Hafeez, Malik and Afridi help Tigers to five-wicket win (The News)

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=66679

By our correspondent

KARACHI: Pakistan Tigers beat Pakistan Panthers by five wickets thanks to valuable knocks from Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi in a practice T20 game here at the National Stadium on Wednesday.

Chasing 175 in energy-sapping conditions, the Tigers reached the target seven balls to spare. In-form opener Hafeez was the top scorer with 49 while Malik chipped in with 40 and Afridi hit a 21-ball 39 to guide their team to victory.

It was the fifth practice game of the national training camp in Karachi being held in preparations for the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup to be held in South Africa next month.

Pakistan’s top pacer Shoaib Akhtar missed the practice game because of a stiff neck which he said was a result of the dehydration he suffered from in Monday’s practice game.

Panthers won the toss and posted 174-5 in 20 overs. Opener Imran Farhat was in devastating form, hitting 71 off 43 balls with the help of two sixes and eight fours. Khalid Latif made 32 while Shahid Yousuf scored 30. Najaf Shah took two wickets but went for 49 runs.

Hafeez and Salman Butt (23) gave Tigers a good start. Hafeez’s 49 came off just 21 balls and included nine hits to the fence and a six. Afridi hit three sixes and two fours in his 39.

Scores: Pakistan Panthers 174-5 in 20 overs (Khurram Manzoor 6, Khalid Latif 32, Imran Farhat 71, Shahid Yousuf 30, Faisal Iqbal 2 Fawad Alam 10*, Najaf Shah 2-49, Mohammad Hafeez 1-33).

Pakistan Tigers 178-5 in 18.5 overs (Salman Butt 23, Mohammad Hafeez 49, Shoaib Malik 40*, Misbah-ul-Haq 3, Shahid Afridi 39, Abdul Razzaq 12, Mohammad Asif 5-0-57-1; Umar Gul 1.3-0-27-0; Sohail Tanvir 2.3-0-13-0; Abdul Rehman 4-0-19-1; Mohammad Irshad 2-0-36-0; Fawad Alam 3-0-21-2).

Good Effort. I think we need Abdur Rehman in the ODI team and maybe try him out in the test team.

Not happy with the bowling attack for the 20-20 world cup!
Asif and Gul will definitely find it hard to stop quick runs, A razzaq has totally forgotten how to bowl yorkers, A Rehman in most of these practice games has gone for loads of runs and we all know about Shoaib's fitness level so if PAK want to win this thing then they must concentrate on their bowling. I think the selectors should think about bringing Rana back in to the team because remember for the last 3 years he has been our best death bowler.

yeah he is good but looking at the conditions in SA i think he will not be suited there

where there is almost no spin and turn selectors will go with all fast bowlers with part time spiners like malik hafeez and good spinner linke afrdi

Imran Farhat devastating! 71 of 43 is brilliant!

Shoaib not playing...

Hafeez also in great form.

Who will open?

wait are you saying we are actuallly "spoilt" for choice in our 20/20

I belive so!

I mean, Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Imran Nazir, and Mohammad Hafeez? Which of them paly? Which of them get to play at other positions?

But then we lack in the middle order...

What about the bowlers? Should Shoaib Akhtar really be playing? Does Rao Ifti deserve a spot?

What about this guy, Khalid Latif? Seems to be having a good game each time!

Guys im not believing this!! we have inform openers and are lacking Middle order batsmen and bowling isn't too impressive.?!?! Am i dreaming?

Farhat is not at all an option. PCB selectors can chuck that idea out of the window if they want to be serious about our chances in the WC. It has to be between Butt, Nazir and Hafeez, and IMO the latter two might be preferred due to their superior 'explositivity'

The bowlers are taking a hammering. Asif and Gul going at 10 runs per over! And this is just our Pakistani batsmen they are facing, what will happen when they will face the best players of the world?!

Afridi seems to be playing very sedately.. only 3 6's in his knock..

Asif shouldn't be an auto-choice into the 2020 team because when the batsmen attack him he has no reply.

If there's one form of the game that he HAS to play in, its 20/20's. He's bowled well in all the games, is in good batting form, and is one of our best fielders. Not an automatic choice? I suppose Faisal Iqbal is then.

What the heck Easa, did you look at the article before coming up with that little gem? Asif got clobbered for 57 runs in 5 overs! Thats an economy of 10 runs per over, which is definitely not what we want from our ace fast bowler. But dropping him would be utter stupidity. We can't just drop the most successful Pakistani bowler in the last year just like that

this was the only match where he has gone for lot of runs. Its 20-20 and you can't bowl well everyday.

He wasn't mentioned in any other Twenty20 practice reports. IIRC he didn't play in a couple of games. Dunno where you guys get the 'bowling well' part

Oh my, I thought he was talking about Afridi. Thats why I mentioned the good batting form..

Sorry about that!

I think Easa thought Faisalm is on about Afridi, therefore a mix up

Unless he thinks Asif has also been in good batting form

yes, i got a bit confused ;)