Pakistan vs Australia, World Cup 2011

Pakistan should win this match, the Aussie middle order apart from Clarke isn't scoring much, though Hussey's inclusion would strengthen their batting , especially considering his record against Pakistan in all forms of the game (He has scored 64, 35*, 29, 49, 67 and 40* in his 6 innings against Pakistan in ODIs). Pakistan has got very good spinners, Gul and Riaz (if shoaib doesn't play) are normally good at bowling at the death, so the match result depends on how we play in the first 15 overs of each innings.

Get YOUR Best Out of Pakistan

In the last two years, many batsmen have made their highest scores (in all three formats) against Pakistan. Seeing tail-enders contribute in rebuilding after the opposition is 3 or 4 down early in the innings is now a common sight,  maybe because our bowlers do not plan for the lower order batsmen or relax after their first spells.
Here is a list of batsmen who have made their career best scores in Tests against Pakistan in the last two years.

Tanvir Ahmed

Tanvir Ahmed is an exception when it comes to Pakistani fast bowlers, he's made his debut at nearly 32 years of age when usually Pakistan bring in fast bowlers when they are young. He'll probably have a short career but he looks good enough to play for Pakistan until we get a new Muhammad Aamer. He's already bowled some Waqar-Younis-like deliveries today.

Zulqarnain's Flight

I've got some wild theories about Zulqarnain's flight to England:

1. Akmals threatened him indirectly, so Adnan could be the wicket keeper and Kamran could come in the team as a batsman.

2. Zulqarnain was told that he wouldn't be playing in the fifth ODI so he decided it was best to do something about it instead of accepting like he did in the Test series against England.

3. Zulqarnain thought he had a better chance of playing for England than playing for Pakistan, and at least, he could play for a county there.

4. He knew something about the the Butt, Aamer, Asif issue and was a threat to their case.

5. He's telling the truth but now he's regretting what he's done.

I believe if he doesn't tell the whole story soon, he's never going to tell it. None of the former cricketers believe him except Sarfaraz Nawaz. He's been changing his statements every other day. His family doesn't seem to support him either. To me, it looks like he's foolish but telling the truth.

The Curious Case of Fawad Alam

Every time he walks out to bat, there is an uncomfortable feeling of watching a meaningless innings from an overrated batsman. His career ODI strike rate of 74 runs per hundred balls is too low for an allrounder-turned-specialist batsman coming in the lower order. He can't play the short ball, a deficiency which makes him ineffective on fast bouncy pitches. He doesn't have the power to hit boundaries required at the end of an innings. His technique has been criticized, his stance even more. But his stats say otherwise.

He averages over 42 in ODIs (as of today). Of his 23 innings in ODI cricket till now, he has returned not out 9 times, with a strike rate of 103.54 in those innings. Nearly all his best performances have come when the team needed them most (fifties against Australia, England and South Africa).

In T20s, he averages 18 (SR 117) which is acceptable considering he comes in to bat at no.7 with not many balls left.

In his three Tests (two in Srilanka, one in New Zealand) he averages 41.66. He has yet to prove his test credentials though. His only Test innings of note is the brilliant 168 he scored on debut against Srilanka in Colombo, in 2009. 

His pattern of scoring suggests that he likes to accumulate runs in singles and doubles and then hit out in the latter part of his innings. To be fair to him, for a man criticized for being too slow in his scoring, he hasn't been given adequate chances. In limited overs cricket he comes in to bat at no.6 or 7 when he would have been better suited in the middle order, especially in the absence of some senior batsmen. On many occasions, he has had to rebuild the innings after a batting collapse. In Tests he hasn't been given a proper chance since he failed in the Dunedin Test against New Zealand.

Pak VS SA T20s, What Went Wrong?

Batting first after winning the toss in the T20s was foolish on Afridi's part. There is always the dew factor in the sub continent and UAE, which makes batting a lot easier in the second innings, and gripping the ball a much harder task.

Pakistan's 11 out of 26 T20 wins have come batting 2nd, that's 42% of the wins. 

Pak has lost 6 out of 15 T20s batting 2nd, that's 40% of the losses. 

Overall loss ratio when batting 2nd is 33% only.

So to say that Pakistan are not good chasers is over generalizing the team's performance in ODIs and Tests. The fact is Pak should have bowled first, at least in the 2nd T20, knowing that SA had the conditions a lot easier when batting in the first T20.

Hafeez bowled well in both matches, Afridi should have let him finish his quota in the first T20 instead of bowling Razzaq in the closing overs. Its not the same in UAE as bowling on English seaming tracks at 78 mph. Razzaq's got a good record bowling in the powerplay, but when chasing 120s, teams are only going to use him as a punch bag.

Shahzaib Hassan should be kicked out of the team till the World Cup, and Imran Farhat till the 2015 World Cup. Personally, I'd like to see Razzaq coming one down, and Shahzaib after two down when Kamran Akmal is back. Razzq is good against fast bowlers, Shahzaib played the spinners well in the domestic tournament (he hasn't played one in T20s for ages since he gets out inside the first three overs.)

And somebody should tell Misbah he can prove his Test credentials in the Tests, no need to mess up the T20s.

Dire Straits-Brother in Arms

This song is about the Falklands War, which was going on when Dire Straits lead singer Mark Knopfler wrote the song. The Falklands War was a conflict between Argentina and England over islands off the coast of Argentina that each country claims rights to. The islands are British territories, but in 1982 Argentina tried to reclaim one of the islands. Britain reclaimed their territories, but lost 258 soldiers in the conflict. The song was inspired by Knopfler's father remarking "We shouldn't be making war on our brothers in arms."

These mist covered mountains

Are a home now for me

But my home is the lowlands

And always will be

Some day you'll return to

Your valleys and your farms

And you'll no longer burn

To be brothers in arm

Through these fields of destruction

Baptism of fire

I've watched all your suffering

As the battles raged higher

And though they did hurt me so bad

In the fear and alarm

You did not desert me

My brothers in arms

Step Aside, Mr.Ponting!

After the retirement of Shane Warne, Glen McGrath, Mathew Hayden, Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist and Damien Martyn, Australia's decline in Test cricket was expected but now that it's right in front of us, it surprises. 

Ponting was made captain in 2004 and till December 2007 had lost only three Tests as captain. In January 2008, India beat Australia in the Perth Test. To prove that it wasn't a fluke, India beat Australia in another two Tests in October of that year to take their home series. Mixed results meant Australia's aura of invincibility had by then tarnished.

A home series loss against South Africa gave a sense of what was coming. But Ponting reinforced his claim on captaincy by winning the away series against the South Africans. The loss of the Ashes though, for the second time in England, when Ponting had recovered them in style through a 5-0 drubbing of England the last time the two teams had met (2006-2007), meant there were calls for taking the captaincy from him. Ponting responded with seven Tests wins on the trot, albeit against weaker Test sides (Pakistan, New Zealand and West Indies).

The date: 24th July 2010, the venue: England, the opposition: probably the weakest Test side Pakistan ever had, and Australia were beaten by Pakistan in a Test match for the first time in nearly fifteen years, after 13 consecutive wins against Pakistan. Ponting was disappointed but not as disappointed as he was when two months later his team lost against India again, this time by just one wicket. 

Second and last match of the series, Ponting would have been dreaming of victory after his side had scored a formidable 478 in the first innings and got Sehwag out cheaply. But Sachin Tendulkar, with his new habit of scoring runs even when India wins, churned out a double hundred and a fifty to seal the match for the Indians, and Ponting was left with another record, that of being the first Australian captain in 22 years to lose three consecutive Tests and the first to lose all matches of a series since 1982.

Ponting had always had the support of former captains, but now that Geoff Lawson has called for his axing and Shane Warne, regarded as the best captain Australia never had, tweeting furiously about his tactics for Nathan Hauritz in the last Test, it looks as if this Ashes series will be the last for Ponting as test skipper. Australia is still number one in ODI rankings, but it wouldn't save Ponting post the World Cup next year.

In his tenure, Ponting has lost five Test series in six years which by Australian standards is a lot. Australia has slipped from 1st to 5th in the ICC Test rankings, and it will be the first time since the rankings were introduced that England would be ranked higher than Australia at the start of the Ashes. To be fair to Ponting, some of the matches he has lost as a skipper were very close matches, a 1 wicket loss to India, a 3 wicket loss to Pakistan, and a 2 run loss to England. But the fact remains: he has yet to win a Test in India or a series in England. And it looks like he won't be getting another chance.

Zardari's Net worth and Education according to Wikipedia!

President Zardari is 2nd on Pakistan's rich list after Mian Muhammad Mansha. This is how his source of income has been described by Wikipedia.

Rank	Name	Net Worth ($ USD)	Age	Residence	Sources of income & wealth	Industries
1	Mian Muhammad Mansha	1 bil[1] - 5 bil[2]	62	Islamabad	Nishat Group, MCB, Adamjee Group, Nishat Chiniot power	Textiles, Banking, Energy, Transport
2	Asif Ali Zardari	1.8 bil[3]	54	Islamabad	Government of Pakistan	Politics, Food, Investment, Real estate (Acquired mostly through corruption)

According to a news report, British officials had trouble finding the school Asif Ali Zardari is said to have received his graduation or equivalent qualification from. The PPP says it was the London School of Economics and Business. But, no one seems to know for sure where that is.About his educational background there is some contoversy: "While a candidate for parliament, a position for which a 2002 rule requires a college degree, Zardari claimed to have graduated from a college in London called the London School of Economics and Business (LSEB). The 2002 rule was overturned by Pakistan's Supreme Court in April 2008.^"

In a written response to questions about London School of Economics and Business, an Edubase official told Dawn, "I have been unable to find evidence of this institution."

Pakistan officials in 2002 established a rule that a candidate for Parliament must have a certain level of college education.

Pakistan Cricket Team's Selection

Pakistan Team's 15 member squad for the ODI and T20 series against South Africa in the UAE has been announced.

I hate to say this, but Shoaib Malik does have a place in the ODI team considering the upcoming World Cup. If Misbah can play, so can he, its just a matter of controlling him and his group-bndi outside the ground. Misbah deserved his chance because of his performance in the domestic ODI competition.

Somehow, the selectors have seen sense and dropped Umer Amin and Azhar Ali from the ODI squad. Azhar deserves a chance in the Test series though, especially if the pitches are good for battting. He's had a rough time in his early days, playing in England against good seamers, so he should get a chance to play in the tests against South Africa.

The bittersweet news is the exclusion of Kamran Akmal, replaced by Zulqarnain Haider due to Akmal's appendicitus operation. Akmal's batting will be sorely missed, his keeping probably not.. Haider should stay for the tests if he keeps well. No need for a keeper who can bat if he can't keep.

Tanveer Ahmed gets a chance, lets see if he gets to play. Asad Shafiq retains his place and rightly so. Except for the last two ODIs against England, he looked good in the series.

Intikhab Alam makes a comeback, this time as the manager. I guess Ejaz Butt can't sleep without the knowledge that the team has a 70 year old Baba Ji with them. Shaid dua'ain kerne k kam aatay hain. 

I would've liked to see Rana Naveed or Rao Iftikhar in the squad, both are good bowlers in limited overs cricket, especially in sub-continental conditions. In Amer and Asif's absence they could have been included.

The captain hasn't been announced yet, can't see why. If Afridi is in the squad, he's got to be the captain. Perhaps, Prince Butt is mad again !

Pakistan squad: Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Akmal, Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Shoaib Akhtar, Tanveer Ahmed, Zulqarnain Haider (wk).