Story World Championship in WI....

[nightprowler10]

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

This happened to a lot of kits when I first got kit updates, you should see the Pak test team kit, bright blue helmets from far away, lol.

 

[nightprowler10]

Here's the match between Pakistan and Australia, sorry it took a while to post it.

Australia won the toss and decided to bat since it was a good batting pitch and there were going to be tons of opportunities to post a big total.

Let's see how well the Pakistani bowlers will do against such a strong batting side.

 

[nightprowler10]

The first two overs produced just 5 runs for Australia, but a terrible third over by Akhtar allowed Gilly to score 21 runs!!! Australia were off to a good start and were looking in great shape until Gilly edged a spectacular off-cutter by Sami back to Moin Khan.

But Gilchrist's loss didn't seem to faze Hayden and Ponting, as they still blasted away at Akhter and Sami's bowling, both bowlers were then taken out of the attack and replaced with Amir and Kaneria. Amir's first over was terrible, as it produced 12 runs for the Aussies. But Kaneria on the other hand produced the miracle Pakistan needed to slow Australia down. His great leg spinning forced Ponting to hit the ball in the air in a desperate attempt to keep up with the 7.0 runrate, but unluckily was caught by Amir not too far from the pitch.

Kaneria got Martyn two overs later in a similiar fashion. Aus were 67/3. After that wicket, Aussies played very cautiously scoring just 20 runs in 8 overs. In Kaneria's last over of his first spell, Lehmann tried to play a sweepshot but ended up getting lbw, giving Kaneria his third wicket. A few overs later Afridi was able to get Hayden in a similar fashion.

With Hayden gone, Australia's chances of making a comeback had just about diminished. The rest of the Aussie lineup was gone after scoring just 46 runs. Danish Kaneria ended with a 5-wicket haul.

 

[nightprowler10]

Here are the stats from the first inning, as you can see, no Australian batsman successfully resisted Pak bowling aside from the openers.

 

[nightprowler10]

Pakistan's reply

Pakistan were off to a decent start, scoring 5 runs per over. Aussie bowlers didn't do much to slow them down, with the exception of one great delivery by Lee that edged off of Younis Khan's bat and was caught behind by the keeper.

Just a few balls later, Imran Nazir tried to take a quick run that got Shoaib Malik run out, who never got to face a delivery. Inzi then stepped in and put up a 46 run partnership until Nazir too got runout. The captain, assisted by Youhana, put up 77 more runs on the board until Youhana got caught trying to end the match with a six. Amir then came in and finished the match. Pakistan won with 6 wickets and 23.3 overs to spare.

 

[nightprowler10]

Danish Kaneria (5/19) was declared the Man of the Match for his destructive bowling.

After this match Sri Lanka played India and beat them by 8 wickets. SAF was able to beat New Zealand by just 4 runs, and Australia beat India by 7 wickets. I forgot to get a screenshot of the standings.

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[nightprowler10]

Well this thread seems to be dying besides the tournment updates. Anyhoo...

SAF won the toss and decided to field first, Smith must have a lot of confidence in his bowlers on this pitch, we'll have to wait and see if his team can validate that confidence.

Here are the line-ups:

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[nightprowler10]

First Inning

Pakistani batsmen started off a bit slow, scoring at a rate of 4 an over, and things just got worse after a cracking delivery by Pollock got Younis Khan out.

Shoaib Malik and opener Imran Nazir were able to put another 30 runs on the board before Malik got runout yet again. The real heart breaker for Pakistani fans came when Imran Nazir too got runout at 46 while trying to score a triple. A few balls later the Pakistani captain kept up with the other recently departed batsmen and got himself runout trying to score a silly single. Pakistan 4 down for 78.

Pakistanis got a new ray of hope when Amir hit Kallis 17 runs in one over, improving the runrate quite a bit. But in the next over, Ntini took a great diving catch of Amir, sinking Pakistani batting line-up even deeper into trouble.

The next batsman in, Moin Khan, got out on the very next ball thanks to another great diving catch by a SAF fielder.

The next few Pakistani batsmen got out quickly due great fielding and diving catches by Peterson and Pollock. Pakistan were down to their last wicket after scoring only 121 runs. But quite unexpectedly, Danish Kaneria and Shoaib Akhter resisted the SAF bowlers quite well. They were able to put up a 46 run partnership, the biggest one of the day by Pakistan, and elevated their team's total to 168 before Akhtar gave his wicket away as well.

 

[nightprowler10]

A very low total by the Pakistani batting line-up. The bowlers will have to work very hard to win this one, but so far S Africans are the favorites, thanks to their great fielding. And Pakistan needs to imrove on their running if they want to lift the trophy, the three runouts in the top order hurt Pakistan very badly.

Here are the stats from this inning:

S Africa's reply coming up next.

 

[Johann]

Hi, I'm still following your progress and enjoying it! I'm just very busy with work and think everyone else is also back to a normal "start-of-the-year". Keep posting and good luck against SA!

 

[nightprowler10]

SAF's reply

Finally played the rest of the match. South Africa didn't show much aggression from the beginning of the match, probably since they didn't exactly have a big total to chase. S Africans were playing very cautiously, but Sami was still able to get through Smith thanks to an excellent delivery.

Shortly after Smith's wicket, Amir and Kaneria came in to bowl. Both bowlers put Gibbs and Kallis under a lot of pressure by bowling very accurate deliveries and barely giving away any runs. After 18 overs, SAF were just at 39 runs, when Malik came in to bowl and took Gibbs' wicket in his first over.

A few overs later, Malik was able to get Kallis in the same manner, leaving SAF's batting order in shambles. Kaneria's second bowling spell was much more successful at first, when he was able to take 3 crucial wickets, but got smashed around for the rest of his overs. Amir on the other hand was still very economical giving up only 9 runs off his 10 overs!!!!

At the end of this troublesome spell for SAF, they were 74/6. Akhter and Sami came back in the attack to finish the match. By then, Dippenaar and Hall had piled up a 40 run partnership, creating hope for a SAF win against the WC favorites. But all that ended with two quick wickets of both batsmen, both getting caught off loose shots.

The rest of the SAF batting order was bowled out for a measly 127 runs and Pakistan won by 41 runs.

 

[nightprowler10]

Danish Kaneria was declared Man of the Match for his 3/38. Here are the stats for the second inning:

After this match, Sri Lanka beat New Zealand by 7 wickets in the last match of the super 6 competition. Here are the standings:

All three teams that advanced from Group A made it into the semi-finals, Pakistan was the only team from their group that actually won games. The schedule for the Semi-Finals is....

South Africa get to have sort of a rematch against Pakistan, maybe this time they'll fare better against the strongest team in the tournament so far.

 

[Johann]

Seems that your'e a great bowler! The other teams will battle to win this series...!

 

[nightprowler10]

1st Semi-final: Pakistan vs. South Africa

Thanx, I just try to bowl with good line and lenght, that's all.

Here we go with the first semi-final of the World Championship between Pakistan and South Africa. The pitch was good and hard, with a lot of opportunities to score runs. Not much in it for the bowlers though.

South Africa won the toss and decided to bat first, a wise decision. Here are the line-ups for both teams.

 

[nightprowler10]

First Inning

SAF started the inning playing very cautiously, yet scoring runs when they could. Thanks to some great stroke play from both batsmen, they eventually took the opening partnership past 50. It wasn't till the 14th over that Pakistan made their first breakthrough when Gibbs played a loose shot towards the on-side off of Amir and got caught easily by Inzi.

After that loss, SAF's pace slowed quiet a bit, with Kallis blocking just about every delivery. Even though the batsmen managed to put up a 40-run partnership, with Smith scoring a slow half-century, they did so in more than 15 overs. Pakistan made yet another break through when Smith tried to hit a six off of Afridi and got caught by Amir on the boundary.

Smith was the last tough batsman Pakistani bowlers faced, since the rest of SAF batting line-up started wobbling under pressure and started giving away wickets. Amir went on a rampage in his second spell and picked up 4 quick wickets, making this his first 5-wicket haul of this tournament.

M. Amir to A. Hall:

South Africa finished the inning after scoring 155 runs with 1 wicket remaining.