Story ICC Battle For Supremacy - Its Fifty-Fifty! | PAK v ENG | ENG Innings

[HawkAussie]

I'm ready for the next match.

 

[AkshayS]

done, remember though the points he got for this match wont count.

yeah, I know that.

 

[riz7khan12]

Selection Conundrums​

Will Freddie Flintoff play? The question on everyone?s mind as we head into match 3 of the ICC Battle for Supremacy. If he does play it?ll likely be at the expense of Luke Wright, who to be fair hasn?t been in the best of form lately with either the bat or ball. But then Freddie hasn?t played international cricket since the 2009 Ashes which is quite a big gap.

That?s not the only selection issue plaguing the English coaching staff; there is also the matter of who bats at 3? The most likely case would be that either Bell or Trott would bat at that position with one of them not playing at all as Collingwood has secured that no.5 position after making 3 centuries in a row against the Aussies.

Not only do England have these problems, so do Pakistan. Do they play the out of form Malik or the inconsistent Alam at that no.6 spot? Malik?s all-round abilities pushes his case to be in the side as the third spinner but at no.6 your batting is more crucial than anything so maybe Alam might get the nod.

The biggest question of them all is perhaps who will captain Pakistan? It?s a bit of a surprise that the PCB has left it till the eve of their first game to decide their captain. Will it be Misbah-Ul Haq the man who led Pakistan to a test series victory after a long time or will it be Shahid Afridi who has been the favourite amongst the players and fans alike.

 

[Bevab]

A.Flintoff
B.Bell
C.Malik
D.Afridi

Here are my suggestions. But excellent innovation in that update.

 

[AkshayS]

well one selection is clear, I will take Freddie ahead of Wright anyday.
Trott to bat at no.3 with Bell too in the squad, both have shown some recent good form.

 

[riz7khan12]

ICC Battle for Supremacy
Pakistan v England​

Match Three, Dhaka

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: Hello and welcome to another episode of Battle – Off the Field! Today we are coming to you from the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in the heart of Dhaka, for a neutral game the locals have come in today! We expect a crowd of 35,000 here later today. Anyway I just have the one guest today and he is none other than Sir Ian ‘Beefy’ Botham!

: Great to be back in the Sub-Continent and it’s a pleasure to be here in the box with you.

: Thanks Beefy, so what are the chances of an English victory here?

: Very good I’d say, the current squad led by Andy Flower has gone from strength to strength since the 2009 Ashes series back home. I suspect England are the favourites going into the match even though they are foreign to these conditions and their type of play will be challenged.

: Although you can never rule out Pakistan from any game, they do have that unpredictable tag stuck to them and on their day they can beat any side in the world. Anyway let’s get down to User for the weather and pitch report.

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: The weather should be fine today although there are a few clouds around they shouldn’t be a problem, so hopefully we should get a full game of cricket in this time. It is quite hot out here though and there’s no breeze to speak of but since this is a day/night game it should cool down immensely closer to the second innings.

: Pitch wise, it’s not in good condition to be honest. The ground staff has prepared a flat surface which already had a few games played on it, so in theory it should be a good contest between bat and ball. If I won the toss I would bat first and hope the pitch breaks up even more later on. One thing’s for sure whoever bats second on the pitch will find it difficult with the pitch conditions and the lights.

: Thanks for that User, as usual a thorough job. Now there have been a few selection issues around both camps as there are more than 11 players that are in form at one time. One such case is; who will be batting at 3 for England, Trott or Bell?

: That’s a tough choice, glad I’m not a selector. At this point maybe Trott... I mean you can’t really choose between them but Trott is a specialist at three so you would assume they would go with him. But then Bell is the more aggressive of the two and can take advantage of the bowling powerplay early on in the piece.

: So beefy you are close with the English set-up, what are the chances of Flintoff playing today?

: Um... not sure to be fair. If he does play he’ll more likely than not replacing Luke Wright who hasn’t done much with both bat and ball lately, he might not open the bowling, Broad and Anderson have been doing a great job at that but you never know.

: Thanks for your views beefy and I look forward to your company throughout this fixture. We’ll take a short break now and be back with the incredibly important toss.


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[Gaurav_7]

Where is my pic? Looking forward to this match given the unpredictable nature of Pakistanis and a strong English team. Should be a cracker!

 

[Dutchmen]

I can think off getting Freddie back. I think this team is good enough to win and I can't put my finger on what happened to Freddie (why is he not fit to play) - I haven't got a clue.

 

[riz7khan12]

ICC Battle for Supremacy
Pakistan v England​

Match Three, Dhaka

: Thanks for waiting everybody and let?s get down to Ravi for the toss.​

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: The two captains are here with me and so is today?s match referee, Alan Hurst. Andrew I believe you have the coin so if you may... Shahid calls heads and it lands heads. Shahid what?s the plan for today?​

: We?ll be bowling first today Ravi. We?re not sure how the pitch is going to play so we will bowl and chase down the target they set us.​

: First of all it?s great to see that you?re the captain! And second, that?s a brave call considering the amount of sideways movement that will be extracted from this pitch in the second innings. Anyway what?s the team like for today?s game?​

: Ha-ha thanks Ravi; we expect that it?ll become more difficult for the spinners in the second innings once the outfield becomes wet in the evening, and as far as the team is concerned, Yousuf bhai comes in at 3 today and Shoaib Malik is in at six. Those are the major changes since our last series against New Zealand.​

: The decision to bowl is a risky move which might not pay off but that is cricket! So Andrew would you have bowled first today?​

: No I don?t think so; it becomes quite hard to bat under lights in the sub-continent sometimes and we like to set targets rather than chase them. Add to that it?s bloody hot out here and we rather not field in these conditions!​

: Ha-ha Fair enough, there has been quite a lot of talk recently of who comes in at No.3 and whether or not Freddie will play... so?​

: Uh... yes, Fred has been training hard in all aspects of his game and he?ll be coming in at seven and will also open the bowling later on and Ian Bell will be coming in at three. Unfortunate for Wright and Trott but someone has to miss out.​

: Okay thanks Andrew; so the news from the middle is, Pakistan have won the toss and elected to bowl.​

: That was Ravi Shastri with the toss and interesting decision to bowl first beefy?​

: Yes I would say so, although it does make sense. Pakistan will be relying Ajmal, Afridi and Malik to bowl in the middle overs and it would be hard for them to bowl second with the dew around.​

: Well in world cups thinking outside the box does help. Here are the confirmed team lineups, no real surprises there though.​

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: Our predictions have been correct, both teams look strong and individuals from the teams have performed well. Although I was surprised to hear that Flintoff will be opening the bowling, don?t get me wrong... I rather see him opening the bowling with Anderson and then Broad and Bresnan can finish things off at the death, the bowling attack really does look strong.​

: For Pakistan?s batting numbers 2, 3 and 4 are the key. The senior batsmen in the team are expected to perform if Pakistan have a chance of winning today. They can rely on Umar, Afridi and Razzaq to smash the ball around later on but the foundations need to be laid before that can happen.​

: You?re right there; the senior most batsmen in the side must perform if Pakistan have a chance to chase down whatever England put on the board.​

: Right then, the time is 1:55 pm local and we are 5 minutes away from the start of match 3 in the ICC Battle for Supremacy. We?ll take a break and be back with live coverage of the first innings.​

 

[riz7khan12]

ICC Battle for Supremacy
Pakistan v England
Match Three, Dhaka​

Patience Prevails​

It was Akthar to bowl the first ball and straight away the batsmen found it difficult to cope with the pace. In the first over of the game, there were numerous mistakes by Kieswetter who almost ran himself out trying to get down to the other end. It was a trying period for the batsmen; Gul was restricting the runs at one end while Akthar was creating chances at the other. Gul did an extremely good job considering there was no swing or seam off the pitch even though its 3 days old.​

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Akthar and Gul continued to be a volatile partnership where they both could’ve created chances and deserved too, but the mighty patience of Strauss & Kieswetter matched no other. They weathered the early barrage and now were finding the gaps in the field more often. The first boundary of the innings was finally scored in the 5th over of the innings where Gul bowled a short and wide one which was cut over point by Kieswetter. Both the bowlers were leaking runs now, dot balls were rare and singles the norm.​

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With 8 overs gone and the runs flowing free, Afridi decided to bring on Razzaq and himself to try and restrict the scoring and maybe pick up a few wickets towards the end of 10 overs, another move which didn’t really pay off. Both bowled one over and went for 8 runs each. For both the cases they bowled a few bad balls where the batsmen were good enough to smash to the boundary.​

Here are the pitch maps of Afridi and Razzaq you can see that the line and lengths weren’t great and thus they paid the price. Especially the case with Afridi who bowled to straight to Strauss and was picked off through midwicket.​

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So in the end patience prevailed here at Mirpur, Pakistan created chances very early and probably deserved an early wicket but hats off to the opening pair who stuck it out and now have put England in a strong position to score a healthy total.​

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[AbhishekS]

Fantastic video. Which song did you use in the background?

 

[riz7khan12]

Which song did you use in the background?

T.N.T by AC/DC.

btw when i'm doing the write-up in word it looks much more than it does here, i guess the pics are too big.

 

[Gaurav_7]

Use 800 X 600 dimensions. And, writing is sufficient this much. No drags. Good read. Yeah, nice video.

 

[Aditya]

England are off to a good start. Good to see Shoaib bowling well. He has not been at his very best in the past few months with the ball but in this match he is certainly bowling in the right areas and getting a lot of purchase.

Nice video, Riz.

 

[AkshayS]

Nice video yet again Riz, as I always says, your videos are really quality works.

A nice opening partnership building there, they just need to cross 100 mark without loss and the match will be as good as England's.