Tag: Shahid Afridi

Cricket: Teams face off in final hit out before World Cup

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The pre-cup bilaterals are almost at an end.  The endless warm up matches will soon be replaced by the real deal, the main event.  Accordingly, game two between Pakistan and New Zealand at McClean Park is one of the final opportunities to fine tune games and plans before the pressure gets crippling.

Pakistan need the game more than New Zealand.  The home side are well settled, in form and winning.  The World Cup couldn’t come sooner for them.  Pakistan on the other hand still need time to acclimatise.  They need to experience a win (after losing game on and losing to a mediocre invitational side).

Napier’s game two day-nighter presents the perfect opportunity.

The Last Time These Two Met

Game one featured plenty of rust.  Not the kind coming from the empty seat at the Cake Tin either.  Mainly it was the evident rust of the paisan line-up that will be better for the blow out.  Batting first Pakistan limped to just 210.  That was only possible because of Shahid Afridi who struck 67 off just 29 balls.  His strike rate was 231, the rest of the line-up’s was just 53.

New Zealand chased it comfortably.  Ross Taylor and Grant Elliott guiding the chase with a pair of unbeaten half centuries.  The only real interest in the second innings was who would top score between the two, a bet that came down to the last run.

The Teams

New Zealand (likely): 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Brendon McCullum (capt), 3 Kane Williamson/Tom Latham, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Grant Elliott, 6 Luke Ronchi (wk) , 7 Corey Anderson, 8 Nathan McCullum/Daniel Vettori, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Kyle Mills, 11 Trent Boult

Kane Williamson’s shoulder is still not 100%, so it’s probable he’ll sit this one out again.

Pakistan (likely): 1 Mohammad Hafeez, 2 Ahmed Shehzad, 3 Younis Khan, 4 Haris Sohail, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt.), 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8 Shahid Afridi, 9 Bilawal Bhatti, 10 Mohammad Irfan, 11 Sohail Khan/Ehsan Adil

The fifth seamer is the troubling aspect of Pakistan’s squad with Haris Sohail expected to make up the bulk of the overs with the injuries to Wahab, Junaid – who has toady been ruled out of the World Cup.

The Key Players

Ross Taylor –  We don’t generally like focusing on the same player over an over again, but Taylor’s record in Napier is simply too good to ignore.  The Central Districts prospect played lots of his first class cricket at McLean Park and has subsequently carved out an amazing record on the batsman friendly ground.  In 11 ODI’s at the ground, Taylor has scored 584 runs with 2 hundreds at an average of 73.  Look for him to cash in again.  Although, one anomaly, the only time he’s failed at the ground was against Pakistan in 2011.

Shahid Afridi – Afridi is building a handy little record against New Zealand of late.  In the Abu Dhabi series Afridi played much more like a composed batsman and had an excellent series.  He didn’t quite play in the same way on Saturday, reverting back to his old school Boom Boom approach, yet he still scored big runs.  The small McClean Park could be ideal for his destructive game.

The Match Odds*

New Zealand – $1.40

Pakistan – $3.00

*Courtesy of Ladbrokes Australia.

The Prediction

Pakistan were predictably blown away by New Zealand’s seamers in game one, and while Napier isn’t expected to swing and seam as much New Zealand will still be too strong.  Remember a pitch that assists Southee and Boult also assists Irfan – and thus Napier could nullify the threat of the giant quick.

The Longshot

Hard to go past Ross Taylor to top score.  Even despite the Napier record, without Kane Williamson playing, Taylor’s a strong chance.  He’s at $5.

Cricket: Powerful Pakistan slam New Zealand

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Pakistan scored 221 from the last 25 overs; 125 off the last 10; 65 from the last five and amassed a total that was far too strong for the Black Caps in Sharjah today.  The imposing total of 364 was built around a superb century from opener Ahmed Shehzad (113), and a quick fire blast from captain Shahid Afridi (55).  Shehzad was the initial architect, picking up on a series of loose New Zealand overs to pull and slash his way to a sixth ODI hundred.  His innings was nicely orchestrated with an abundance of singles – 41 of them in total – and a4 neatly timed boundaries.  He was helped no end by New Zealand’s inconsistent bowling effort by their back-up seamers and friendly paced allrounders.  Of the New Zealand attack only Nathan McCullum went for under six runs-per-over, whereas most of the others went for plenty; Corey Anderson went for 96 from his ten – the third worst figure in one day cricket by a New Zealander.

Afridi’s blitz was something special.  He has found a level of consistency he rarely displays in this series and his contribution with bat, ball and in the field was an impressive example for his players to follow.  His response, along with most of the Pakistan line-up, to the short pitched bowling that had worked so well in the series thus far was combative.  The midwicket region was as productive as any as Pakistan admirably stood up to the barrage of short bowling.

New Zealand’s unlikely attempt at Pakistan’s third highest total in ODI cricket got off to a typically disappointing start.  On his return from injury Martin Guptill only succeeded in mistiming two pull shots, one of which was caught.  Devcich failed, and the Black Caps best players were asked to do it all, again.  Earlier in the week Brendon McCullum had explained to media that he would not swap his numbers 3 and 4 for any others in World cricket, and for a brief time it seemed entirely plausible that Taylor and Williamson could get NZ close.  But shortly after Ross Taylor had struck three 6’s in eight balls, he missed an attempted cut off Afridi to be bowled for 31, and New Zealand limped to 217 all out.

Williamson played nicely again for 46 before falling to indecision while Ronchi added 41 late runs to further outline his value down the order.  The big concern for New Zealand will be the double failing of all-round duo Jimmy Neesham and Anderson who continue to struggle in both skills.

The series heads back to Abu Dhabi where New Zealand need to win both to take out the series.  Sportsbet Australia don’t think they can; they have listed NZ at $4.50 to win the series.  They also have Series Score markets of: Pakistan 3-2 @ $1.91, and Pakistan 4-1 @ $2.50.

Pakistan 364 for 7 (Shehzad 113, Afridi 55, Henry 3-63) beat New Zealand 217 (Williamson 46, Afridi 3-37, Sohail 3-45) by 147 runs

Cricket: Pakistan battle back to beat NZ

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Haris Sohail and Shahid Afridi led an impressive comeback by Pakistan to seal victory over New Zealand in the first one day international in Dubai this morning.  Pakistan were earlier reduced to 86/5 in their pursuit of NZ’s 286 and needed the calm heads of Sohail (85*) and Afridi (61) to see them home with three balls to spare.  The pair shared a 110 run match-winning partnership and nullified the threat of Daniel Vettori’s (2-40) spin and Adam Milne’s (0-42) pace towards the back end of the chase, just when New Zealand were desperate for wickets.

As predicted, Ross Taylor had early taken it upon himself to deliver NZ a total they were capable of defending after they had earlier collapsed to 111-5.  Taylor’s 105* stood out like a sore thumb on a scoreboard featuring multiple starts but nothing else over 27.  Luke Ronchi (23) and Vettori (27) were both in that category, but their’s were scored at good strike-rates and were both important cameos in the context of the total.

The New Zealand’s cricket team’s struggle on a slow wicket was perhaps best illustrated by the fact that none of the Pakistan bowlers went for over 6-runs-per-over.  While Mohammad Irfan And Wahab as took the bulk of the wickets, the economical spell of man of the match Haris Sohail (10-30-0) was the most telling in the tight contest.

Any momentum that the Pakistan team took at the half way mark quickly evaporated when their top order was rocked by accuracy and carelessness.  Top order woes continued to middle order woes and when Sarfraz Ahmed (26) was the sixth wicket to fall at 124 to cricket match seemed unlovable for NZ.

However, as Pakistan employed a more cautious approach to their batting, led surprisingly by the enigmatic Afridi, the New Zealand attack could find no way through and could not take the wickets that were necessary to restrict the Pakistanis.  That meant the asking rate was never out of reach, and when wickets were on the agenda, Jimmy Neesham (2-62) and Kyle Mills (1-54) disappointed in their closing spells.

So, 1-0 to Pakistan when it looked unlikely for much of the game.  Game two to look forward to on Friday.

Pakistan 250 for 7 (Haris 85*, Afridi 61) beat New Zealand 246 for 7 (Taylor 105*, Irfan 3-57) by three wickets