Story Passion for Pakistan: A Journey to the top? 1st ODI: *10 Over Update**

[Highlander999]

Oh!! I mentioned font, sorry, I was supposed to say Color in the Pitch Report.

Orange color really is not looking good. May be some other color.

Sorry for font thing actually was into photoshop a lot that made me write

Ah ok, that makes sense yeah a red would probably have looked better

 

[Aditya]

India will be chasing. Interesting... Indian team has a strong batting line up so if the Indian bowler bowl well and restrict Pakistan to a fine total then I don't think that India will have any trouble chasing the target (of anything around 240 to 260). But the question is will Indian bowlers bowl well? Pakistan team batsmen will need to bat well to put up a good total on the board. Farhat, Butt, Akmal brother, Malik and Afridi are really good batsmen. Would be interesting to see how the match turns out to be. Hoping for a thriller..

Really liking the presentation Tom.

 

[Varun]

They had to bat on that pitch. I'll be waiting to see how Ajmal, Jadeja and Bhajji fare out on this dry pitch.

 

[Highlander999]

1st ODI of the ICC "Spirit of Cricket" Series
Location: Kolkata
Period of Play: 10 over update


Out in the middle the atmosphere was huuuuuuge. The Indian fielders could barely be heard over the noice of the crowd. Drums were banging, whistles were blowing and excited Indian and Pakistani fans alike were screaming their support for their heroes at the top of their voices. Dhoni had to spend quite a few minutes just trying to get himself heard by his fielders as him and Zaheer Khan, the opening bowler, positioned the fielders exactly how they wanted them.

Eventually, everyone was set and it was time for the first ball of this historic series to be bowled.....

It was a bit of an anti-climax outside Salman Butt's off-stump which he safely left alone. For the next few overs the Pakistani openers made a steady start, putting any bad balls away and making sure the good ones were kept out. Praveen Kumar was a bit more expensive then Zaheer Khan and Salman Butt took a liking to him in the 3rd over taking 10 runs off him, however, we had our first bit of excitment in the 5th over.

So far Zaheer Khan had been bowling pretty decently and kept things very tight. Bowling to Salman Butt, he got one to seam into the left hander which Butt attempted to clip off his legs but missed, the ball thumping into his pads. It seemed like the whole of India went up with the slip cordon and Zaheer and the umpire had a long look at it, before eventually shaking his head. Replay's did show this was the correct decision as it was just sliding down leg having done just a bit too much. Pakistan could breathe a sigh of relief!

India though didn't have long to wait to finally have something to cheer about. Dhoni eventally lost patience with Kumar's bowling, because whilst he wasn't being overly expensive he just didn't look threatning, with too many balls being able to be left alone, yet still putting down the odd loose delivery to allow the batsmen to keep the score ticking over. He turned to his other seamer in the XI, the left armer, Ashish Nehra. Could Nehra get the breakthrough which so far Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar had failed to do.

The answer was yes, and it only took him 5 balls!!!!

Imran Farhat was able to put Nehra's first ball loosener away for a single, which brought Salman Butt, the dangerman of this opening pair, back on strike. 3 superb deliveries built some pressure up with Butt being forced to keep them out with solid defensive strokes. The 5th ball of the over was slightly wider, and Butt attempted a savage cut. Unfortunately for him it was still too close to his body and he could only succed on getting a thin edge through to Dhoni who did the rest simply enough. Such a roar went up, it was deafening and the scenes in the stands was one of jubilation. Pakistan were one down and it was the one they wanted out of this opening partnership.

Kamran Akmal was the new man for Pakistan. He only has an average of 26.40 but he has improved his batting in recent years and now had to play a crucial role in anchoring the Pakistani innings and ensuring a collapse didn't take place. His job along with Imran Farhat's now would be a lot tougher though as the Indian team was certainly fired up and would want another few quick wickets. There was a lot of chat out there now, some aimed at the batsmen but the majority of the noise was coming from the spectators who were on the edge of their seats at finally getting to see some exciting fast bowling in the sub-continent.

Akmal and Farhat just played the defensive game till the 10th over where Farhat signalled he wanted new gloves and drinks were also brought onto the pitch, which were much needed in this extreme heat. Pakistan were making slow progress at only 39/1 and would want to pick the run-rate up over the next 5 powerplay overs

Whilst the drinks were brought on and Farhat got his new gloves the big screens around the ground suddenly flew into life, causing a hush to fall around the ground. Being played for the crowd was a new song by the Drum and Bass star from the UK, "Dj Fresh". It was his new song Gold Dust and it went superbly well with the music video, and whilst it was a not a common style of music for Asia, it certainly got the seal of approval from the fans.

With drinks now finished, Farhat happy with his new gloves and the Indian fielders heading back to their positions the game could resume. It certainly looked like it would be a low scoring affair, but who would come out on top?

 

[Aditya]

Nehra!!!! Good wicket there for India of Salman Butt. But Farhat and Akmal are still their at the pitch. Both of them are very talented players. Farhat has got a fine start he just need to continue playing well.

I just hope that Indian bowlers continue bowling well.

 

[riz7khan12]

i doubt anyone in the ground could understand comphrehend the lyrics, including me. :laugh

pakistan are in a tough spot here they cant afford to lose wickets at this stage or india will be on top quite early.

btw yasir arafat should've been in the squad, great bowler.

 

[ShamiLoverGlipGlops]

Nehra 1 over 1 run and 1 wicket

Really surprising but the presentation is awesome. Pakistan are slow right now but can accelerate later one

 

[Meet]

Goos writing mate...
India to win.

 

[BKB1991]

Salman Butt is a huge wicket. He is our best batsman against India. We need BOOM BOOM, lol

 

[Highlander999]

1st ODI of the ICC "Spirit of Cricket" Series
Location: Kolkata
Period of Play: 25 over update



Kamran Akmal and Imran Farhat knew they had to build up a big partnership to give Pakistan a solid base from which to accelerate from in the final 10-15 overs. If they could get this right, they knew that a score of 260+ could be possible which on this batting track would be very competitive. Over the first 10 overs Pakistan had only got at a run-rate of 3.90. These two slowly begun to lift that with good strokeplay, but still nothing too dangerous. It was very responsible batting from these two and considering Pakistan's reputation for rashness, was a welcome sight to the Pakistani fans.

Out in the field Dhoni was rotating his bowlers and decided to turn to his star spinner Harbhajan Singh who has......let's say a reputation for spicing matches up...... Sure enough, after each delivery, Bhajji was staring long and hard with the batsmen, but they weren't falling for it and just turned away.

Sure enough, the Pakistani score begun to creep up and Imran Farhat begun to near a well deserved 50. Kamran Akmal, normally so explosive with the bat had also been very contained by his standards. It certainly was not what the home fans had been hoping as they had wanted to see the Pakistani batsmen being sent back to the pavillion in their scores. As it currently stood, Indian fielders were being made to run all over the field and Dhoni seemed to be struggling for inspiration.

As the 20th over begun to approach, this second wicket partnership begun to near 50 runs, much to the annoyance of the Indian team. Even Nehra, who had kept things so tight at the beginning of his spell, begun to get slapped away for a few runs, and chants of "Farhat" and "Akmal" could be heard from the visiting Pakistan fans.

Sure enough, off the last ball of the 18th over, Farhat chipped a ball over cover for a 4 which brought up the 50 partnership. Loud cheers greeted this from the crowd and a touch of gloves from the batsmen showed they knew they had done a good job, but still had a long way to go.

Whether the heat had begun to get to the batsmen or whether Kamran Akmal got a bit too big for his boots, India suddenly got propelled back into the game a few overs later.

Nehra was right at the end of his spell, and sweating hard, a combination of the heat and how much effort he had been putting in. He did deserve more then just the 1 wicket from his 7 over spell as he had put a lot of good deliveries down, tying up the left handed Imran Farhat on quite a few occassions. Yet it was the right handed Kamran Akamal he managed to snare with a pretty average delivery.

A full ball from over the wicket, Akmal had a rush off blood to the head and attempted to club the ball down the ground, over Jadeja at mid-off who was up in the inner circle. Jadeja leapt up in the air and somehow managed to get both hands around the ball and actually got carried a few yards backwards by the sheer power of the delivery. However, when he landed on the ground on his back, the ball was still safely held in his hands. Such a roar went up around the ground, the Gods up on Mount Olympus surely heard it and would have wondered what was going on.

Akmal was out for 24 and it had taken some true heroics from the young Indian all-rounder. It did however, bring the dangerman to the crease, Kamran Akmal's brother, Umar. With Umar Akmal at the crease we could be certain of seeing some fireworks!!!

Unfortunately for Pakistan, the old saying that one brings two, was proved correct with the fall of Kamran Akmal's wicket. Farhat was eyeing up being the first person to score a 50 in the history of this series, and that thought might have accounted for the slightly exuberant shot that he attempted to play versus the deadly off-spin of Harbhajan Singh.

Coming around the wicket, Bhajji was attempting to spin it away from the left handed Farhat. A slightly fuller delivery, lulled Farhat into the attempted slog sweep. He threw the kitchen sink at is as well and put so much power in it, that the bat went flying out of his hands and nearly took out Rudi Koertzen at square leg!!! Meanwhile the ball scooted underneath the flying bat and rapped Farhat on the front leg. Both Bhajji, Dhoni and about 40,000 Indian fans went up and the umpire had a long look at it, before slowly raising his finger.

It was a tough call and would have maybe clipped leg, though hawk-eye said due to the spin it would have gone on to fully hit leg-stump, but it was hard to tell, due to the ball being so full. Nevertheless, Farhat had to go, for a well made 46, so close to his 50, but not quite getting there. Pakistan were now having a bit of a wobble at 92/3, and with 2 new batsmen at the crease, the game was now swinging back towards India.

The young Umar Amin was the new batsman for Pakistan. With the two Umar's both new at the crease, Dhoni was hoping for another quick wicket. Akmal didn't take long to stamp his authority on the match, sweeping Harbhajan for 4, before Dil-Scooping another 4, to frustrate all Indians around the world. However, it was the young Indian Jadeja who got the next wicket, now bowling in tandem with his senior spinner, Harbhajan.

Umar Amin, had looked a bit nervous out in the middle so far. Maybe it was the sheer pressure of the situation, maybe it was the pitch, or maybe he just wasn't sure what role he was meant to be playing. Maybe it was a combination of all these things? Whatever, the reason, his dismissal was rather tame. He had so far only picked up 4 runs through an edged cut shot which had gone past Dhoni and Gambhir at first slip. The very next delivery, he had a tentative poke outside his off-stump and the ball gripped slightly, taking his edge and flying straight into the bucket hands of Gambhir at slip.

It was chaos as the Indian team erupted into cheers as the fans in the stands went crazy hugging and cheering. Pakistan were in danger of a real collapse here with the score now reading 103/4.


Shoaib Malik the ex-skipper was the new batsman now, and him and Umar Akmal really needed to put a partnership together. The first task they needed to do was survive to the drinks break at the end of the 24th over. They did......just about. Malik nearly threw his wicket away, top edging a sweep shot which fell just yards short of Praveen Kumar at short fine leg. However, the umpires soon signalled drinks and Pakistan needed to do some serious consolidation work to rescue this innings now.

With Umar Akmal still at the crease Pakistan did have a strong chance and with the Pakistani hero Shahid Afridi still to come and Shoaib Malik no fool with the bat, it was not quite game over yet for Pakistan. Yet they couldn't afford to lose anymore quick wickets. Whilst everyone took some much needed drinks, the Indian star bowler of the day, Nehra, had his pitchmap shown on the widescreen TV's all around the ground. His figures of 7.0 - 0 - 25 - 2 were excellent and in such heat he had managed to put the ball in good positions and trouble the batsmen. He had bowled a large percentage of his balls to the left-handers and the graph illustrated how tight he had kept his line, on a good length, looking to trouble the batsmen and hit those cracks on the pitch to get some variable bounce. Overall it has been a superb spell from him, something lacking in recent months from the Indian seam department.

With everyone now sufficently re-hydrated, the drinks carriers jogged off the pitch and the Indian fielders returned to their positions. Akmal and Malik had a long discussion out in the middle and a quick touch of the gloves between them, showed that they were determined to make sure they did a good job and left Pakistan in a good position. However, they were having to deal with a fired up Indian bowling attack, and on a cracking bouncy pitch, it certainly would prove to be difficult for them.....

 

[Meet]

Great work:hpraise with writing and presentation.Again,Great work KUTGW

 

[Gaurav_7]

To be very very honest, I'm loving it Tom! This is what makes me keep going. I mean there is always something to learn from all these updates. I'm just glad you are having a go at another story. Thanks a lot! Exceptional update. :hpraise

 

[Gorro_124]

Presentation is awesome!!!KIU!!

 

[sachin_rocks]

actually the pics with both real life and game photos don't quite look good the pics with only in-gamescreens look better

 

[BKB1991]

Pakistan loosing control over the game slowly. Although we still have 3 dangerous batsmen we have lost too many wickets.

Lol, you have put real-life pics of Salman Butt, although its Farhat who is batting

Also I would recommend using more "mature" fonts for the pitch map, but the font looks fine for the other game/real-life pics.

Good stuff, looking forward to see how the match pans out. Pakistan FTW