Story Road to World Cup 2015 - Challenger Trophy P40, Afghanistan Vs Pakistan

[surendar]

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Asia to host Pepsi ICC Challenger Series
India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh in the Inaugural Tournament

The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced that Pepsi ICC Challenger Trophy 2014 Division 1 will take place starting this month on subcontinent conditions. With world cup ahead in 2015, ICC have strictly demanded a competitive spirit among all the cricket participating nations and with intentions to prevent one sided games in the main tournament.

"How many times have we witnessed a half filled stadium during the biggest event of cricket, WORLD CUP! Associate nations or top ranked nations, if you qualify for playing world cup - entertainment and the game spirit should be given 100% no matter which nation you play against!", ICC chairman added.

With that being said, ICC seem to have revolutionized this by introducing multiple new Pro40 format tournaments across the globe before world cup ensuring that all teams get completely fit into the fighting spirit to conquer the trophy. To experiment this new format, India-Pakistan-Afghanistan-Bangladesh would be participating in this quadrangular series in division 1. Other divisions are likely to be decided in middle of this tournament depending on the success of the current series.

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How is this series different from other OD series?

"Very simple, even if you loose - you are still in the contest of getting a place in finals & even if you win, it doesn't guarantee you a confirmed TOP position. This has been made as 40 overs tournament to improvise the mentality of players and if you need to survive the 50 Overs game, you would need to survive the 40 overs first!", ICC chairman added.

This statement confused many initially, but it got cleared once the points system was announced shortly after the above statement. For the very first time in history of cricket, points system is focusing on the team's performance rather than the final outcome alone.

• Bonus Points given to Team for scoring 250 Runs - 2 Points
• Bonus Points given to Team for scoring above 275 Runs - 5 Points
• Bonus Points given to Team for getting 5 wickets - 1 Point
• Bonus Points given to Team for getting 6-8 Wickets - 2 Points
• Bonus Points given to Team for getting 9-10 Wickets - 3 Points
• Points for Win - 4 Points

i.e. Complete uncertainty exists until the last game is played and it demands the team to stay on top in every department(batting and bowling) in full 80 overs of the game otherwise, team which manage to get a win by last minute twist need not necessarily stay at the top of the table.

More News to follow on the fixtures and first match of this exciting Challenger Trophy 2014, Stay Tuned.

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[surendar]

It will be held in Australia and New Zealand

These(ones mentioned in story) are pre-series before World Cup. Just thought of doing some team dairies in DBC sim in a simpler formats.

 

[surendar]

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Pepsi ICC Challenger Series Fixtures
India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh in the Inaugural Tournament

Added to earlier announcement of Pepsi Challenger Series, International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced the complete fixtures of the inaugural tournament.

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Each team plays every other team twice in the preliminary round and top 2 teams get their places confirmed in the finals. Outside the fixtures, there are also multiple new rules added to this 40 Overs format.

• Bowling powerplay can be called anytime for 10 overs
• Batting team can invoke the powerplay anytime for 5 overs
• New ball will be taken after 35 overs which demands the skipper to tactically use their bowling options.
• Tie in the score would lead to Super Over
• NRR would also be used to determine the qualification for finals

On further interview with Indian skipper MS Dhoni, he has added as follows.

We are eagerly looking forward to this tournament. Playing 40 Overs format under new rules against any team is always going to be tough as it just brings lot of new things to our players and we are ready to give more than our 100% to succeed in this. Lot of points, lot of rules .. lot of captaincy to do!

On a joking side, this is one of the cups which I don't have in my belt. So why not..? Bring it ON! ​

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More News to follow on the first match & Round 1 of this exciting Challenger Trophy 2014, Stay Tuned.

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[surendar]

L I V E​

Match 1 - Afghanistan Vs Pakistan
Afghanistan won the toss and chose to bat first

Stay Tuned for all the match actions, match progress report to follow next.​

 

[surendar]

L I V E​

Match 1 - Afghanistan Vs Pakistan
Pro40 Format, First Innings Report

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With Afghanistan's choice to bat first, it created a surprise among many on the bold decision made by their skipper. Though pitch looked perfect for batting, subcontinent grounds always have remained as a major threat to teams batting first.

Though conditions looked all good for getting around 300 easily on this track, Pakistan bowlers had a perfect start with the new ball with Tanvir uprooting the stumps of Hotak. Batsman had no clue whatsoever on Tanvir/Junaid's swing and pace. First boundary took more than 30 deliveries that explains the difficulty of Afghans on this magnificent batting track.

Wickets After Wicket - Collapse like A Pack of Cards

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With initial moments favoring Pakistan bowling, momentum never swung back in favor Afghanistan. Knowing the batting struggle, Pakistan skipper continued to attack more blocking all the opportunities for batting team. Situation got worse when Ajmal and Afridi added further damage to the opponents. Afghanistan batsmen continued their hunt with hopes of finding answer to these bowlers but they continued to fail.

Spectators started to loose interest on the match when Afghanistan collapsed to 6/44 Runs on a perfect batting wicket which was unbelievable. Had they chosen to bowl first instead of batting, perhaps we would have seen some fireworks and entertainment! It was when the top and middle order had no clue on both spin & pace, small credits to Naib and Mangal for attempting a small rescue role. Finally they had some decent partnership of another 40 runs and extending the match beyond 30 Overs. It did not last long though, Afghanistan were ALL OUT for 122 runs at end of 34 Overs.

Considering the poor start in first 20 overs, it was not a bad attempt by lower order/tail to get something more than 100 on the board and for playing around 35 overs. If the top order would have clicked better, we could have witnessed a different picture. Naib, Mangal and Hassan added around 80 runs between them which really helped Afghanistan to have something to defend.

With batting of Afghanistan failing to meet the expectations, can their bowlers pull some magic to defend one of the lowest scores in cricket history on a flat track? Stay Tuned to find out more.

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[surendar]

L I V E​

Match 1 - Afghanistan Vs Pakistan
Pro40 Format, End of Match Report

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With very little score of just over 120 runs to defend, Afghanistan bowlers really did not have any big window to fight back into this match. As much as one can quote the famous Kenya Vs WestIndies match in 1996 World Cup, there were still few supporters of Afghanistan team who wished to see such miraculous come back by an associate nation.

Very first over from a medium pacer was smashed all around the parks by Hafeez for 20 runs, which not only shattered the minor confidence of those few Afghan fans, but also gave out a clear indication of an early finish of this match. To everyone's surprise, spinners sprinkled some minor ray of hopes out of blue moon when Hotak got back to back wickets of Shehzad and Maqsood but Pakistani skipper took his time to settle down as usual and marched towards the victory zone with help of his dominating partner, Hafeez.

Hafeez became too tough to handle for the bowlers and he accelerated without any hiccups to his yet another classy fifty in OD match. Afghanistan skipper tried all his attacking fielding options but partnership between Misbah and Hafeez set a perfect victory platform from 35/2 to 95/2.

It was when Hafeez tried to finish the match with his fireworks, he ended up throwing away his wicket after 50 runs which triggered yet another back to back wickets with Umar Akmal falling cheaply to A.Mangal. There was very little fear of collapse from Pakistan when they were put into 95/4 but Misbah, with all his experience, took time to finish the final things off. It might have been a different story if Afghan bowlers had picked up another couple of wickets or have had bit more to defend but few people were glad that the associate nation did not give away everything.

It was a good attempt by Afghanistan to fight back but not enough to win the game.

Well, brilliant knock from Hafeez, even though he threw away his wicket towards the end, fetched him the MOTM award of this match and this performance stood out without confusions as a top knock of this match with providing the only entertainment to the spectators.

Hope all the viewers have enjoyed this coverage of first match between Pakistan and Afghanistan. See you soon for the second match between India and Bangladesh, Stay Tuned for all the actions.

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[Spoobir]

Nice stuff Suren!

I can remember reading your amazing Cricket 05 India story way back in 2007!