tanvir with his Rajasthan team mate Yusuf Pathan at the crease.

Pathan pushed one into the covers for a single, defended one, and met the other 2 on his legs for huge LBW shouts which the umpire wasn't interested in.

Afridi got the debutant's wicket in the next over as Pathan holed out to long off.

Rohit Sharma, who played along side Afridi for the chargers, then saw off 3 deliveries from his team mate.

India has reached 200 in only 30 overs for the loss of 3 wickets. Many believe that a team should get double of what they are at the end of 30, so anything short of 400 would be disappointing.

Score: 200-3 in 30 overs.

Overs Number 31-38: Pakistan Crawl Back

The first instance of a player getting the wicket of an IPL team mate occurred in the 37th over when Afridi cleaned up Rohit Sharma. Sharma chopped the wrong one on to his stumps and walked back after scoring 9 of as many as 27 deliveries. That was test material. Nothing like his IPL hey days.

Pakistan have fought back well in the last 8 overs restricting India to only 37 runs in that period.

Rohit Sharma just couldn't get going and though Yuvraj smashed a 6 and a 4, for most of the period he was stranded on the non striker's end watching Sharma prod and drod.

Dhoni came to the crease at the fall of Sharma's wicket and he's now there with Yuvraj Singh.

400 looks out of reach now, but India still look good for 330+, which will be extremely difficult for Pakistan's fragile batting line up.

Score: 237-4 in 38 overs.

Over Number 39-42.5: Pakistan & Rains stop India

Pakistan continued the good work pegging Indian back further by picking up Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh in these 5 overs.

Dhoni was unlucky given out to Tanvir's full toss which was clearly going down the leg side. Pakistan got a lucky break there.

Yuvraj's stumps were disturbed by Umar Gul by a ball that came into Yuvraj at the last moment.

With the rains coming down India are currently halted at 270-6 in 42.5 overs, which is atleast 50 less than what they should have been with the way they were going earlier.

Overs Number 44-50

Pakistanis bowled way too many full tosses.

All of them went for either a 6 or a 4, while 1 of them even resulted in the bowler being pulled out of the attack.

The 300 came up in the 46th over, and Raina was looking extremely good as he carryied forward his impressive IPL display.

Tanvir bowled 3 meaningless deliveries when Wahab was hauled up by the umpires. Did you notice Malik point to his shoulder when Younis asked why he doesn't bowl?

Its ok if you're unfit to bowl but its definitely not ok if your team mates don't know about it.

I think this is it for me and my patience with Shoaib Malik the captain.

Umar Gul picked up Pathan and Raina in the penultimate over to finish with figures of 3-61 off 10 overs.

India ended on an exact 330-8 in 50 overs as Younis Khan bowled the best over of the innings giving away only 2 runs and a bye.

I've never seen Younis bowl medium pace before. I wonder why he doesn't do it more often. On a wicket where all bowlers went for 5-6 runs an over, Younis conceded only 2 and that too in the final over of the innings.

Maybe Ganguly type medium pace bowling can save Younis Khan's ODI career.

Afridi was the pick of the bowlers for Pakistan with figures of 2-52 in 10.

Rao Iftikhar went wicketless in 10 overs conceding 63. Sohail Khan should have played instead.

Tanvir disappointed with a solitary non-wicket in 9.4 overs that went for 57.

Wahab Riaz was on the receiving end of some stick giving away a record 86 runs in 9.2 overs. Those are the most expensive figures by a Pakistani against an Indian break Ata Ur Rehmans 85 in 10 overs back in 1996.

Sehwag and Gambhir took the game away from Pakistan in the 1st half of the innings before Pakistan fought back in the latter half. India ended well though to reach a significant 330.

It seems to be way out of reach for Pakistan but this is cricket and stranger things have happened.

Bad fielding, indisciplined bowling, and dropped catches cost Pakistan. They have only themselves to blame - there is no excuse for giving away 39 extras, absolutely no excuse particularly when 29 of those are from wides and no balls.

India did well but it was really Pakistan doing really badly.

Up to the batting now and good-bye from me though.

I will do a post match round up tomorrow.

Make your pitch on this post...



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6 Pitched:

  1. Miriam said...
     

    Younis's golden duck represents an improvement on his last match, anyway.

  2. Miss Field said...
     

    Great work Q.

  3. Som said...
     

    Q, mammoth job! Cricinfo guys would heave a sigh of relief that you are not into full-time this thing (or are you!). CONGRATS

  4. Q said...
     

    Thank you MF and Som.

    Som, i'm not but I could be :-)

    I was too disappointed with the whole Pakistani bowling effort that I didn't feel like covering the 2nd half.

    Miriam - yeah he did face one whole ball more than last time. I think his medium pace will save his ODI career.

  5. straight point said...
      This comment has been removed by the author.
  6. straight point said...
     

    it takes courage to do this...so great work Q...

    bowlers on their part created opportunities...but more than the bowling effort one should be disappointed about how malik captained pak...

    teams have scored 330 or more before and will score against you...but yesterdays match was an apt example of how pathetically one can captain a side...he is regressive captain at his best...

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