Pakistan Tour Of West Indies 2013

[Clarke]

Mashallah what an achievement defeating rank 8 ODI team The next Graeme Pollock, also known as Haris Sohail just made an amazing debut.

[Hafeez]

Mashallah what an achievement defeating rank 8 ODI team The next Graeme Pollock, also known as Haris Sohail just made an amazing debut.

WI Was ranked no-7th Before this series and also Remember India played 2 Match against Windies recently won 1/Lost 1 and We also has defeated India no-1 Odi team in India 6 month ago :finger:

[Clarke]

WI Was ranked no-7th Before this series and also Remember India played 2 Match against Windies recently won 1/Lost 1 and We also has defeated India no-1 Odi team in India 6 month ago :finger:

Subhanallah Pak team better than baniyas :nice:

[KeyboardWarrior]

Congrats to Team Pakistan :two_thumbs_up:

[Bleed-Blue]

WI Was ranked no-7th Before this series and also Remember India played 2 Match against Windies recently won 1/Lost 1 and We also has defeated India no-1 Odi team in India 6 month ago :finger:

IT Seems Like 6 Years Ago Considering How Many Times You Keep Mentioning it:giggle:

[cowboysfan]

Mashallah what an achievement defeating rank 8 ODI team The next Graeme Pollock, also known as Haris Sohail just made an amazing debut.

Sarcasm is lost on pakis.

[hassan_113]

Well played guys. Some more attacking players. Now time to enjoy Zim v India: waiting for Rohit to score big.

[carnish]

Well played guys. Some more attacking players. Now time to enjoy Zim v India: waiting for Rohit to score big.

Hahaha, You're gonna have to Wait Big(Time) :haha:

[carnish]

Misbah climbs up ODI rankings

After a productive series with the bat against West Indies, Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq has moved to a career-best seventh place in the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen. Misbah was Player of the Series for scoring 260 runs, which included four half-centuries in five matches, in Pakistan's 3-1 victory. The performance also helped him stretch his lead over Kumar Sangakkara as the leading ODI run-getter in 2013. Misbah now has 808 runs this year with nine half-centuries. Umar Akmal, who was not part of Pakistan's Champions Trophy squad in June, also made a successful comeback to the side, scoring 175 runs at a strike rate of 111.46. It helped him jump ten places in the batsmen's rankings to 13. Shahid Afridi, who had an excellent first match in which he scored a half-century and picked up seven wickets, also moved up the rankings and is now placed 28th among bowlers and 47th among batsmen. The batmen's rankings continue to be led by the South African pair of Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers, followed by Virat Kohli. Sunil Narine heads the bowlers' list, followed by England's Steven Finn and James Anderson

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci-icc/content/story/655131.html

[JaFanatic]

2nd T20I

[carnish]

Babar takes Pakistan home off last ball in 1st T20

You get a chance to play international cricket at 34, becoming the second-oldest debutant for your country. You are hit for six second ball. What do you do? You dismiss three key batsmen for just 23 runs. You are then called on to finish the game. With the bat. Understandably, you are tied down. But with six needed off six, you loft over extra cover for four. You think you have more than pulled your weight as a debutant. You have, but it is not over yet. It comes down to the last ball. One run needed. Everyone is in the circle. No sweat. You go big over mid-off, so big that you clear the rope. Zulfiqar Babar, welcome to international cricket. It should not have come down to the last ball the way Shahid Afridi sensibly steered the chase from 86 for 5. After that became 116 for 6, he did it with the tail for company. He made 46 off 27, but barring the 27th delivery, he hardly hit a desperate, reckless stroke. With eight needed off 11 though, he tried to seal it with a straight six, and mishit to long-on. West Indies sensed a chance. Babar played out a few dots. Despite that early boundary in the last over, Saeed Ajmal was run out off the fifth with the scores tied, before Babar roared one final time. The way they bowled and fielded, West Indies were lucky to have taken it down to the last ball. Shannon Gabriel took three wickets, but he crumbled under pressure each time he was called upon to deliver. Umar Amin, who played a blinder on T20 debut, took three fours off Gabriel's first over, with a flick and two pulls. Amin then took Samuel Badree apart on a turning pitch. Never giving the ball a chance to spin, he repeatedly stepped out to loft Badree down the ground. When the bowler dropped it short, Amin pulled. When he overpitched, Amin drove. Even as Amin was toying with West Indies, the hosts were striking at the other end. The Pakistan top order fell to miscalculated hits, but Amin's brilliance meant the asking-rate was always under control. That still didn't stop Amin from walking out to Samuels and getting stumped to make it 86 for 5. Afridi took over now, striking Samuels first ball for six over long-off and drilling the third to the extra cover rope. Thereafter, he settled down into cruise mode, rotating the strike, picking the odd boundary and also lofting Sunil Narine to become the first man to reach 400 international sixes. He did everything right except the stroke on the ball he got out to, but then, it was to be the debutant's day in the end. Babar, and the other Pakistan spinners, had shocked West Indies initially on the turner but the hosts recovered and then took apart the fast bowlers to post a challenging total. Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard came together at 42 for 4 and put on 56 before Darren Sammy cracked 30 off 14. Pakistan's slow bowlers did their job, taking 5 for 74 in 14 overs but the fast bowlers, missing the yorkers too often, disappeared for 1 for 73 in six. Mohammad Hafeez, who opened the bowling and dismissed the openers, gave himself just two overs. Babar squared up and bowled Lendl Simmons with his fourth delivery and in his next over, found himself in the way of a powerful hit from Samuels, but managed to hold on. Samuels had been cutting Mohammad Irfan for boundaries amid all the wickets. Bravo and Pollard, although not always in control, rotated the strike, a refreshing thing coming from a West Indies pair. Bravo was quick to hit with the turn through the off side, and Pollard made sure he put away the rare half-volleys for boundaries. Sammy went after the fast bowlers as he and Pollard looted 53 in four overs. As Sammy said after the game, 152 should have been defended on that pitch, but Babar was to have the perfect debut.

[carnish]

Sammy rues extra Powerplay runs

Darren Sammy, the West Indies T20 captain, admitted that the failure of his bowlers to contain Pakistan's batsmen during the Powerplay overs was a major factor in his side's two-wicket loss to Pakistan in the first T20I. "We gave away too many runs in the Powerplay," Sammy said. "We still have to learn how to do it. I believed in [shannon] Gabriel's extra pace, and thought he could get Afridi out. He did get him out, but a bit too late. We batted like champions, but this time our bowlers didn't back up our batsmen." Shannon Gabriel, Samuel Badree and Sunil Narine, who bowled the mandatory Powerplay overs for West Indies, conceded 61 runs in the first six overs. Although West Indies managed to dismiss three batsmen, the start was enough to give Pakistan some momentum in their chase. Gabriel gave 25 runs in his first two overs and took the wicket of Nasir Jamshed. He was expensive in his second spell, too, conceding 19 runs in two overs, but managed to dismiss Hammad Azam in the 15th over and Shahid Afridi in the penultimate over, with Pakistan six runs short of the target. Pakistan's reply was largely guided by Shahid Afridi, who scored 46 off 27 balls, and debutantes Umar Amin and Zulfiqar Babar also put up impressive performances. Amin steadied the innings after the loss of early wickets with a 34-ball 47, while Babar picked up the wickets of Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons and Dwayne Bravo, before scoring 13 nerveless runs to take Pakistan to victory off the last ball. Afridi, who won the Man-of-the-Match award, and Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez were effusive in their praise for Amin and Babar. "I should give my award to Zulfiqar Babar: he bowled well, fielded well, batted well. And Umar Amin too," Afridi said after the match. "It's a great effort by the players," Hafeez said. "I was really happy to see their desire to win. I am really happy with the contribution of the two debutants, and then Shahid Afridi. It was a tough chase, but the positive intent was there."

http://www.espncricinfo.com/west-indies-v-pakistan-2013/content/story/655909.html

[carnish]

Walking tall - Mohammed Irfan By Ahmer Naqvi

The first time we went to see a cricket match in England, my wife and I caught a rude surprise. We had shown up at Chester-le-Street wearing our replica shirts, but this was September and the rest of the crowd were bedecked in anoraks to combat the howling winds, and were in possession of a variety of liquids to numb the ensuing pain. Clearly we weren't equipped for the torture to follow, but we still weren't as unprepared as that day's debutant, Mohammad Irfan, seemed to be. Bowling stiff and wayward, he conceded 37 runs in 5.3 wicketless overs before limping off the field. Of course, it wasn't meant to turn out this way. Irfan's tale seemed straight out of post-modernist fantasy to some, and this match was meant to be the glorious climax of that story. Here was a cricketer from Pakistan's rural backwaters who had quit the game disillusioned and impoverished. Earning a pittance as a labourer in a pipe factory, he was spotted by members of the influential online cricket forum, **********.net. They harangued Aaqib Javed about their find until he relented and had a look. Aaqib liked what he saw and Irfan's life turned around dramatically as he was fast-tracked into the national set-up. After that horror start in England, Irfan spent two seasons in the wilderness, working hard on his fitness and skills. When he returned to the national side for the series against India, his figures weren't stellar, but his ability to strike terror into the hearts of batsmen certainly was. The Tests in South Africa exposed his lack of fitness, but he came back roaring in the ODIs, where, in four matches, he took 11 wickets at 13.72 runs and 18 balls per scalp. His figures have continued to improve through the Champion's Trophy and the current West Indies tour. His stats have also begun to match up to the quality and consistent hostility his bowling has displayed - after a wicketless start in his first two ODIs, he has failed to pick up a wicket only twice in 17 further matches. But while it is obvious that Irfan has the talent, it is debatable whether his remarkable journey would have been possible had he not been more than seven feet tall. Would **********.net have been as excited about a decent pacer who was a foot shorter? Would Aaqib have bothered listening to over-eager fans had they not been offering the second coming of Joel Garner? I pondered these questions recently as I tried to make sense of some of Irfan's oddities. While Irfan is capable of making the ball move in magnificent arcs, the rest of his game doesn't seem to match up. His action, while efficient, is far from aesthetically pleasing, and it often looks like he's falling apart. He still hasn't worked out his appeals or celebrations, often looking menacingly bewildered rather than genuinely enthused when he picks up a wicket. In fact, he recently appealed for a wicket despite knocking a batsman's stumps back. Once he has bowled the ball, it is almost as if he isn't always sure what to do with himself. The author Musharraf Farooqi is currently working on a novel that explores the stories of two famously tall men from Pakistan. The first, Alam Channa, a national icon, would often be wheeled out on state TV for useless events, and allegedly went to China searching for a wife as tall as him (his search was in vain). All Channa ever wished for was to lead a normal life, but instead he fell into poor health and died without ever being known for anything but being tall. The second giant, Aurangzeb Khan, emigrated to the US and worked as a cab driver and as a bouncer before the Ringling Brothers gave him a contract in their circus. Aurganzeb played up his height, attained a modicum of fame, and created a website called tallkhan.com. For Farooqi, the impulse to write these stories came from a desire to see how "the world sees someone with a unique physical presence, and how that imposes a certain identity on the person which is difficult to escape". To put it bluntly, the only way for giants to deal with how society sees them is to act like freaks, because trying to be normal just doesn't work. And perhaps that's precisely how we need to view Irfan's journey. Having been thrust into the limelight in unprecedented circumstances, it has taken him some time to understand how to use his height, how to be comfortable in his body. He may well be coming to terms with the expectations society confers on tall men. His record shows he has come to grips with being a cricketer, but it feels like he's still getting used to being such a celebrated oddity. Thankfully, he appears to be finding his way. Perhaps the most telling evidence is his celebration routine for every wicket. After initial uncertainty, Irfan always breaks out of the celebratory huddle to look for Saeed Ajmal. When he spots him, he lets out a huge grin as he holds his arms up as high as he can, so that the far more diminutive Ajmal has to leap high to complete the high-five. This Ajmal-Irfan routine began as an advertisement, but now genuinely feels like an Irfan signature. It's when he steps out and pokes fun at the supposed absurdity of his height, and it's the moment that shows us - and himself - that he is just as wonderful and unique as anyone else.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/655249.html Great Read, It is really weird when I think about how life would be for him being of the height which he is. We may think he gets height advantage in cricket now, but the same height brings him so much disadvantage in life. It really is a good thing, he found his calling.

[Asim]

IPL Legend Gayle in this tour: 1,1,8,30,21,5,1

[Bleed-Blue]

IPL Legend Gayle in this tour: 1' date=1,8,30,21,5,1

Joined the pakis in the spot fixing:giggle:

[carnish]

Guys, I will no more be updating these threads because at the end of the this thread will also be merged with other silly threads on this series like Ind-Zim. No point wasting my time any more. Thanks.

[Asim]

Guys' date=' I will no more be updating these threads because at the end of the this thread will also be merged with other silly threads on this series like Ind-Zim. No point wasting my time any more. Thanks.[/quote'] dil pey ley gya hey... learn to live with it :winky: and creating a match thread DAYS ago not a good idea...

[carnish]

dil pey ley gya hey... learn to live with it :winky: and creating a match thread DAYS ago not a good idea...

Its not about minding it ... I was regularly updating articles and creating the match threads from the Op which made it easy for me but now I guess its okay as the schedule is back in the OP. I dont mind if thats the case, whether its my post or anyone else's ... There was already a thread on India A tour of South Africa and hence I never created one more but posted the articles and stuff in that thread, so its not like I am obsessed with my threads only. And tell me when I created match threads before 24 hours of the start of match ?? Here I was talking about series threads not match threads.

[Asim]

^ Sorry if I was incorrect... Dont rem exactly but for some match recently after I created a thread, u mentioned u already have created it 'way before' the match, I thought that was may be 'days before' :giggle:

[carnish]

^ Sorry if I was incorrect... Dont rem exactly but for some match recently after I created a thread' date=' u mentioned u already have created it 'way before' the match, I thought that was may be 'days before' :giggle:[/quote'] Nope, that was 20 hours before the start of the game ... And sorry about your thread but seriously that was just a make shift one. i would not have said anything had you worked hard on yours.