Australia floor Pakistan in third Twenty20

September 11, 2012

aus_floor

Dubai, September 11: Australia brought Pakistan down to earth with a thumping 94-run defeat in the third and final Twenty20 international at Dubai Stadium here on Monday.

Chasing a daunting 169-run target, Pakistan were all out for 74 -- the joint lowest by a Test playing country in all Twenty20s -- for their biggest defeat in the history of the shortest form of the game.

Only Nasir Jamshed (17), Yasir Arafat (15) and Abdul Razzaq (13) could reach double figures as Australian paceman Mitchell Starc (3-11) and Pat Cummins (3-15) ran through the Pakistan batting line-up.

Pakistan, who won the first match by seven wickets and the second in Super over, never looked the same side as they lost wickets at regular intervals, the first five falling by the sixth over with the score on 19.

Razzaq and Arafat shared the highest partnership of the innings with 20, taking Pakistan past the lowest total in all Twenty20 -- 67 by Kenya against Canada in Belfast in 2008.

Pakistan's previous biggest defeat in Twenty20 internationals was by 48 runs, against England at The Oval in 2009.

India were also dismissed for 74 by Australia at Melbourne in 2008.

Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez termed the defeat as a wake-up call.

"Unfortunately we couldn't do well in the last match," said Hafeez. "It is a wake up call ahead of the World Twenty20 and we now must realise our duties but full credit to Australia as they came back strongly."

Australian captain George Bailey praised his openers, David Warner and Shane Watson.

"The openers set the foundation for us and then the bowlers backed that with some good performances," said Bailey.

Earlier Warner made a 34-ball 59 with six sixes and a four and Watson hammered five sixes and a boundary during his 32-ball 47 to put on Australia's best opening stand of 111 in all T20s after they were put into bat.

The Australian openers went berserk from the eighth over when Watson hit Shoaib Malik for three towering sixes and from the other end Warner hit left-armer Raza Hasan for as many sixes in the ninth.

Even the successful Saeed Ajmal was hit for two sixes as Australian openers hit nine sixes in the space of 19 balls, bringing the second fifty off just 15 balls.

Paceman Arafat, who replaced Sohail Tanveer as the only change to the line-up, had both the openers in successive overs to put brakes on the Australian innings, finishing with 2-30.

Glenn Maxwell chipped in with a 20-ball 27 with three fours and six.

Ajmal finished with 2-19, taking his tally to 60 wickets -- the most by any bowler in Twenty20 cricket.

The two teams now head to Sri Lanka where the fourth edition of the World Twenty20 begins from September 18.



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Agencies
August 1,2020

Colombo, Aug 1: Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has expressed his interest in playing the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL), scheduled to start from August 28.

Pathan is among 70 foreign players to have shown interest in playing the LPL, ESPNcricinfo reported.

It is believed that Pathan has taken permission from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to take part in the competition. 

BCCI doesn't allow active players to participate in other T20 leagues but Pathan announced his retirement in January this year.

Former swashbuckling all-rounder Yuvraj Singh also played in a foreign league last year. He played for Maratha Arabians in the T10 League in Abu Dhabi.

According to ESPNcricinfo, Pathan will now be put in a player draft unless one of the five franchises choose him to be a marquee player. The details of the draft, and the franchise owners, are yet to be finalised and announced. 

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is also waiting on some government clearances even as it decides on franchise owners. The five franchises will represent Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Dambulla and Jaffna.

On Monday, SLC Executive Committee granted approval for the tournament.

"The 23 match League will be played on the four international venues of R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium, Rangiri Dambulu International Cricket Stadium, Pallekele International Cricket Stadium and Suriyawewa Mahinda Rajapakse International Cricket Stadium. Five teams named after the cities of Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Dambulla and Jaffna will participate in the League," SLC said in a statement on Monday.

Sri Lanka has controlled the spread of COVID-19 better than many other cricket-playing nations.

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Agencies
March 3,2020

Mumbai, Mar 3: India on Tuesday retained their number one spot and captain Virat Kohli remained static at second in the ICC rankings despite a dismal Test series against New Zealand.

India have 116 rating points, six more than New Zealand with third-placed Australia accumulating 108 points. The 0-2 result against New Zealand was India's first series loss in the World Test Championship.

Kohli remains in second position in the batting rankings despite a forgettable Test series in which he made 38 runs in four innings, the ICC said in a statement.

New Zealand opener Tom Blundell and his Indian counterpart Prithvi Shaw and debutant paceman Kyle Jamieson were among the biggest movers in the rankings, released on Tuesday.

Blundell had a successful series against India, scoring 117 runs in four innings, with one half-century, which put him among the top two run-scorers in the series.

The performance meant he was rewarded with a jump of 27 places to No. 46. Shaw, who returned for his first series since his Test debut against West Indies in 2018, and made a punchy 54 in the first innings of the Christchurch Test, rose 17 places to No.76.

Australia's Steve Smith retained his top spot, holding a 25-point advantage over Kohli. Smith's apprentice Marnus Labuschagne jumped one spot to round off the top three, taking the place of New Zealand captain Kane Williamson.

England all-rounder Ben Stokes and India opener Mayank Agarwal moved a spot each and swapped places to break into and fall out of the top 10 respectively.

Among bowlers, Tim Southee's Player of the Series winning performance against India took him into the top five, with a jump of two places to No.4, while Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult returned to the top 10, gaining four places each to occupy the seventh and ninth positions respectively.

But the biggest gainer was Jamieson, who rose from No. 80 to 43.

There was only one change in the top ten among all-rounders, with Southee dropping a spot to No.10 and team-mate Neil Wagner falling out of the top 10 with a drop of four spots.

As with the bowling rankings, Jamieson, who frustrated India with handy lower order runs, gained big on the all-rounders' table, rising 26 places to No. 22.

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News Network
May 27,2020

Bengaluru, May 27: Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar has revealed that he was never able to dismiss Inzamam-ul-Haq in the nets.

The Rawalpindi Express praised the former Pakistan skipper and said Inzamam could see the ball one second earlier than the rest of the batsmen could.

"Honestly, I don't think I could ever get him (Inzamam) out, he had the time and I always felt he saw the ball a second earlier than the rest of the batsmen because I had a complicated action unlike Brett Lee, I felt I could never dismiss Inzamam-ul-Haq," Akhtar told Sanjay Manjrekar in a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.

"I couldn't get him out in the nets, I think he could see the ball a second before anyone else," he added.

Inzamam played 120 Tests and 378 ODIs for Pakistan.

He finished his career with 20,569 runs across all formats.

The right-handed batsman called time on his career in 2007 and he played his last Test against South Africa in Lahore.

On the other hand, Akhtar played 224 matches for Pakistan in international cricket and took 444 wickets across all formats.

The Rawalpindi Express last played an ODI in 2011 as he played against New Zealand in the 50-over World Cup.

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