Story World Championship in WI....

[nightprowler10]

Malik, definately

I thought so too, just realized that I haven't been doing the MOTM for any games so far .

Anyhoo, I will start the Namibia match now and play probably 10 or so overs. I have a busy schedule this weekend (I work 12 hour overnite shifts) so I might not get done right away. Thank you for your interest.

 

[nightprowler10]

It was a good hard pitch to play on with some green spots here and there. It was hot and humid and there was absolutely no sunlight. The new ball should swing quiet a bit here.

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Namibia won the toss and decided to bat first, might prove to be a bit of a gamble on such a pitch. Akhter and Sami should be able to take advantage of the new ball. Here are the lineups:

And the match is underway.

 

[nightprowler10]

Burger started off the inning with a big shot that went through Sami's hands at long-off and went for four runs. And then another. And then out!! Burger tried to hit a six through covers and got caught by Sami. After that, the Namibian batsmen seemed to be outdone by Akhter's bowling, giving edges all over the field, unlucky for Akhter most of them went through for boundaries. But where Akhtar failed Sami succeeded when he was able to get an edge off Karg, who ended up getting caught behind.

After that wicket, the whole Namibian batting order crumbled against Akhter and Sami's great bowling.

Akhter to Murgatroyd

Sami to Burger

Akhter to Van Rooi

The whole Namibian side was bowled out in just over 15 overs for a pathetic score of 40 runs. Both Akhter and Sami were able to get a 5-wicket haul.

 

[nightprowler10]

Here's the scorecard, some great bowling from the opening bowlers. There was no need for anybody else to bowl.

Pakistan were able to get the target in 9 overs. Imran Nazir (14) tried to hit a six when Pakistan only needed 3 runs to win, but was caught on the boundary. Younis Khan scored 23 runs with 4 boundaries. Shoaib Malik scored 3 runs on the first ball he faced and Pakistan won the match by 9 wickets.

Now this is real hard to decide, who should be MOTM. Both bowlers did great but Sami takes the award for his exceptionally great economy rate.

 

[nightprowler10]

After this match, India beat New Zealand by 4 wickets to come back from behind and take part in the race to get to the Super 6. Australia beat Kenya by 7 wickets. In the last match, Bangladesh beat Zimbabwe by 27 runs, crushing Zimbabwe's hopes of getting into the super 6. In the end, India, England, and Zim were tied in third place in group B, but India made the cut into the Super 6.

Next, Pakistan plays Sri Lanka in the first Super 6 match.

 

[Johann]

I knew Namibia would be a walk-over, but this was a total crushing!!! Don't think the next match would be this easy...

 

[m_vaughan]

Too bad England couldnt make it. Anyways best of luck for the match against Sri Lanka.

 

[Insomniac]

Super Six! yay!

 

[nightprowler10]

It was a good batting pitch, team batting first should post a big total because chasing it might be easy on this pitch.

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to field, which might be a wise decision, but only time will tell. Here are the line-ups for both teams.

The players the ready to start the game.

 

[nightprowler10]

Things were looking good for Sri Lanka when the Pakistani batsmen scored only 5 runs off of 2 overs, but that slow rate didn't last long since both openers started pouncing Vaas. By 7 overs Pakistan were already at 36 runs. Then came in Murali, who took Imran Nazir's wicket on his third ball by bowling a cracking off-spinner.

After Shoaib Malik stepped in, him and Younis Khan played more cautiously against Murali's bowling but kept scoring runs off of Vaas. Malik wasn't as cautious as Khan, and ended up giving his wicket away while attempting a sweep off of Murali, thus ending a 55 run partnership.

Inzi tried to hit a six off of Dharmasena's weak bowling but got caught not too far from the pitch after scoring only one run. This gave way to a 56 run Youhana-Khan partnership, which ended with a loose shot played by Youhana. Pakistan were still in the game and were looking good when Muhammad Amir came in and helped Younis Khan put up another 29 runs on the board, but got c&b'd by Chandana.

After that wicket, the Pakistani batting order started wobbling when Khan finally got out trying to play a quick cover drive. The whole Pakistani side was bowled out at 223 runs with 5 overs to spare in the inning.

 

[nightprowler10]

Here are the stats from the inning. Its not exactly a huge total by Pakistan, especially since its a good batting pitch. Let's see if Pakistan's bowlers can save this match for them like they did in so many matches before.

Sri Lanka's inning will probably be tomorrow.

 

[nightprowler10]

Sri Lankan openers looked very confident at the pitch. But their batting didn't validate that confidence. For the first few overs, the batsmen kept the runrate just below the required, until Jayasuria tried to hit a six through covers off of Sami but got caught on the boundary by Kaneria.

Kaluwitharna got out in a similiar fashion off of Akhter. Sri Lanka had lost both of its openers after scoring 30 runs. From there on, things went downhill for SL, as there run rate kept dropping and their required RR kept rising. After a 10 run partnership between Attapattu and Sangakarra, Kaneria struck in his first over by getting Attapattu out.

Sangakarra and Jayawardane played very slowly, causing the run rate to drop below 2 an over, thanks to great fielding and catches like this one by Muhammad Amir of Chandana.

The whole Sri Lankan line-up was bowled out for a mere 129 runs. Afridi was Pakistan's most successful bowler, who took 4 wickets, 3 of them lbw's.

 

[nightprowler10]

The Man of the Match award went to Younis Khan for his 89 runs that helped Pakistan out up a big enough total.

After this decisive win by Pakistan, Aus beat New Zealand by 47 runs, and South Africa were able to beat India by 5 wickets.

This will be my first ever hard mode match against Australia, so it should be interesting.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

This may be old but the helmets of Namibia look wierd...

 

[Insomniac]

cmon Pakistan, lets beat the World Champs!!