I am a little clueless on English bowling line-up. I know they have Caddick, Flintoff and Anderson for medium pacers. Who does spin and what kind?. Are they a real threat?. Who is the “Fifth bowler”?. Is it a combination of two all-rounders or a genuine fifth bowler?.
In batting, Michael Vaughn seems to be in good touch. Tresco has always been a good fast scorere.
How are Ronnie Irani, Ian Blackwell and Paul Collingwood?.
I can easily go to a web site and get a run down on the team but I would like to hear your comments.
From what little I know, Collingwood, Irani, Blackwell and Vaughan are all supposed to contribute as bowlers. But obviously none of them are a major threat but with our batsmen you never know... Giles is their spinner but he's out with a throat infection. He's an intelligent bowler (don't know if he's coming back), I have respect for him. Irani and Collingwood are a joke with the ball and ought to get some stick but our bats might be just content keeping wickets intact.
For me, the dangermen are Tresco, Vaughan, Flintoff and Blackwell. Blackwell is supposed to have a rep as a big hitter. Then, you have Caddick who could be a factor if he's able to get bounce out of the pitch. England's weak link is that their allrounders are actually only bits and pieces players and no more.
Paul Collingwood is a good batsman with very ordinary medium pace bowling, Ian Blackwell is a newcomer but a good hitter of the ball and takes care of the spind bowling for England. Ronnie Irani is a good batsman with decent medium pace bowling. However I dont think they can cause any worry to Pakistan.
If Pakistan can sort out Nick Night, White, Flintoff - They will be home easily. England batting looks very strong on papers with Ronnie Irani coming at no. 9 but bowling looks very week.
Elahi should be picked ahead of Afridi. Our batting is brittle as it is. We cant afford to have batsmen who gift away their wickets to opponents. The people who are most happy when Afridi is picked to play for Pakistan are the opponents. Afridi!!! no thank you.
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*Originally posted by funguy: *
Yep, with 5 genuine bowlers, we can do without the services of Afridi.
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I disagree. Our bowling is what makes our team what it is. Our batting is nto capable of winning matches. I don't think that our world cup campaign will be able to handle another bad day for the bowlers. Afridi must be played for his backup bowling. Waqar has a tendency to go for a lot of runs, Saqi doesn't have a lot of bowling under his belt and the Razzler is taking his place in the team for granted. To expect Wasim and Shoaib to win every match is unfair on the duo.
Afridi can be dropped against disciplined and efficient demolition machines such as Australia but against others he should be played.
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*Originally posted by smooth_guy: *
I agree Fungie...i thought the final picture has emerged from this match as some of the analyst wrote yesterday in Indian newspapers.
ehsan....Sami and batting ???? he looks to me second Aaqib.
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Well I was just comparing his and Afridi's batting skills. :D
Well I was just comparing his and Afridi's batting skills. :D
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lol..
now you know how an ordinary cricket follower think of this Afridi guy....
I accepted what you said as truth and didn't think it as a joke. :D
I think last time we saw him making a big score was a year ago or something and b.....* still getting place in ODIs. He should be dropped or atleast sent before Rashid on no. 6 .... and that is against minnows.
Englands bowling has not been very impressive in this tournament so far, so I think we can take a chance and play Afridi. He is effective agaisnt ordinary aatcks and that will be good for our NRR. I think we should open with Afridi and Anwar and Anwar should just try and rotate strike until he settles down and Afridi should go for the big ones right away. He did not try to do that agaisnt Australia. He was trying to play a real openars innings against Australia. He is not technicaly sound to play defensice strokes, his footwork is minimal so he should just play his natural game.
I think they should send Akram at one down for a change, If he blasts English bowlers for 30-40 runs, The English will panic and it will boost the confidence of other batsmen. :)
In any case I think this match will be a cakewalk for pakistan.
i think we need strong openin saeed n elahi will make dat 4 sure.
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here'z my battin line up
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Saeed Anwar
Saleem Elahi
Yousuf Youhana
Inzamam-ul-Haq
Younis Khan
Azhar Mehmood
Rashid Latif
Wasim Akram
Saqlain Mushtaq
Waqar Younis
Shoaib Akhtar
