Story Pakistan's Road to Glory (ICC 2008) **1st test, presentation update**

[Karachi Xpress]

After PCB saw the resignation of Nasim Ashraf as chairman of PCB, Ejaz Butt was hired as the new chairman of PCB. Ejaz Butt started off with sacking Geoff Lawson from the coaching spot.

Intikhab Alam was hired as the new coach of Pakistan for their next series.

Having played the T20 in Canada and loosing to Sri Lanka in the final, Pakistan had to boost up their moral. Just after the tournament in Canada, the Pakistan cricket team saw their star middle order batsman, Mohammed Yousuf, joining the unrecognized cricket league, ICL and they lost their important middle order batsman. Fawad Alam replaced him in the middle order in their next mission against West Indies in Abu Dhabi. Pakistan beat West Indies 3-0 which saw Sohail Tanvir's great bowling and Younis Khan in form with a brilliant century in the 3rd ODI.

Pakistan having played no tests in 2008, were going to face the inform India. India recently beat Australia their 4 test series, 2-0. Yuvraj who scored 2 back to back centuries against England was in superb form too.
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[shubhrayu]

Nice Start!!!I'll go for India this time.....

btw awesome start I'll follow this

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

Nice start KX will try to keep in touch with this one

 

[Highlander999]

Good to see you back in the story forum. As you have the highest number of comments in my story, I'll be sure to return the favour in here

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Wow!!! great start KX superb one...nice to see you back. Its gonna be an entertaining Pakistan vs India..Will be following this closely..

 

[Karachi Xpress]

Pakistan announce their squad for the Test series against India

PCB announced their squad for their Test series against India in Pakistan. Pakistan had quite a few problems in their opening spot. Salman Butt, Nasir Jamshed, Yasir Hameed and Khuram Manzoor all being injured, they just got one specialist opener and will probably open with Kamran Akmal or Shahid Afridi along with Mohammed Hafeez.

Mohammed Asif, was left out of the squad due to the ban on him from playing any cricket related to PCB. Shoaib Akhtar was not available for selection and is looking forward to retire after not playing for Pakistan for quite some time.

Pakistan also added a debutant, Akbar ur-Rehman since they needed a batsman in the middle order.

Squad:

Shoaib Malik(c), Kamran Akmal(wk), Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Fawad Alam, Akbar Ur-Rehman, Kamran Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Mohammed Hafeez, Mohammed Hussain, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Sohail Khan, Umar Gul.

 

[Highlander999]

Hmmm...a pretty weak side. Having Afridi open, will either win the match or be a disaster

Bowling looks a lot weaker then the batting department which still has Afridi, Tounis Khan, Misbah and Hafeez

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Some big injuries their for Pakistan no known opener for Pakistan in the squad, it would be great to see Afridi opening again. Some inexperience in the side but you never know what can happen in the game.

This is going to be a very tough series for Pakistan.. Great presentation KX

 

[mattfb]

Not a great side, unfortunate with all the injuries. I would open with Akmal.

Awesome presentation, but btw I prefer the text you used in the first post then the one you did in this recent update. KIU mate i'll be following this one!

 

[6 x Afridi]

Rameez maan

my son ive taught u a lot

im impressed bro

keep up the great work, lookin forward to ur next article

 

[Karachi Xpress]

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Welcome to the first Test between India and Pakistan. I am Ravi Shastri and with me here at Behind the Play is Wasim Akram.

Hi Wasim!

Hi Ravi.

The 1st test match is about to begin in an hour Wasim. Who do you think has the upper hand in the first test??

It should be an interesting 1st match. And India surely have the upper hand in this one with Pakistan having a weak team. Most of their main openers are injured and their 1st string bowlers are unavailable aswell, so it should be a really tough task for Pakistan to get rid of the middle order of India.

Ok. You think Pakistan should have dropped Kamran Akmal who has been dropping quite a few catches sine the past 2 years?? And is the selection of Shahid Afridi in this test series a surprise to you??

Well Kamran Akmal's main roll is as a wicket keeper. And if he doesn't do well in that roll, he should be dropped. But since he is doing well with his batting, they should probably get another keeper and keep him as a batsman. And as for Shahid Afridi's selection, I am not surprised at all since Pakistan already lack experience in their side and his bowling could be really handy for Pakistan.

Ishant Sharma has been left out of the squad. Any comments about that??

Well he is a really good bowler. He has shown in Australia that he can be a disastrous bowler. I am actually shocked to see him not being selected in the squad.

Well hopefully this will be a very interesting game. Jeremy Coney is down with the pitch report and after that, we have Mark with the toss. Over to Jeremy.

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Thank you Wasim. The pitch here looks good. Its a normal pitch. Not too much help for spinners. Fast bowlers will be helped by the pitch for sure. The bounce is good so batting shouldn't be a big problem either. The outfield here isnt too fast. Its a normal outfield, the ball won't run away to the boundary easily but we can expect a few boundaries here. I would field first if I won the toss.

Thats it from down here, and over to Mark now for the toss.

Thanks Jeremy. I have Shoaib Malik and Dhoni down here with the toss. Dhoni has the coin and Shoaib Malik will call.

Tails!!

Tails is the call, and Tails it is. Shoaib, you have won the toss. What would you like to do??

Ummm...we will field first. The pitch isn't too bad for bowling. Only the spinners might have a hard time but overall its a good pitch for bowling.

Any new faces in this series who are going to play in the first test??

Yes we have Akbar Ur-Rehman who will be making his debut today and Mohammed Hussain will be sitting out for today.

Thank you Shoaib and best of luck for the match.

Thanks Mark

Now Dhoni. What would you go for if you won the toss??

We would have fielded first too. Its a good pitch for bowlers and again, its just bad for spinners but the fast will be able to extract some bounce and will probably be able to get some quick wickets.

Any new faces in your team this game??

Ummm...not for this game. We have the same opening pair that has been doing good for us for quite some time, Sehwag and Gambhir and then the middle order is filled with the Fab 4. So basically we don't have much room for new talent.

Thank you Dhoni and best of luck.

Thanks Mark

Thats it from down here, and we will be back after a break with the first ball of the match.

 

[shantanu_rooney]

The pitch looks good for batting according to the pitch report so not a bad toss to lose for Dhoni. Pakistan are fielding interesting decision hope it turns out to the be the right one. Its gonna be a exciting match and cant wait for the start of the match.

KUTGW and awesome presentation

 

[6 x Afridi]

True that Shantanu rooney

great presentation broo, ur doing great.

lookin forward to ur next report

 

[Highlander999]

Excellent work Ramzz, really did enjoy that read. You had a good mix of GFX and text there, so it really did create a good balance.

Bowling first is interesting, although I suppose any cracks will help the spinners later on, so best to wait and see if this pitch does help them. Looking forward to the match starting

 

[Karachi Xpress]

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Umar Gul started off with the new ball and Sohail Khan supported him from the other end. Virender Sehwag and Gautham Gambhir opened the batting for India.


Pakistan started off well with Sohail Khan bowling 2 overs and both were maidens. Umar Gull started off well to, giving away 4 in his 3 overs. There was a big appeal for caught behind for Virender Sehwag which looked really close but was turned down by the umpire.

Sohail Khan gave away 6 off his next over. Sehwag played a great pull shot on the 5th ball of the over. The shot showed that Sehwag was ready for a big inning.

At one end, Umar Gul kept it tight, while on the other end, Sohail Khan went for 8 in his 5th over. His second ball of the over was smashed for a big six down the ground by Gautham Gambhir.

The next over that Umar Gul bowled, went for 6 runs with an elegant on drive for 4 by Gautham Gambhir.

Umar Gul`s next over went for 8 runs with 2 great boundaries by Sehwag.

Pakistan made their first change in bowling replacing Umar Gul with Iftikhar Anjum.

Iftikhar`s first over went for 5 runs with one 4 in the over.

Shahid Afridi replaced Sohail Khan at the other end. Shahid Afridi started off with a maiden.

Iftikhar`s 3rd over was another expensive over giving away 6 that included a four, swept by Gautham Gambhir.

Iftikhar Anjum struck the first blow for Pakistan when he trapped Virender Sehwag plumb infront of the wicket for 33 off 74 balls.

Sachin Tendulkar came in next.

Sachin Tendulkar game in next.

Pakistan got another quick wicket when Shahid Afridi got Tendulkar caught behind for 2 off 6 balls. A brief inning came to an end.

Shahid Afridi celebrates the important wicket of Sachin Tendulkar

Laxman was in to bat next.

Pakistan fans burst into cheers when Iftikhar Anjum got the wicket of Laxman, caught at silly point by Mohammed Hafeez for 0 off 2 balls.

Rahul Dravid came in next.

India were in a further more trouble when Afridi trapped Dravid infront of stumps for 2 off 5.

Saurov Ganguly came in next in an attempt to get India out of trouble.

Iftikhar Anjum bowled the last over of the first session and gave away only 2 runs.

The session ended with India in some trouble by some brilliant bowling by Shahid Afridi and Iftikhar Anjum.

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