Group D - Pakistan, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland

[pasag]

Caught the first 20 and last 20 overs of this morning's game. Not sure how I'll budget time to catch full matches this WC, though. 12-9am is pretty brutal.

Might go to bed when I get home from uni this afternoon and get up at midnight...

Yeah, wasn't good. Feel asleep after Lara got out and woke up for the last five minutes. It's going to be a struggle.

Good stuff from WI though, well deserved win.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Windies emphatic in opening win.

Extremely impressive bowling and fielding performance. Bravo is a legend.
Was watching in the pub and everytime I dissed Smith he would played a good shot. As soon as I got distracted and started talking about West Ham, he got out. Woooo.

 

[Jono]

Caught the first 20 and last 20 overs of this morning's game. Not sure how I'll budget time to catch full matches this WC, though. 12-9am is pretty brutal.

Might go to bed when I get home from uni this afternoon and get up at midnight...

That's what I'm doing. I was lucky though to have Wednesday off from uni, so I was able to watch the opener without any issues, but still got too tired near the end and fell asleep when Yousuf got out.

But what I'm generally doing is sleeping from when I get back from uni till around 10ish, do whatever work I gotta do then watch the game.

Plus the game didn't bloody start till 1:15-1:30.

 

[Blaze]

worse in NZ. Games start at 3am...

I will just record them through mysky and watch them the next day after uni

 

[Josh]

I'm alright for games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but for the rest you can forget it!! I really wanted to watch the whole game but I fell asleep well before the start. Caught the period of Pakistan between 3-for and 6-for, then had to leave. Bleh!

 

[simmy]

Games start at 2pm here. Could not be more perfect

 

[Turbinator]

Games start at 2pm here. Could not be more perfect

Local Time .

 

[IndianByHeart]

seriously why dont people understand? why Afridi, hasnt he already been tried a million times???? Afridi for the team is a must yes, but his effectiveness is not as an opener

I think most ppl do understand that Afridi isn't suitable as an opener (even Afridi himself wants to bat at 6 slot outside subcontinent) however the problem with Pakistan is that they don't have much choices.

I said many times that the selection of Pak team was dead wrong, Salman Butt happens to be their best bet as an opener and its a shame that he wasn't selected and his place was taken over by Imran Nazir who is complete crap.After todays game it should be clear that Pakistan should be looking to discard two players from the remaining matches, one is Imran Nazir and other is out of sorts Rana Naveed. Hafiz isn't a good bat either, but he is valuable as a bowler, Danish can be tried for few more games, he didn't do very badly with ball today, though his fielding is terrible.

Somone should tell coward Inzamam that either he should bat up the order or get ready to get sacked after WC.As for openers, Pak have tried Akmal and Younis in past as openers with no success, and the current pair isn't working either, the only option taht Pakistan have now is to either go with Afridi and Haffez as openers, or try out Malik and Afridi.

I would go for foll lineup

Malik
Afridi
Inzamam
Yousuf
Younis
Hafeez
Akmal
Azhar
Yasir A
Anjum
Gul.

The lower-mid order batting (hafeez,Akmal,Azhar) doesn't appear to be much strong, as such much of the work will have to be done by upper order batters.

Gul,Anjum,Hafeez and Afridi can all do good job with the ball, for fifth bowler Pak will have plenty of option with Azhar,Malik and Arafat.If Arafat can contribute with bat that it will be great for Pakistan.

 

[Natman20]

Afridi getting out early is probably a worse prospect than any other Pakistani batsman opening. He is a finisher and although he has shown glimpses of talent at the top of the order its too bad that he can't carry any consistency that some other player may be able to provide.

 

[IndianByHeart]

Well unfortunetly the whole pakistans batting line-up is a hit and miss, like our openers......the situation ur talking about, theres an 80% chance that it will only happen if our openers click, then as there will be no pressure on our middle-order, they will most likely click aswell.

NO not all are like that. Inzi, Yousuf and Malik are fine, rest aren't reliable though.

Inzi and Yousuf played too cautiously today and that was one factor that cost Pakistan the match, there were several ocasion when singles and doubles were not taken, i was amazed to see both players completely bogged down for such a long time.Both should realise the importance of running b/w wickets in ODI.

 

[IndianByHeart]

Afridi getting out early is probably a worse prospect than any other Pakistani batsman opening. He is a finisher and although he has shown glimpses of talent at the top of the order its too bad that he can't carry any consistency that some other player may be able to provide.

Then who do you suggest should really open for Pakistan?? This is probably the biggest puzze of the WC.

I don't think Nazir should have any role in remaining matches.

 

[_Ed_]

Caught the first 20 and last 20 overs of this morning's game. Not sure how I'll budget time to catch full matches this WC, though. 12-9am is pretty brutal.

Might go to bed when I get home from uni this afternoon and get up at midnight...

That might work.

I recorded the whole game last night and spent the afternoon on the couch watching it.

That's not going to work for games I have to write up for CW though...

 

[pasag]

The replay of the game is on Fox 2 for anyone who has. Wasn't in the guide I don't think.

 

[age_master]

Fantastic to see the West Indies off to a good start

 

[honestbharani]

nice win for the Windies.


Pak's bowling, inspite of not having Akhtar and Asif, still seems a slight bit better than their batting and THAT is worrying. I guess when AFridi comes back and one of either Nazir or Hafeez is dropped, things will change. Ideally, I would have Malik opening with Nazir/Hameed and slot in Afridi at 6. And I don't think they should lose faith in Kaneria yet. He coudl still have a role to play in this WC.

 

[WI fan]

Cool avatar.

Yeah I know it was off topic but we were celebrating with a lot of very cold beer at the time here in Trinidad.
I am glad that the guys were able to pick themselves up as a team after that debacle of last week where they scored only 85 against India.
I hope that you liked the edited quote from Sunil Gavaskar.
The avatar is the caveman from the Geico ads....thats how we felt after the India loss last week.
Cheers!!!! ....and rally around the West Indies!!!!!!

 

[Beleg]

I can't believe I spent seven hours in the pub watching this.

To be fair, WI deserved this win thoroughly. They completely out-classed Pakistan in every department.

Dwayne Smith is a champion. Kaneria and Rana need to be dropped and replaced with Azhar and Afridi.

 

[Fiery]

Kaneria and Rana need to be dropped and replaced with Azhar and Afridi.

Afridi is banned for one more game isn't he?

 

[nightprowler10]

Afridi is banned for one more game isn't he?

Yes. He got 4 match ban, served three now.

 

[godofcricket]

NO not all are like that. Inzi, Yousuf and Malik are fine, rest aren't reliable though.

I think u mis-understood my post.....i didnt mean our batsman at the opening position are like any other batsman....i rate Inzamam, yousuf and younis very very highly.....what i did mean was, that our team as a whole depends alot on our openers to deliver as it releases huge amount of pressure from them, IF our openers dont deliver (normal) then it creates a situation for our batsman in which its hard for them to deliver.