The match starts tomorrow and England have been given permission to play all its 14 palyers in the match in order to test their fitness and form for the upcoming series. The match will therefore not be given the status of a first class fixture. Flintoff and Harmisson will join the squad later on.
The teams are as follows:
England: M. Vaughan (capt), A. Strauss, M. Trescothick, I. Bell, K. Pietersen, G Jones (wkt), A. Giles, A. Loudon, S. Udal, L. Plunkett, M. Hoggard, P. Collingwood, M. Prior (wkt), J. Anderson.
Pakistan Cricket Board Patron’s XI: Asher Zaidi, Yasir Hameed, Bazid Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Asim Kamal, Faisal Iqbal, Imran Tahir, Yasir Arafat, Zulqarnain, Mohammad Irshad, Arshad Khan, Mohammad Asif, Najaf Shah, Shehzad Malik.
Thats a pedistrian bowling line up. If Umar Gul wasnt selected for the test side he could have atleast been picked for this game. What about Imran Farhat and Taufeeq Umar. Anyway I think the batting might put up some fight but I dont see these bowlers threatning the English batsmen.
I wud’nt write these guys off that easy, young and inexperienced they are but surely have a great opportunity to demonstrate their talent. Umer Gul omission is beyond comprehension.
One thing which has been worrying me is this new trend of treating proper practice matches as net practice. Recently, our Bobby woolmer decided on his own to change players midway btw a match, changed the ball, changed the bowlers and had he the opportunity wud have changed the ground. Then in the last practice match, Inzi had Asim Kamal bat three times, 3`times? I understand the need to get proper practice, but are'nt these guys pushing this issue way to far?
Now we have the English side being allowed to play all 14 players, a first class match being converted into a net practice session. Maybe Iam old fashioned, but is this not just defeating the purpose of inviting foreign teams so that the local talent gets a chance to prove themselves and in turn get an opportunity to play (professionally) with world class players? If these matches are turned into net practice then whats the incentive for a young player to demonstrate his talent, or for the foreign team to take the match seriously?
It looks like none of the players who are likely to be selected for the Tests are in this team. It'll be interesting to see how Mohammad Irshad fares against the English batting lineup.
Not really Lahori, Irshad is one of the MOST talented young fast bowler (modeled his action on Shoaib Akhtar and bowls in high 80’s with swing). Najaf Shah is another left hand bowler who in my opinion is way better than khalil, he is lanky fast bowler who can swing both ways. Not too impressed with Khalil but other two spinenrs, Imran khalid and Tahir Khan are also pretty good. But i agree that Gul should have been there.
Englans has appreantly crashed to 61/6 according to cricinfo and there is also live scoreboard as well. I can't access that from work :( . can someone please post a link here or even scoreboard??? plz plz
I hope Irshad ahs destroyed them :)
ME Trescothick not out 34
AJ Strauss b Najaf Shah 5
*MP Vaughan lbw b Najaf Shah 9
KP Pietersen c Asim Kamal b Yasir Ali 2
PD Collingwood b Yasir Arafat 0
R Bell c Zulqarnain Haider b Yasir Arafat 2
+GO Jones b Yasir Arafat 4
AF Giles not out 0
Extras (w 2, nb 3) 5
Total (6 wickets, 26 overs) 61
To Bat: MJ Prior, AGR Loudon, LE Plunkett, SD Udal, MJ Hoggard, JM Anderson.
Good performance by young fast bowlers, didn't know Yasir Arafat is capable of this. I have seen him bowl and he looks awfully useless but he keeps on getting loads of wickets in domestic, A tours, academy tours etc.
Najaf bowled well as well, it's good to see Yasir Ali getting a chance as well. Yasir Ali is another bowler who is a very good future prospect, he performed extremely well against South African academy. Very good patron's XI bowling lineup, Irshad failed to get a wicket though.
I guess it was collingwood who said that England will beat Pakistan by 3-0. Doesn't look like an ideal start from the visitors specially from Collingwood. Stupid fool got out on a duck.