Pakistan confident to play Kenya warm-up before T20 World Cup

Pakistan hoping for Kenya warm-up before T20 World Cup

By Khalid Hussain

KARACHI: Pakistan will know in a week’s time whether they can warm up for this September’s inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa by competing in a four-nation T20 contest in Kenya.

A Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official told ‘The News’ on Friday that organisers of a proposed Twenty20 tournament in Kenya are working overtime to hold the event ahead of the T20 World Cup which gets underway from September 11.

“We are very hopeful that the Twenty20 tournament will go ahead according to plans but would only know for sure in about a week’s time,” said Dr Ahsan Hameed Malik, PCB’s Director of Communications.

Malik said that Pakistan are quite interested in taking part in the Kenya tournament saying that it would provide their team with ample match practice ahead of the T20 World Cup.

He said that Kenya and Bangladesh are already in while the hosts are also trying to rope in another team to make it a quadrangular tournament.

Malik said that if the tournament is held then the Pakistani squad would leave for Kenya end of August and would stay there for almost a week before arriving in South Africa on September 7. Pakistan have been drawn with old rivals India and tournament underdogs Scotland in Group D. The 12-contest would conclude on September 24.

Pakistan manager Talat Ali said that he would love to see his team competing in a warm-up tournament ahead of the T20 World Cup.

“My team has been training hard in recent weeks but the players are short of match practice,” said Talat, a former Pakistan Test cricketer. “We believe that a tournament in Kenya would help us properly warm up for the Twenty20 World Cup,” he added.

Pakistan have just played three one-dayers (against Sri Lanka) since their embarrassing World Cup exit in March as two more games that were to be held in Scotland earlier this month were washed out.

Talat pointed out that the conditions in Kenya would be quite similar to South Africa and a week’s stay there would help his boys adapt to ‘African conditions’.

Pakistan are hoping to compensate for a disastrous World Cup campaign in the Caribbean this March by winning the inaugural T20 World Championship.

“For us the assignment is South Africa is very important because our team has a point to prove after its first round exit in the World Cup,” said Talat.

Pakistan got knocked out of the World Cup after successive defeats against hosts the West Indies and minnows Ireland in Kingston, Jamaica.

The Pakistanis have since been licking their wounds and Talat is confident that a series of conditioning camps would help his boys fully ready for the T20 World Cup.

Talat’s charges are currently training in Lahore where several members of Pakistan preliminary T20 World Cup squad played in a practice match at the Gaddafi Stadium on Friday.

A team led by Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik recorded an easy win over a line-up captained by Salman Butt, Pakistan’s new vice-captain. Butt score a fifty as his team posted 116 in 20 overs. Malik responded with a match-winning fifty as his team reached the target with a couple of overs to spare.

The highlight of the match was the fact that comeback pace star Shoaib Akhtar bowled eight overs at a ‘lightning pace’.

“Shoaib bowled at a lightning pace,” Talat. “He bowled four overs each in both the innings and looked really sharp.”

Pakistani players will play three more matches on Saturday (today), Sunday and Monday and after a brief rest would reassemble for the next phase of the camp in Karachi.

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=65158
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really missing Pakistani cricket and really praying that this series is confirmed with srilanka or west indies comming to join and also to adopt to the conditions it is really crucial for us

and for the practice matches nice to seee SHOAIB AKHTAR AT HIS BEST and nice to see our captain team winning with leading from the front showing

real concentrate should be shoaib at his best with firy pace

Malik, Salman and Farhat stand out: Twenty20 practice match
Malik, Salman and Farhat stand out: Twenty20 practice match

By Our Sports Correspondent

LAHORE, July 20: Captain Shoaib Malik and Imran Farhat’s productive knocks steered the ‘B’ team to a resounding eight-wicket win against Salman Butt’s ‘A’ side in the first Twenty20 practice match at the Gaddafi Stadium on Friday.

Set 120 to win, Malik hit a 25-ball 41 with four boundaries, while Farhat struck an unbeaten 36 off 44 balls with three boundaries as the ‘B’ team achieved the target in 17.1 overs for the loss of only two wickets.

Imran Farhat and Imran Nazir’s (12) opening stand could yield only 23 runs as the latter was caught and bowled by Shoaib Akhtar, who delivered four overs each for both the sides to test his stamina. After Nazir’s departure, Shoaib Malik joined Farhat as both added 71 for the second wicket.

When Shahid Afridi broke the partnership, removing Malik for 41, Farhat found another reliable partner in Yasir Hameed (20) as both guided their team to victory without further damage.

Shoaib and Afridi claimed one wicket apiece for 36 and 18 respectively whereas Mohammad Sami, Umar Gul and Abdul Razzaq remained wicketless.

Earlier, Salman Butt played a captain’s knock of 52-ball 67 without getting any support from team-mates Mohammad Hafeez (1), Misbah-ul-Haq (1) and Mohammad Yousuf (1) all getting out cheaply as the ‘A’ side were folded for 119 in 19.5 overs. Faisal Iqbal (15) was the second highest scorer after Salman.

Shoaib Akhtar (2-17), Mohammad Asif (2-22), Rao Iftikhar (2-19), Shoaib Malik (2-34) and Abdul Rehman (2-23) shared the wickets equally.

The second Twenty20 tie of the four-match series at the national training camp will be held on Saturday.

Selectors Shafqat Rana and Saleem Jaffar witnessed the match while chief selector Salahuddin Ahmed is likely to arrive home on Saturday to observe the remaining games.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/07/21/spt3.htm

Farhat making it over 15?!?!
Good to see Butt ans Malik performing. Not sure about all the 1s, maybe shoaib was too good for them lol.