Pakistani Tour of New Zealand, Dec-Feb 2010/11

[BKB1991]

Ajmal likely to be out due to the unfortunate death of his father. That should put Rehman in line for a place, and Rehman in all fairness seems more of a defensive option than Ajmal so I reckon we need our fast bowlers to really push for the attack.

Likely XI:

Mohammad Hafeez
Taufeeq Umar
Azhar Ali
Younis Khan
Misbah
Asad Shafiq/Umar Akmal
Adnan Akmal
Abdur Rehman
Umar Gul
Wahab Riaz/Sohail Tanvir/Tanvir Ahmed
Wahab Riaz/Sohail Tanvir/Tanvir Ahmed

The opening looks pretty much set. Big test for both of them considering the last time we toured NZ, the top 3 was just poor. Tbf I reckon this is our best opening partnership at this point so Its deserving to let them go. Shafiq v Akmal should be an interesting battle, I prefer Shafiq, greater temperament, and Akmal needs to get it into his head that he shouldnt taake his place for granted. Its poossible Umar could be given the gloves, but I am not sure we should take that risk. Gul & Rehman should obviously play, along with two from Riaz, and the two Tanvirs. I would prefer Riaz to get the nod, and its going to be tough deciding between the two Tanvirs. Looks a competitive unit, but its going to be difficult getting a result in this series.

 

[Papa_Smurf]

Looks a competitive unit

No idea why, but I had Ramiz Raja's voice in my head when I read that lol. Agree with you on Pak's statring xi - with sohail tanvir taking the last spot. Got better figures than tanvir ahmed in the warm-up, and "seems to be a smooth operator"

 

[-D-S-B-]

It's so good to have Ian Smith and Shane Bond commentating. I can't stand Craig McMillan, anyone else feel the same? Smith, Bond and Doull are my favourites, Nisbo and Rig are pretty good, but I can't stand Macca.

 

[riz7khan12]

but I can't stand Macca.

he's alright, kinda loud though.

 

[-D-S-B-]

I'm sure he read my post because straight away he was actually calling it well for a change. He's new, I'll give him a chance.

McCullum that's so frustrating! One of the two out there now needs to get 100, preferably both of them. We need to set big total here and fight from the front, the pitch seems like it's going to be pretty good for batting for the next couple of days. Will definately spin later on though.

 

[-D-S-B-]

What an awful session, good batting conditions too. I think we'll be calling on Vettori to bail us out this innings, he's due for a collapse saving 100.

 

[sami ullah khan]

Pathetic performance by Pakistan. How the hell could they allow Southee to score so freely. Tailenders do sometimes stick around but its criminal to let them score this freely.

 

[CG123]

I only watched the last hour, but from what I saw Pakistan were absolute garbage, so I have no idea how we lost seven wickets in just over two sessions.
Looking at the scorecard our inability to spin again showed, with Rehman really troubling us.
I guess in the end we're only just off the pace, when they could of very easily been batting with just Arnel and Martin to come.
I've always thought Southee was a much better batsman than his stats suggest, seeing all of his boundaries go through the off side shows that he has the ability to be much more than a slogger.
I guess the major concern remains over our keeper, hopefully Young will be able to do something in the second innings, or in the second test.

 

[riz7khan12]

I guess the major concern remains over our keeper, hopefully Young will be able to do something in the second innings, or in the second test.

he came out and didn't look troubled at all, it was a unlucky lbw decision as i think the ball hit his glove.

 

[CG123]

I didn't see him bat, so I can't really comment, what I said was in response to that's where I think our major concern lies in the test matches, and will he be able to fix that, it wasn't in response to how he played today at all.

Just looking towards the future, our top six should be look-ins for the next two years maybe at least, maybe McIntosh goes first, so you'd like to think Guptill can move up to open, then Williamson can move up to three, Taylor and Ryder are both young enough to bat at four and five for a decent period of time, then you could maybe bring Brownlie, Kitchen, Corey Anderson, Neil Broom into six (in two years time). Plenty of players there how you'd think can make an impact.

I guess seven has to be our keeper, Young's over 30 IIRC, and de Boorder's the only current domestic keeper pretty young, but he bats below Butler and Nathan McCullum for Otago, so I don't think he's going to be test match quality anytime soon. That's why I said IMO it remains our major concern.

Then you have a spinner, Vettori's got a bit left, but there's still plenty of young guys after him, Beard, Hira, B. Singh, Jono Boult.

Then three pace bowlers, Tuffey, McKay, Martin, and Arnel all don't have too long. Obviously Tim Southee, then straight away Trent Boult and Adam Milne came to my head, plus the likes of Ben Wheeler, Doug Bracewell, Hamish Bennett, Neil Wagner.

That wasn't really on subject, but anyway, those our my thoughts on our future team.

 

[Iridium]

Some of the dismissals were just down to poor shots. McCullum picked out the fielder. Guptill could have smashed that delivery to anywhere he wanted but didn't. Ryder was a tad unlucky, backing up too far.

Taylor's form is starting to become a bit of a worry, hopefully it comes right during the series. But NZ are so lucky that Williamson and Southee showed some backbone.

 

[Crew of Black]

Pretty average day for us.

McCullum looked quite good, making his decision the drop the gloves quite a genius move until he bit off a little more than he should of.

Guptill played a decent knock until that really awful shot, I feel now at the very least he will be a servicable stop gap solution until Williamson is ready to take the no.3 spot.

I think Ryder and Taylor need to swap positions, Ryder is clearly the better batsman at the moment, add to that putting a left hander at 4 allows us a right, left, right, left right combination in the top order, making it more difficult for bowlers to get consistent lines and making it difficult to get our batsman out.

Williamson and Southee were great, probably made the day a lot more palatable in the end

 

[relentless_rock]

I only watched the last hour, but from what I saw
Looking at the scorecard our inability to spin again showed, with Rehman really troubling us.
I've always thought Southee was a much better batsman than his stats suggest, seeing all of his boundaries go through the off side shows that he has the ability to be much more than a slogger.

Is it not a green deck? or Rehman bowlin really well?

Southee is indeed a tough nut. Had some good innings agnst India as well. Quite good with lusty blows.

 

[Papa_Smurf]

The Kiwi's basically threw their wickets away. The Pak attack is really toothless atm.

 

[War]

The Kiwi's basically threw their wickets away. The Pak attack is really toothless atm.

A bit harsh that, even without Asif & Aamir the attack is certainly up to international standard.