Glorious Morning-Waterflame

I first heard this in the flash game Age of War, and I've been playing the game again and again just because of this music. Simply Superb!

Movies This Week

Been watching movies this week.

I hadn't watched AVATAR till now, and now that I have, I'm disappointed. The story was predictable, and I've read so many sci-fi stories with the same plot. And I don't care about graphics unless the story is good.

Watched The King's Speech and it was really good. The script, the acting, all very well done.

Finally found the movie Timeline through google (had been looking for it for ages). The plot was excellent, the acting not so. But since it involved time travel, I liked it.

Economies of Scale

Here you will find:

What Are Economies and Dis-economies of Scale?
Where Are Economies of Scale?
Distinction Between Internal and External EOS
What Are the Causes of Diseconomies of Scale?

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