It would be a miracle if Aamir is reprieved by the tribunal in January. But more than the bowling I am worried about our batting. We do not have a settled opening pair - hope they persist with Shahzaib and Hafeez on the tour of NZ - as yet and Younis, Misbah and Umar Akmal are all very inconsistent to say the least. 2-3 of the top-order batters have to perform solidly with the bat if Pakistan are to do well in the knock-out stages. 20s and 30s won't do. Afridi and Razzaq can only do so much with the bat in the latter stages of an innings. They cannot be expected to take us from say 100 odd for 4 to a challenging total. 275-300 is a must on batting-friendly sub-continental tracks. 300 even might not be enough on some days. We saw just a few days ago how NZ failed to defend 315 against India
No result that was the out come of this match… due to rain. England could have easily won this match and pakistan would have been knocked out!!!
Pakistan innings (50 overs maximum) R M B 4s 6s SR
Rameez Raja c Reeve b DeFreitas 1 13 10 0 0 10.00
Aamer Sohail c & b Pringle 9 52 39 0 0 23.07
Inzamam-ul-Haq c †Stewart b DeFreitas 0 1 1 0 0 0.00
Javed Miandad* b Pringle 3 29 22 0 0 13.63
Saleem Malik c Reeve b Botham 17 45 20 3 0 85.00
Ijaz Ahmed c †Stewart b Small 0 16 15 0 0 0.00
Wasim Akram b Botham 1 12 13 0 0 7.69
Moin Khan† c Hick b Small 2 25 14 0 0 14.28
Wasim Haider c †Stewart b Reeve 13 46 46 1 0 28.26
Mushtaq Ahmed c Reeve b Pringle 17 54 42 1 0 40.47
Aaqib Javed not out 1 24 21 0 0 4.76
Extras (lb 1, w 8, nb 1) 10
Total (all out; 40.2 overs) 74 (1.83 runs per over)
Fall of wickets1-5 (Rameez Raja), 2-5 (Inzamam-ul-Haq), 3-14 (Javed Miandad), 4-20 (Aamer Sohail), 5-32 (Ijaz Ahmed), 6-35 (Wasim Akram), 7-42 (Saleem Malik), 8-47 (Moin Khan), 9-62 (Wasim Haider), 10-74 (Mushtaq Ahmed)
Bowling O M R W Econ
DR Pringle 8.2 5 8 3 0.96 (1nb)
PAJ DeFreitas 7 1 22 2 3.14 (7w)
GC Small 10 1 29 2 2.90 (1w)
IT Botham 10 4 12 2 1.20
DA Reeve 5 3 2 1 0.40 England innings (target: 64 runs from 16 overs) R M B 4s 6s SR
GA Gooch* c †Moin Khan b Wasim Akram 3 24 14 0 0 21.42
IT Botham not out 6 42 22 0 0 27.27
RA Smith not out 5 17 13 1 0 38.46
Extras (b 1, lb 3, w 5, nb 1) 10
Total (1 wicket; 8 overs) 24 (3.00 runs per over)
Did not bat GA Hick, NH Fairbrother, AJ Stewart†, CC Lewis, DA Reeve, DR Pringle, PAJ DeFreitas, GC Small
Fall of wickets1-14 (Gooch)
Bowling O M R W Econ
Wasim Akram 3 0 7 1 2.33 (1nb, 3w)
Aaqib Javed 3 1 7 0 2.33 (2w)
Wasim Haider 1 0 1 0 1.00
Ijaz Ahmed 1 0 5 0 5.00
Don't also forget that Pak lost 2 points against SA because of the ridiculous rain rule in that world cup (the asking RR suddenly jumped from 4.5 RPO to almost 9 RPO). South Afrca had made a modest 200 odd in their 50 overs & Pakistan were cruising until rain arrived. So I suppose it all evened out in the end. And then to win 5 games on the trot (all of them must win games) showed great character and fighting spirit of the team. Besides Pakistan were the only team to beat NZ (twice) who were undefeated (had beaten each of the other 6 teams) until then
