 The fourth match of the tournament, will be a Group A encounter between the defending
champions Pakistan and Bangladesh at Gros Islet. This match will immediately
follow the game between the Indians and Afghanistan. Australia is the third side
in the group.
Pakistan had won the tournament last year in England, but a lot has happened
ever since. Not only have they played very less cricket, the cricket has been
mired in one controversy after another, and that has meant that the side has
not won anything after that. In fact, things came to head in Australia where
they lost all their games, including five ODIs, a T20I and three Test matches,
and there was a major shake-up in the side.
Click for Live Score Card of Bangladesh Vs PakistanThis will allow Shahid Afridi to prove that he is the best captain that
Pakistan can and one also gets the sense that captaincy gets out the best from
him. It is a different matter altogether that biting into the ball is not exactly
clever and that is something that the captain will need to be careful of.
Pakistan suffered two injuries even before the tournament had started, and
that included their prime fast bowler, Umar Gul and Yasir Arafat, both of whom
are excellent proponents of the T20 format of the game. This will hurt the side
a lot and they will look to overcome the same by getting in Mohammad Sami
for this encounter.
The other thing that he will need to be careful of is the fact that Bangladesh
are a very unpredictable side. In the first edition of the tournament, the Bangladeshis
had qualified for the second round with a win over West Indies, whereas in the
second edition of the tournament, they had lost to Ireland! And given the unpredictability
of the two sides, it will be interesting to see how the match peters out.
For Bangladesh, the hopes will rest on how some of the batsmen will play apart
from how their spinners bowl in the game. Tamim Iqbal has been in the
form of his life, but the flip to that is that their best batsman in the year
of 2008, Shakib al Hasan, hasn't had too much going for him ever since he took
over the captaincy.
Of course, with Mahmudullah batting the way he is, it adds that extra dimension
to the side, and there is a good chance that Bangladesh will unleash the likes
of Hasan, Mahmudullah and Abdur Razzaq to take on the Pakistani side.
An exciting game in the offing!
|
