PAKISTAN'S UNIQUE FEAT

On Tuesday Pakistan became the only team to feature in the semi finals of all four World Twenty20 tournaments that have taken place thus far.

Pakistan were also the only team to have featured in the semi final line up of the three previous World T20 tournaments.

And they remain the only team to have played two World T20 Finals; however they could be joined by Australia or Sri Lanka if either of them qualify for the finals.

That record is impeccable.

On Thursday, when Pakistan take on Sri Lanka in the 1st Semi Final of the World T20 2012, it will be the 4th consecutive World T20 semi final that Shahid Afridi and Kamran Akmal will play. While it will be the 3rd World T20 semi final for Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Saeed Ajmal, and Umar Gul.

That is one experienced line up.

If it were not for a Michael Hussey juggernaut in 2010, Pakistan would have played a 3rd straight World T20 final, but it was an unbelievable and an unfortunate day in St. Lucia for the Pakistanis as Hussey produced a whirlwind and shattered Pakistan's hopes.

HISTORICAL ADVANTAGE WITH PAKISTAN

This time, the Greens are up against Sri Lanka, who started this World T20 as one of the favorites. Playing the Sri Lankans on their home ground is never easy, but I believe Pakistan has it in them to go all the way.

Historically, Pakistan has done well against the Sri Lankans, winning 6 out of the 9 T20 internationals that the teams have played against each other.

Out of the three matches they have played in World T20 tournaments, Pakistan have won 2 (including the final of the World T20 2009) and Sri Lanka 1.

BOTH TEAMS PRETTY EVEN IN THIS WORLD T20

Both, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have looked very strong during this World T20, however I feel that Pakistan has been the more dominant team out of the two.

Pakistan completely outplayed New Zealand and Bangladesh during the Group stages, and dominated Australia in their last Super 8 game. They stuttered against South Africa, but came back strongly to win that game narrowly. They have had only 1 bad game in the entire tournament and that was against India where they looked meek and out of sorts.

Sri Lanka, on the other hand, remained unbeaten in the Super 8 stage beating England, West Indies, and New Zealand on their way to the semi finals. While they dominated the West Indies and England, they tied against New Zealand and won in the super over. They annihilated Zimbabwe in the opening match of the World T20 and only lost a shortened 7-over sprint to South Africa in the group stages.

Besides the historical advantage that Pakistan holds, there is very little to choose between the two teams as far as this tournament is concerned.

TOP 3 THE KEY TO BOTH TEAMS' BATTING

As far as the batting is concerned, Pakistan's top 3 of Mohammad Hafeez, Imran Nazir, and Nasir Jamshed are their leading run scorers in this tournament. The top order has traditionally been a worry for Pakistan, but in this tournament it is their top 3 who have done the bulk of the scoring.

Even the middle order comprising of the Akmal brothers, Shoaib Malik, and now Abdul Razzaq looks solid. Razzaq showed some touch during Pakistan's last Super 8 game against Australia, and if he can fire with the bat in the closing overs, it will provide Pakistan with the much needed fire power lower down, which has been missing due to Afridi's bad form with the bat.

For Sri Lanka as well, it is their top 3 of Jayawardene, Dilshan, & Sangakkara who are their leading run scorers in this World T20. Even though their middle order remains largely untested, the likes of Matthews, Thirimanne, Mendis, and the hard hitting Perera can be very dangerous on their day.

BOTH TEAMS HAVE A FORMIDABLE ATTACK

Sri Lanka has two match winning bowlers in their ranks in Lasith Malinga and Ajantha Mendis, both of whom are among the leading wicket takers in this World T20. Mendis had a rare off day in the last Super 8 game against England and Pakistan has traditionally played him well, but he still poses a threat, while Malinga is the sort of bowler who can turn a  match on its head within an over.

For Pakistan, Saeed Ajmal is the key, who is also among the leading wicket takers in this tournament. Even though they possess another two top quality match winning bowlers in Afridi and Umar Gul, both of them have been off color in this World T20. While Afridi has still managed to remain relatively economical, Gul has gone for over 10 runs an over.

Gul did seem to come back to some sort of rhythm in Pakistan's last game against Australia, but he is still far away from being the dangerous death bowler he once was in T20s.

The rise of Raza Hasan though is a positive sign for Pakistan. The 20 year old did what no other bowler has managed to do in this entire tournament - he tamed the man beast Shane Watson and finally ended his run scoring spree.


What has been remarkable about Raza is that he has opened the bowling for Pakistan in all their three Super 8 games against the batting power houses of Australia, South Africa, and India, and has managed an economy rate of only 4.36 in 11 overs, which is the best economy in this World T20 for any one who has bowled more than 5 overs.

TOO CLOSE TO CALL

Even though Sri Lanka have the home advantage, Pakistan were based in Colombo for their Super 8 games and are well accustomed to the conditions. There is no doubt that both teams are going to attack with spin, and it will possibly come down to which team plays the other's spin better.

It is going to be a cracker of a match. Even though I am stopping short of calling out a sure shot winner, I do believe that the winner of this semi final will lift the trophy on Sunday.

4-2-8-6.

Those are some insane figures!

Ajantha Mendis gave a world record breaking performance in the opening game of the World T20 against Zimbabwe, which home team and hot favourites Sri Lanka won comfortably.

The best figures in T20 internationals before this game were 4-1-16-6, which also belonged to Ajantha Mendis.

Not only did he overhaul his own feat, Mendis also became the only bowler to pick up a five wicket haul twice in T20 internationals.

Sorry, make that a 6 wicket haul twice in T20 internationals.

Mendis also bettered Umar Gul's 5-6 against New Zealand during the World T20 in 2009 to notch up the best ever figures in a World T20 game.

Before today's opening game, Mendis was 6th on the list of highest wicket takers in T20Is. With today's efforts he moved up to number 4 and sits behind the 3 Pakistanis at the top.

He also moved up to number 5, from number 9, in the list of highest wicket takers in World T20 games.

With South Africa also in their group, tougher tests await Sri Lanka, however they gave a very strong account of themselves today and showed why they are being considered as hot favourites for the title.

It was a good start for them at the World T20 and a tremendous start for Ajantha Mendis, who will continue to play a key role for Sri Lanka in this competition.

Mohammad Yousuf continues to hit test hundreds, while Ajantha Mendis continues to fail against Pakistan.

The best part about this was that Yousuf did not read Mendis at all during his knock of 112.

Mendis turned the ball both ways and quite a bit too; all this while Yousuf was caught at sea plenty of times.

Yet, he survived and Mendis failed to undo him or any of the Pakistani batsmen in his 25 overs.

Mendis' woeful run against Pakistan continues.

In his 80th test, Yousuf brought up his 24th century, taking him ahead of Javed Miandad (23) and one behind Inzamam Ul Haq (25).

For me, Inzamam is the best batsman ever produced by Pakistan; it would kill me to call Yousuf that, however, I feel that at times personal animosity should be kept aside when judging a cricketer.

Putting all that I have against Yousuf aside, there is no doubt that he is a special batsman.

His 24th century came in only his 80th test match; Inzamam hit 25 in 120 tests and Javed Miandad 23 in 124 tests.

That is enough to realize that Yousuf is probably the best batsman to have ever played for Pakistan.

Even when compared with the rest of the world, Yousuf is definitely one of the greats.

Among all batsmen with a minimum of 15 test centuries, there are only 4 batsmen that took fewer innings than Yousuf does to score their next hundred.

Among contemporary test batsmen, Yousuf scores test centuries more often than anyone else.

He does so at a slightly better rate than Kevin Pietersen and Ricky Ponting; he does so more often than Matthew Hayden and Gary Sobers did, and he does so more often than Sachin Tendulkar does!

Now who can say that isn't special!

The Pakistanis have landed in Colombo, where they play a 3-day game against a Sri Lankan XI from tomorrow, before they head to Galle for the 1st test next week.

The series that was left incomplete by some twisted men in Lahore, will now continue in the island over the next month.

After the IPL and the World T20, I am finally ready to end my affair with T20 cricket and shift all my focus and attention to the purest and longest version of the game.

Here I start by focusing on the potential threat, or rather the lack of, that Ajantha Mendis poses for Pakistan in the 3-test series.

The Ajantha Mendis threat doesn't really exist for Pakistan.

Well prepared, planned, worked-out, thought-out or not; Pakistan has surely figured out how to cope against Mendis' variations.

Moreso than any other team anyway.

The numbers are there for everyone to see and they tell the entire story.

Definitely the Pakistanis are doing something right, something that other teams are not; there is no doubt that they have played Mendis better than their contemporaries.

But how?

Some say they treat him like a medium pacer, others say they pick him of the hand; what it is exactly that the Pakistanis are doing right, I have no idea!

It doesn't matter really.

As long as they continue doing it right, Mendis will not be a threat to Pakistan - not in tests, not in ODIs, not in the T20I.

Hence, as I said. The Ajantha Mendis threat; it doesn't exist for Pakistan.

Reporter: That was tepid. Do you think your batsmen imploded during the run chase?

Vettori: Yes.

Reporter: Both you and Sangakkara used spinners during the powerplay. What do you think they did right, that your spinners couldn't?

Vettori: We were amazed as to how the spinners got to spin the ball. I couldn't do it. How could they? I have never seen the ball spin in the first 6 overs of a match.

Reporter: Surely, you seem to have lost the plot. A couple of days ago you were casting doubts on abilities of the finest pacer in the T20 game, now you are doing the same regarding the finest spinners in the game. What happened to the Kiwi spirit?

Vettori: Ohh umm, I think Fleming took it with him.

It kept getting worse with Dilshan and Jayasuriya going great guns.

But then, as always Afridi came on and boom boomed with the ball like he has always done, and brought Pakistan back into the game.

Ajmal provided wonderful support and Gul finished off brilliantly to restrict Sri Lanka to a chaseable total.

Was quite a fight back then.

But Pakistan, who now show their mercurial nature in the same match as well, started their innings of the wrong foot once again.

Salman Butt beaten all ends up of a Matthews dopply bopply. I still don't understand why they continue to persist with him!

Shoaib Malik started off watchfully but got his act together before throwing it away.

Kamran Akmal hardly faced any deliveries and was run out, for which only he was to blame. That 2 second hesitation did him. Why? Why stop? The single was on!

Misbah disappointed. He just couldn't get going.

Shahid Afridi, well what do I say. He's lost it with the bat. He just can't do it anymore and the sooner Pakistan realise that they can't count on him with the willow the better. Let him dominate with the ball.

Despite what everyone has said about Younis Khan being an average captain, not a capable twenty20 batsman, one that doesn't take risks, he has done really well with the bat in all the matches.

But he has had no support from anyone else.

His 50 off 37 deliveries today followed scores of 46* off 31 deliveries against England, and 36 off 20 deliveries against Netherlands.

Good scores, good scoring rates, but no one to support.

That has been the story of Pakistan in this ICC World Twenty20.

They managed to keep the Dilshans, Jayasuriyas, and Sangakkaras quiet, but at the end the Lankan M factor - Malinga, Murali, Mendis, and Matthews proved too much for them.

On the brighter side though, we are still not out.

Pakistan can beat New Zealand tomorrow, and Ireland on Monday to still qualify for the semi finals.

However, for that to happen, they have to get their batting act together. And fast!

Good news is that Razzaq will be back tomorrow, and Pakistan always does well with their backs to the wall.

vs UAE: 6.3-1-22-5
vs Pakistan: 10-0-47-4

ODI Career: 40.3-3-163-12

Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Anil Kumble - move over. All your records are going to be broken by this man.

Give him 10 years, and as long as his fingers stay intact, he will break all bowling records - tests and ODIs.