With Misbah on strike, Pakistan needed 13 from the final over, and Dhoni chose the moment to bring Joginder Sharma to bowl. His first ball was a wide, and the second got thumped out of the stadium, and the Indian’s shoulders had begun to slump when Misbah scooped one straight into Sreesanth’s hands. What a way that stadium erupted, that moment truly belonged to India. Now looking back, it strikes that had it not been for that one slip, it would have been Pakistan’s tournament.

Of course the Indian’s had done well, with RP Singh and Irfan Pathan spearheading their pace attack, and with Gambhir at the helm of the batting, they had made a few mistakes. But Pakistan too had played their hearts out – Misbah, Sohail Tanvir and Shahid Afridi – they played a nearly flawless game.

Now two years later so much has changed for both the teams. The disgrace of the attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore saw Pakistan being out casted from World Cricket. Countries refused to tour Pakistan, the players were not given permission to participate in the IPL and for the latest, and they were excluded from the Champions’ Twenty20 League. If nothing else, it’s going to be a bitter team, a team full of fire, and hunger to win back all its lost glories, that is going to compete this year.

As far as the team composition goes, Shoaib Malik is no longer the captain and the team has a new coach too: Intikhab Alam.

The board has also included two uncapped players in the team this year: Mohammad Aamer (a left arm pacer) and Shahzaib Hasan (an opener). Shoaib Akhtar is out on account of a skin infection, and the bowling attack will be spearheaded by Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir, Yasir Arafat, Aamer and Rao Iftikhar Anjum. Their spin attack looks spectacular with Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi.

Pitted against England and Netherlands in the first phase of the tournament Pakistan’s road to the Super 8s, and even beyond that looks fairly smooth. Maybe they’ll just go the whole way this year.

Comments

Add New RSS

3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

Newer news items:

Older news items: