Semi-Final of World Cup 2011 between Pakistan and India

• Congratulation India! You deserved victory. Best of luck for the finals. We captaincy by Dhoni who used his bowlers excellently.
• In the end Misbah tried to change the situation in favor of Pakistan but too late. Pakistan 231/10 in 49.5 overs. Misbah was the last man out. 
• Wahab is the 8th wicket down on 199/9 in 44.5 overs. Misbah and Power Play 3 are still in the ground but i think it is too late.
• Shahid Afridi caught by Sehwag b. Harbajn on a simple full toss ball which can be put any where. Total 184/7 in 41.5 overs. Now the Misbah only man who can go for bowlers. Can he?
• 1st boundary hit by Misbah ul Haq 39th over.
• Pakistan last hope Afridi entered in ground. All the Pakistani fans are thinking of him Can he changed the game?
• Razzaq bold out by Patel on 3. Score was 150/6 in 36.2 overs.
• Razzaq promoted before Afridi.
• Umar Akmal bold by Harbajn Singh on 29. Score is 142/5 in 33.1 overs.
• 30 overs 130/4. Umar Akmal 18* & Misbah on 7*.
• Boundary after 13 overs hit by Umar Akmal. Desperately need one.  Follow by a good six on mid wicket.
• Younas Khan caught by Riana on 13. Total 106/4 in 25.4 overs.
• Asad Shafique bold out by Youvraj on 30. Total score 103/3 in 23.5 overs.
• 20 overs 89/2. Asad Shaffique on 20* and Younas Khan 7*.
• Muhammad Hafeez caught behind on 43 by Munaf. Score is 70/2 in 15.3 overs.
• 10 overs 52/1. Muhammad Hafeez 33* and Asad Shafique 0*.
• Akmal is caught by Youvraj Singh b. Zaheer Khan on 19. Total score is 44/1 in 9 overs.
• Kamran Akmal hit a four on very 1st ball of Zaheer Khan.
• Pakistan have to chase 261 runs in 50 overs.
• Riana and Munaf Patel were the not out batsmen.
• India finished his inning on 260/9 in 50 overs.
• Nehra was run out by Wahab Riaz on same score.
• Wahab Riaz took his 5th wicket and he dismissed Zaheer Khan in 50th over. Score 256/8 in 49.2 overs.
• Saeed Ajmal stumped out Harbajhan Singh with an excellent ball on 12. Total score was 236/7 in 46.4 overs.
• After 2 balls Wahab Riaz again struck for Pakistan and Simon Tufal gave LBW Dhoni on 25. Total score was 206/6 in 41.4 overs.
• 4th dropped catch, now by Kamran Akmal on bowling of Wahab Riaz. Dhoni was the survivor.
• Finally Muhammad Hafeez dismissed Tendulkar on 85. Captain himself took the catch.
• In 32nd over of Muhammad Hafeez, Tendulkar got 3rd life. Another drop catch by Pakistan team. This time Umar Akmal dropped him at 81. Unbelievable!
• Youvraj Singh was bold by Wahab Riaz on very next ball on 0.
• Virat Kohli was catch out by Umar Akmal bold by Wahab Riaz on 21 in 26th over 1st ball.
• Younas Khan the best Pakistan fielder gave another chance to Tendulakar by dropping a catch at short on, on the bowling of Shahid Afridi in 20th over. Tendulakar was on 45 runs.
• Muhammad Hafeez bold Ghambhir with a flighted delivery on 27 in 19th over. 
• Misbah ul Haq dropped a chance of catch of Tendulakar at mid wicket on bowling of Shahid Afridi at 27 in 14th over. Chance was a regular one but Pakistan lost the opportunity.
• Two continuous unsuccessful appeals in the over of Saeed Ajmal agains Tendulakar.
• Sehwag is LBW by Wahab Riaz in his 1st over.
• Third over from Omar Gull was an expensive one. Sehwag hit 4 boundaries in it.
• Sehwag and Tendulkar opened for India and Omar Gull with Razzaq attacked for Pakistan.
• Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Yousaf Raza Gillani entered in the ground with Prime Minister of India Mr. Manmohan Singh and met with both team's players.
• Indian Team= Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (capt, wk), Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel.
• Pakistan Team=Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal, Asad Shafiq, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Wahab Riaz, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal.
• Shoiab Akhtar is not playing for the last match against India.
• Pakistan lost the toss. India elected to bat first.

Shoaib Left Out of Semi's

Shoaib Akhtar could not save a place in semi final against Pakistan. I can say he might have played his last match against Sri-Lanka in a group match of World Cup 2011.
We will miss you Shoaib Akhtar.

Semi-Finals of World Cup 2011

Tue Mar 29

09:00 GMT
14:00 PKT
1st Semi-Final
Sri Lanka v New Zealand
R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka


Wed Mar 30
09:00 GMT
14:00 PKT
2nd Semi-Final
India v Pakistan
Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh, India

ICC World Cup 2011 Semi - Final (India VS Pakistan) has been fixed!

Watch Pakistan vs West Indies Full Match Highlights World Cup 2011

Pakistan vs West Indies Wickets World Cup 2011

Pakistan vs West Indies Top Shots World Cup 2011

Pakistan vs West Indies Afridi wickets World Cup 2011

Hightlights of Pakistan Vs. West Indies.

• Congratulations PAKISTAN TEAM and the whole nation of Pakistan on such a great occasion of "PAKISTAN DAY". Celebrate the victory and thanks to Almighty Allah.
• Pakistan qualified for the semi final which will be against one of Australia or India.
• Afridi said that we are making plans for the match by match and team by team and that is why we are not under pressure by any team.
• Muhammad Hafeez was the man of match. He took 2 wickets and made 61 runs. 100% right choice for the award.
• Muhammad Hafeez 61 was the top scorer. Kamran Akmal made 47 runs. Pakistan made a largest opening partnership in recent world cup.
• Pakistan won the match by 10 wickets with 175 balls remaining. 
• 100 runs in 19.2 overs by Pakistan openers.
•  Pakistan made 50 runs in 8 overs without losing any wicket.
• Pollard dropped a catch of Akmal on the bowling of Roach in 3rd Over.
• In 2nd over Hafeez and Kamran were on top and got 3 boundaries.
• Muhammad Hafeez punched a cover short to four on his first ball.
• Pakistan started his inning. Kamran Akmal faced first ball of Roach. His Partner is Muhammad Hafeez.
• Pakistan is playing this quarterfinal on "Pakistan Day". If Pakistan wins the match then it doubled the celebration for the Pakistanis.
• Pakistan got a target of 113 in 50 overs with run rate of 2.26 after the launch break.
• Afridi took 4 wickets in the match. Saeed Ajmal and Muhammad Hafeez with 2 wicket. Omar Gull and Abdul Razzaq got 1 wicket each.
• Afridi bold Rampal with a guggly in his last over and finished theWest Indies inning on 112. Afridi is on top of bowlers in World Cup with 21 wickets in the bag. West Indies played 43.3 overs. Chander Paul was the not out batsman with 44*.
• Abdul Razzaq got his 1st wicket in the match in 43rd over. Roach caught by Younas Khan on mid wicket. Roach made 16. Total 111/9.
• Things were calmed between 32 to 42 overs.
• Wahab Riaz in 2nd spell was not looking effective.
• Akmal missed a difficult chance of stumping of Chander Paul on bowling of Saeed Ajmal. Chander Paul was on 24 in the 32nd over.
• On the next ball Saeed Ajmal bold out Bishoo who is 8th man to go.
• In next over Saeed Ajmal took his man Samay Captain of West Indies who made 1 run only.
• Afridi was too good for the Windies. On the very next ball he took the wicket of DC Thomas.
• Dangerous man Pollard was the 5th batsman dismissed by Pakistan team captain Afridi who made only 1 run. Total score of West Indies was 69.
• After a over Sarwan catched on point fielder Umar Akmal on bowling of Afridi. Sarwan made 24 runs.
• Omar Gull dropped a catch of Sarwan on the bowling of Afridi on long off.
• Wahab Riaz and Muhammad Hafeez was replaced by Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal.
• Wahab Riaz looked pretty ordinary bowler in the spell and gave 3 boundaries in his second over. 
• Omar Gull looked tired in his last over of his spell.
• Sarwan and Chander Paul tried well to keep the wickets.
• On very next ball Muhammad Hafeez again shouted for a successful appeal of LBW against D. Bravo. Decision was challenged but after reviewing the decision confirmed. Score was still 16.
• DS Smith was the second wicket. Bowler was Muhammad Hafeez. Batsman was LBW. Score on board was 16.
• Omar Gull dismissed Gayle on his bowling in 3rd over when the score was 14. Afridi took the catch at mid off.



Afridi with 4 wicket in the match

• WestIndies won the toss and elected to bat first.

World Cup Quarterfinal Round

1st Quarterfinal
23 March, 2011. Day/Night
Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur
08:30 GMT | 14:30 local
Pakistan Vs. West Indies

2nd Quarterfinal

24 March, 2011. Day/Night

Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad

09:00 GMT | 14:30 local

India Vs. Australia



3rd Quarterfinal
25 March, 2011. Day/Night
Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur
08:30 GMT | 14:30 local

Newzealand Vs. South Africa

4th Quarterfinal
26 March, 2011. Day/Night
R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo
09:00 GMT | 14:30 local
Srilanka Vs. England

Pakistan vs Australia Full Match Highlights World Cup 2011

Pakistan on Top

Pakistan beat Australia in today's World Cup 2011 match and secured a top place in his pool. Pakistan also gave a defeat to Aussies after their 34 consecutive victories in world cup matches. Australia team's captain Ricky Pointing got his first defeat in world cup match.
In my today's first blog, i said that Pakistan is not playing with his main 2 strike bowlers i.e., Shoaib Akhtar and Saeed Ajmal. I was expecting that with out these players Pakistan team does not have capability to bowl out Australia under 250. I also said that Pakistan should play an aggressive plan against Australia. My thoughts were proved wrong as Pakistan bowlers did an excellent job and bundled up the Australian inning on 176. Amazing performance by the green shirts. No one expecting this kind of Australian play. They were totally outclassed by the Pakistan team which were playing with very much positive approach. Omar Gull was too good for the Australian batsmen. He wrapped 3 wicket and Abdul Razzaq in his only spell got 2 wicket. Shahid Afridi, Wahab Riaz, Muhammad Hafeez and Abdul Rehman shared 1 wicket each. I watched Australians not playing their game, they were afraid of Pakistan bowlers and were never in the batting game. Pakistan fielding was also satisfactory in this match.
In batting, Australian tried their best to put Pakistan under pressure but they could not do so. Brett Lee was the only bowler who disturbed Pakistan batting line up. With attacking field Australian have the only option to beat Pakistan was bowl out but there was no help with the Lee and after making some stupid mistakes by some batsmen Pakistan finally reached home.
Pakistan will face the Pool B #4 team (England or West-Indies) in the quarter final.

Pakistan Short of Two Match Winners in Today's Match

Pakistan team for today's match against Australia consist of following players,
Muhammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal, Asad Shaffique, Younas Khan, Misbah ul Haq, Umar Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Rehman, Umar Gull and Wahab Riaz.
I can say after reviewing this team, Pakistan is short of two match winner. 1. Saeed Ajmal and 2. Shoaib Akhtar.
I don't know what is the strategy of Pakistan team management for this match but it looks like that they are afraid of Australia and are trying to play defensively against them which is very much wrong planning against Aussies. Pakistan team management is trying to stop runs as much as possible with the defensive bowlers like Wahab Riaz, Abdul Rehman and Muhammad Hafiz. These bowlers are very good in stopping runs but are not capable of winning match by their performances. All the burden of wicket taking is shifted on Umar Gull and Shahid Afridi. Now Australia is batting first and If Shahid and Umar will not click, then Pakistan team can not stop Australia by making runs as per their reputation. If Australia made 280+ runs then week Pakistan batting side can not chase that total in second inning.
Instead of this poor defensive plan Pakistan team should go with their strength which lies in their bowling. Pakistan team should play aggressive cricket and must go with their main strike bowlers Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhar, Umar Gull and Shahid Afridi. One of Abdul Rehman or Wahab Riaz should be the 5th supporting bowler along with Muhammad Hafeez and Abdul Razzaq optional bowlers. Now if Pakistan lost the toss, just like today then I think that these 4 top bowlers can stop Australia and restrict them under 250 that is a chase-able total for Pakistan. If Pakistan won then 250 runs scored can be defended easily by these 4 wicket taking bowlers.
Any how Pakistan is now playing with Australia after losing the toss. Australia is batting according to their plan with run rate 4.4. Australia is expecting a total of 325+ against the bowling of Pakistan. The only hurdles in their target are Shahid Afridi and Umar Gull. Specially the spell of Shahid Afridi is very crucial for both sides.
Best of Luck Pakistan.

Hearing of Spot Fixing Case in England

Salman Butt, Muhammad Aamir and Muhammad Asif were given unconditional bail from the court.
More news will follow;

Shoaib Akhtar Retired!

Shoaib Akhtar announced in a press conference that he is going to be retired from International Cricket after the world cup.
Shoaib Akhtar gave statement about his retirement with wet eyes in front of different reporters from all over the world. He added that he took team management into confidence and talked to his family members as well and then he decided to announce his retirement.
He said he played always for Pakistan and he is satisfied with his performance during the carrier. His carrier was full of scandals and controversies.
He was a great player and speed star of Pakistan cricket team. He got a world record for the fastest delivery in the history of cricket with 100 miles/hr. He was on the top of his carrier in World Cup 1999 and now he is playing his last world cup for Pakistan.
I will be available for the Pakistan cricket at any stage and for any circumstances if Pakistan team or cricket need me. He wants to do some more in cricket instead of playing cricket.
He was a true hero, a star and a great bowler. We are very proud of you Shoaib and we love you by our hearts as a cricketer.
Best of luck for your future.

Pakistan vs Zimbabwe Full Match Highlights World Cup 2011

Pakistan Qualified for Quarter Finals

Congratulation to the Pakistan Nation, Pakistan Cricket Team, Pakistan Cricket Fans for qualifying for Quarter Final of World Cup 2011. Pakistan reached in 2nd round after two World Cups i.e., 2003 and 2007. In these World Cups Pakistan team's performance was not good.
Today match was stopped by rain twice a time and the overs were reduced to 38. Pakistan bowling attach was much better than the last matches. Omar Gull came back in form with 3 wicket in the bag. In the end again Pakistan lost momentum in the bowling but it did not cost much. Due to D/L method Pakistan got a target of 162 in 38 overs.

Pakistan opening was not good enough as Ahmad Shahzad lost his wicket in a hurry. He has lost his confidence although he is a fine player of new ball but i think he will not get a chance in next match against Australia as World Cup debutant Asad Shaffique played a good inning of 78. He was involved in two good partnerships. One is with Muhammad Hafiz 49 and other is with Younas Khan 13. He was bit slow in the start but he gained his confidence back after some while and played his strokes very well.
Omar Gull was man of the match.

Behind the Scene

Dunya Hey Dil Walon Kee

Unbelievable Play by Ross Taylor

In the World Cup Match 2011, Pakistan Vs. Newzealand was a match which will be remembered by the fans for a long time. Ross Taylor was the hero of this match on his 27th birthday. Excellent performance from the whole Newzealand Team. In the batting and bowling they out classed Pakistan Team.
Pakistan Team was good till the 46th overs but suddenly Ross Taylor changed the game entirely. He and Oram shared 85 runs in just 3.4 overs. Ross Taylor finished his inning on 131 not out. Newzealand was much confident with the performance by putting 302 runs on the board.
This score was too much for the uncertain batting of Pakistan, although Omar Akmal and Abdul Razzaq tried to save Pakistan from complete destruction but their innings could not take Pakistan into 2 hundreds.
After this match Pakistan is now on 2nd place in his pool.
Pakistan team's deficiencies are their fielding and batting. Kamran Akmal was not in his top form and he dropped 3 catches in this match. Some of our fans think that Shoaib Akhtar was not a good choice to be in team. I am not agreed with them. He is the match winner of Pakistan and he had done his job in his opening spell. When he gave chances to his team by his excellent bowling but Pakistan's keeper lost these opportunities.

What the plan for the future? Pakistan have to play against Zimbabwe and Australia. Forget the defeat, and be focused on the next matches. If Pakistan can beat Australia with the help of this defeat then we can say we are learning but if again lose that match then Pakistan team management should responsible for this. Work out more on fielding and keeping. Players need some counseling sessions from the coach and captain. Plan some positive moves and strategy. Next target Australia.......................

Shorts News of Pakistan Team

• Shahid Afridi have taken 300+ wickets during the World Cup 2011. He is the third Pakistani bowler who achieved this land mark after Wasim Akram and Waqar Younas. Well done Shahid Afridi
• Omar Akmal completed 1000 runs today in ODI.
• Sri-Lanka agreed to tour Pakistan during year. That was a very good news for the Pakistan cricket fans, who are waiting for the international teams in the ground of Pakistan. Hopefully Sri-Lanka will be the first International team to tour Pakistan after the famous attack in Lahore on the same team.

Relief for Pakistan!

Afridi's Celebrations (With Courtesy Cricinfo)

World of cricket were expecting another upset from Canada against Pakistan, but Pakistan team kept their cool and tried hard to win the match as well as their reputation.
At last Shahid Afridi and his boys saved the match for Pakistan. Pakistan batting was not good enough today to post a good defend able total on the board. 184 was not a dream total against any team in the world specially on the pitches of sub-continent. Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat. Weather was overcast and that was not a sensible decision. Waqar and Afridi company was thinking that they must not chase that is why they went against the pitch and weather conditions. That was proved when Pakistan all out on 184.
In bowling again Shahid Afridi was the savior for the team. He took 5 wickets and Saeed Ajmal, Abdul Razzaq and Omar Gull bowled really well to stop Canada.
In the last Pakistan reached at the top in his pool with 3 wins and 6 points. Although the run rate came a little bit down but it does not matter to Pakistan position.  

Boom Boom Afridi

Today is 31st Birthday of Shahid Afridi,
So wish him by saying
Happy Birthday to Boom Boom Shahid Afridi