Pakistan Vs Scotland 12 September 2007

Pakistan Vs Scotland 12 September 2007

Team Pakistan

The tragic death of Bob Woolmer will still be in the memory when the team travels to its former coach’s country of residence for the ICC World Twenty20.

Facing pool matches against traditional rival India, which should be one of the highlights of the group stages, and Scotland, who it beat by five wickets when the two sides met in an ODI in June 2006, the priority for Pakistan will be to progress to the next round. That’s something it has failed to do in the previous two ICC events.

Without former captain Inzaman-ul-Haq, who retired from the ODI form of the game at the end of the CWC 2007, the team will be looking to rely on the likes of captain Shoaib Malik and Younis Khan for runs, as well as Imran Nazir, whose stunning 160 against Zimbabwe was one of the few highlights of its Caribbean adventure.

Shahid Afridi’s explosive batting is perfectly suited for the short form of the game, as he illustrated on his last visit to South Africa, when he scored what was the eighth fastest ODI fifty at Durban. He should be one of the players to watch at the event.

Pakistan will be also be hopeful of making an impact in the bowling department with the return of speedsters Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, who missed the CWC 2007, to the side for South Africa.

Pakistan has enjoyed mixed fortunes in its previous Twenty20 Internationals, defeating England and losing to South Africa.

Three wickets for Abdul Razzaq helped restrict England to 144-7 at Bristol in August 2006, before Mohammad Hafeez’s 46 off 40 balls helped Pakistan to a five-wicket victory, although it was man of the match Afridi who stole the show with a stunning 28 off 10 balls.

However, Pakistan was to suffer an extremely heavy defeat against South Africa at Johannesburg in February 2007 when it was thrashed by 10 wickets.

Pakistan struggled to reach 129-8 off its 20 overs, which the home side then knocked off in just 11.3 overs with Graeme Smith scoring 71* off 11.3 overs.

Team Scotland

Scotland will be hoping to build on its disappointing ICC Cricket World Cup campaign in the Caribbean, although it will face difficult tests against India and Pakistan in South Africa at the ICC World Twenty20.

Few players will look back too fondly on their time in the West Indies as Scotland suffered heavy defeats to Australia and South Africa, despite some excellent cricket in parts of those games. Most disappointing of all was the defeat by the Netherlands by eight wickets.

Among the relatively few highlights was Colin Smith’s brave 51 against Australia, while Majid Haq, whose four distinguished victims at the event were Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke, Graeme Smith and Ashwell Prince, impressed with his spin bowling, as did Glenn Rogers.

Led by new captain Ryan Watson, who replaced former skipper Craig Wright who stepped down as skipper at the end of the CWC 2007, the squad has some experience of Twenty20 cricket at county level which it will look to utilise at the ICC World Twenty20.

Dougie Brown, the Warwickshire all rounder, has vast experience of Twenty20 cricket with his county, playing in 27 matches before the start of the 2007 season, taking 23 wickets in total. His county colleague, Navdeep Poonia, and former Yorkshire all rounder Gavin Hamilton have also played Twenty20 cricket in England.

The team qualified for the event following an outstanding campaign at the ICC World Cricket League Division One in Kenya, Nairobi in February.

Hamilton and Fraser Watts starred in the event, both scoring three fifties, while Wright (10 wickets) and Paul Hoffmann (eight wickets) were the leading bowlers.

Scotland enjoyed an outstanding victory over Kenya in the group stages, although it couldn’t repeat its heroics against the host nation in the final when it was defeated by eight wickets. The $US250,000 that the team secured as a result of qualifying for the ICC World Twenty20 will provide funding for the future development of Scottish cricket.