Did you know? Ahmad Shahzad has hit the first T20I century for Pakistan and the 12th overall, from 58 balls
Sport
Monday, March 31, 2014
14 Kaka hopeful for
World Cup
15 Aussies spun out
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DHAKA TRIBUNE
13
15 Williams claims
seventh Miami title
We are not a strong T20 outfit: Mushfiq
SHEHZAD v BANGLADESH Bowlers Mashrafe Al-Amin Shakib Razzak Mahmudullah Ziaur
Runs 39 27 10 7 7 21
Balls 16 18 9 8 6 5
SR 243.75 150.00 111.11 87.50 116.66 420.00
Pakistan opener Ahmed Shehzad celebrates after scoring a century during the ICC World Twenty20 match against Bangladesh at The Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka yesterday MUMIT M
Tamim’s poor show When the most experienced and highly rated batsman of a side scores 16, 6, 5,
SCORECARD Pakistan Ahmed Shehzad not out 111 Kamran Akmal c Ziaur b Razzak 9 Hafeez st Rahim b Razzak 8 Umar Akmal c Tamim b Mahmudullah 0 Shoaib Malik st Rahim b Shakib 26 Shahid Afridi c Ziaur b Al Amin 22 Sohaib Maqsood not out 1 Extras: (b3, w9, nb1) 13 Total (for five wickets, 20 overs) 190 Fall of wickets 1-43, 2-70, 3-71, 4-154, 5-188 Bowling Mortaza 4-0-63-0 (nb1, w5), Al Amin 4-0-37-1, Shakib 4-0-21-1 (w1), Razzak 4-0-20-2 (w3), Mahmudullah 3-0-24-1, Ziaur 1-0-22-0. Bangladesh Tamim Iqbal b Gul 16 Anamul Haque c and b Ajmal 18 Shakib c Umar Akmal b Gul 38 Shamsur Rahman c Kamran b Afridi 4 Mushfiqur Rahim lbw b Babar 2 Nasir Hossain st Kamran b Ajmal 23 Mohammad Mahmudullah not out 17 Ziaur Rahman c Kamran b Gul 0 Mashrafe Mortaza not out 17 Extras: (lb3, w2) 5 Total (for seven wickets, 20 overs) 140 Fall of wickets 1-30, 2-36, 3-44, 4-47, 5-91, 6-112, 7-116 Bowling Hafeez 3-0-16-0, Tanvir 3-0-26-0, Gul 4-0-30-3 (w1), Ajmal 3-0-20-2, Babar 3-0-24-1 (w1), Afridi 4-0-21-1 Pakistan won by 50 runs
0, 30, 21 in his last six innings, it is quite obvious to end up on the losing side which is the case of the Bangladesh team and opening batsman Tamim Iqbal at the moment. The attacking south paw hasn’t been able to live up to the hype recently which not only brought the worst in the 25-year-old but demoralised the team too. Averaging over 21 in 33 T20 matches Tamim was no way near to his potential in the World T20 where he averaged 13 with a match left against Australia. Tamim had dominated world class bowling attacks - be it India on his debut World Cup or England in their own backyard - Tamim’s reputation is highly acknowledged. So what actually happened to the Chittagong lad, when a major event is being played at home? Probably his favorite shot is coming down the track and clobbering the seamers over the in field, but he was caught up in his own trick yesterday when Umar Gul cramped him and rattled his stumps. When a player’s confidence level goes down to zero and his trademark strokes backfires it is probably the approach, mindset and lack of application to be blamed. Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim even backed his teammate when he was asked if it was time to rest Tamim in the next match. Musfiq said it will take eight-nine years to drop a player like Tamim - clearly indicating what he means to the team. It’s only for Tamim to realise what his contribution means to the team and the result and it is high time he should buckle up and do everything necessary to overcome the debacle. l
Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim, after three defeats in as many matches, admitted they are not a strong side in the shortest format of the game while at the same time having four to five players off form also cost them heavily in the ongoing World Twenty20. “It is true (that expectations are low in T20). But for it to happen like this, I would say that we are a team capable of putting up a fight, said Mushfiq after their defeat to Pakistan at SBNS yesterday. “The four or five players that we have, if they were in peak form, maybe the games would have been different. Maybe we would have gone close or on a good day we could have beaten a big team. But it is true that we are not a strong T20 outfit on paper. And the teams that we were playing against are much stronger. Apart from the Hong Kong game, we played well in the first round, but in this round we were disappointing. We did not expect that we would play this badly.”
Bangladesh were fighting neck-toneck with their opponents on 71 for three after 10 overs, but some big overs off the seamers took the game away, thought Mushfiq. Mashrafe produced 63 runs off his four, while overall 122 runs came from the nine overs bowled by the pacers. “When you are losing, it will affect not only me. No one wants to go there and lose the game. It is really disap-
MOST RUNS LEAKED IN T20 Player Anderson (Eng) Jayasuriya (SL) Rubel (Ban) Mortaza (Ban)
Ov 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.0
R Wk Opp Date 64 1 Aus 2007 64 0 Pak 2007 63 2 WI 2012 63 0 Pak 2014
Onyango (Kenya)
4.0
61
0
SL
2007
pointing. Against India, Pakistan or those teams, we have not been performing well in T20s. “We don’t have powerful batsmen down there or match winners, not four or five. There are a few but not like Ajmal, Afridi, Gul or Hafeez. We are really trying our best, but some of the boys are not in their peak form, so that doesn’t help. Hopefully we have one more game to go, and if we can win the
last game that will give us something to cheer,” he said. Things are certainly not going according to plans and Mushfiq thought replacing the off peak players won’t change the scenario as well. Meanwhile, Ahmed Shehzad became the only Pakistani cricketer to sore a century in all three formats and he was jubilant to achieve the feat. At the same time the 22-year-old blasted the media who criticized him for not performing in the first two matches. “To be very honest I have been hearing too many things after having not performed in the last two matches and this is the game when you don’t perform pressure comes on you,” Shehzad said. “But this is the time when you have to show the character and come out. I just backed myself and stick to my plan and my captain and coaches supported me and like to thank them. “I want to dedicate the century to those who critisises me and love me and for all of them who said bad things against me so this is a gift from me to all of them all over the world and for Pakistan,” said Shehzad who also became the only Pakistani opener to have a century in T20Is. l
Do-or-die match for Kiwis, Lankans Both Sri Lanka and New Zealand go into today’s match knowing a win will take the winner to the semifinal and a defeat equals elimination from the ICC T20 World Cup 2014. The end to Group 1 could not have been any better as both teams will battle it out to grab the second and final semifinal spot from the group at Chittagong’s Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium this evening. Today’s tie has actually turned out to be a quarterfinal although it was surely not meant to be like that when the fixtures were announced for T20 World Cup. Courtesy of a superior score according to the D/L method, New Zealand actually started the tournament on a winning note in a rain-affected encounter against England. In their second game,
they failed to get over the line by a whisker against South Africa as perhaps the most aggressive final over in Twenty20 cricket from Dale Steyn denied them a win.However, the Black Caps sealed their second win against the tricky Dutch quite comfortably in their third match. One thing which should give New Zealand a lot of optimism is their top order where the likes of Brendon McCullum, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor have made handsome contribution to the team’s cause at different times. The Kiwis also have quality all-round options in Corey Anderson and Jimmy Neesham to support their batsmen. Furthermore, the addition of Trent Boult in place of an out of sorts looking Tim Southee proved to be a master stroke against the Dutch in the last match. Therefore, Sri Lanka would have their work cut out if the Kiwis turn out to be a bird of prey. However,all-rounder Corey Ander-
son thinks that one cannot control a Twenty20 game, rather it will be the momentum that will take a side to the victory in this very important game today.“The nature of T20 is there’s a lot of things you can’t control and if one or two players step up, then we can beat anyone and we certainly have the players to do that. We’ll be going into the game with confidence and we have personnel to win this game. We know Sri Lanka have a very good side and have been playing good cricket throughout the group stage,” said Anderson. LasithMalinga,who will lead Sri Lanka today in place of the suspended Dinesh Chandimalsounded bullish and affirmed that his team was not worried about what New Zealand might do. “We are not thinking about the opposition. We are thinking about our players, their skill and how to develop that during tomorrow’s game. That’s very important for us,” saidMalinga. “We are playing games in the evening and we must
know how to use those conditions. We can’t give excuses for our skill. We know exactly what situation we have to face and preparing for that in training. We can’t make excuses about wet balls and things like that,” said Malinga. Today’s match is so tricky that even AB de Villiers of South Africa couldn’t actually find much to separate both the teams from each other. “It’s another quarterfinal. The clear favorite is Sri Lanka, obviously, for being used to these conditions. They’re playing really good cricket, but I’ll sit on the fence on that one,” said de Villiers. “The New Zealanders are very competitive and are playing some tough cricket. They’re hard to beat in pressure situations and are a really good fielding team, which will count in their favor on this ground with the wet ball. It’s 50-50.” All in all, spectators can expect another cliffhanger as a do or die situation should bring out the best from both the teams. l
(From L-R) New Zealand Bowling coach Shane Bond (L) gestures while talking with Kane Williamson during a training session yesterday. Sri Lanka cricket captain Dinesh Chandimal (L) warms up with teammates at a training session yesterday AFP
The formidable Aussie duo n
Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy (R)
When one prepares to bowl from the bowling end, the other one gets ready with gloves on her hands behind the stumps at the other end. We are talking about the Aussie duo- fast bowling all-rounder Ellyse Perry and wicketkeeper-batsman Alyssa Healy who have been playing together for four years and during that time they have tasted two World Twenty20 titles with Australia. Both Perry and Healy were born in the same year i.e. 1990 but the former one is perhaps the most talked-about person in the world women’s cricket for her dual international identity as well as for representing her country in the highest level of both cricket and football World Cup. Alyssa is engaged with cricket even in
her personal life having Australian cricket legend and former wicketkeeper Ian Healy as uncle and current national team fast bowler Mitchell Starc as life partner. Healy has always gone through cricket all her life. After retiring from ODI in 1997, Ian Healy called it a day from Test cricket two years later when Alyssa Healy was just an eight or nine-year-old kid. “I remember him playing when I was kid. I don’t think I didn’t understand what he was doing. I just loved to watch cricket and when I started playing cricket, I came to know what he has done,” She recalled. Healy’s father was also a cricketer who played for Queensland but never made it into the national squad. When asked who had more influence on becoming what she is today, Healy replied, “My father. He trained me with bat and ball and hit me
catches. My uncle was known worldwide. That also had an influence on me. But my father had the biggest influence in my life to become a cricketer.” Alyssa still gets tips from her uncle. Ian took her for dinner to give her guidance she needed during a match of the women’s Ashes series where Ian Healy was present as a commentator. Alyssa has been dating Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc since that match but she says they don’t usually talk about cricket. “It’s sort of unusual but when we get along, the talk is not lot of cricket but other things about life.” There is a lot to talk about Ellyse Perry who became the youngest Australian ever to make international cricket debut in 2007 at the age of 16 and in that same year she also earned her first football cap for the Matildas. “I suppose I’m very lucky. I started
playing both sports when I was six years old. I played as many competitions as I could. I guess it just came along. I really enjoyed it at the beginning but then I kept on doing it and ended up playing both,” She said. After playing every match of the ICC World Twenty20 in 2010, Perry became the first Australian woman to represent her country at a senior World Cup in two different sports as she was selected in the Matildas squad for the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany. Despite playing as a defender, Perry scored one goal against Sweden. “They’re all different but obviously playing in a soccer world cup is special and also the cricket world cup. I guess both are special since I represented my country. This is something I will remember for the rest of my life,” she proudly added. l