fawwaxs
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2009
- Messages
- 2,125
- Reaction score
- -2
- Country
- Location
Ground Reality and Pitch: Part of the world's first integrated sports city, the Dubai Sports City Cricket Stadium has a unique lighting system where the lights are placed on the roof to create a 'Ring of Fire' like view instead of the usual towers. The pitch here is a dry wicket, largely assisting the batsmen and the spinners. This ground has hosted 10 T20 games so far and three times, teams batting first have scored in excess of 150.
Pakistan: Following a more than forgettable tour 'Down Under', confusions and controversies ruled Pakistan cricket once again. A dysfunctional cricket board, numerous committees to probe into Pakistan's performance and the cricketers caught up in controversies - the ball biting incident involving Shahid Afridi, the war of words between Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Yousuf and the indiscipline shown by players like Umar Akmal, Umar Gul and Mohammad Aamer - Pakistan cricket once again faced the ire of the fans and the media. But as the saying goes, "When you are down, the only way left is going up." The T20 games provide Pakistan the right opportunity to make amends for their disastrous performances in recent times and restore belief in their embattled team. Shoaib Malik, who would be leading the side following Afridi's ban, would be hoping to put together a good team performance.
England: The English team, which got a well deserved rest after a mixed outing in South Africa, would look to start afresh. Paul Collingwood returns to lead the English side in the T20 games. A team full of youngsters, raring to perform, England have the right platform to try out different combinations, with an eye on the World Twenty20 to be played in the Caribbean this April. Limited overs specialists like Luke Wright, Eoin Morgan, Joe Denly and Tim Bresnan have an ideal opportunity to showcase their talents while experienced players like Pietersen, Cook and Collingwood would be hoping to strike form ahead of a hectic season.
Head to Head: England and Pakistan have faced each other in 2 Twenty20 matches till date. The first match was played at Bristol in 2006 which England lost by 5 wickets, while the second game, played at the Oval during the World Twenty20 last year, was won by England.
Numbers Game:
The numbers of T20 games won by Pakistan at the DSC stadium. Pakistan, which played 2 matches against New Zealand and 1 against Australia here, won all the 3 games.
The number of fifties scored by England players against Pakistan in T20s. Marcus Trescothick was the first to score a fifty against Pakistan while Kevin Pietersen scored the second.
Quotes:
We haven't performed that well after winning the World Twenty20. We have been struggling ever since we went to Sri Lanka, but you try and learn from your mistakes: Shoaib Malik
Pakistan are a very strong Twenty20 side and we're going to have to be right on our game to beat them. It might be a good time to play them, but you never quite know what you're going to get on the day: Collingwood
Teams:
Pakistan (From): Imran Nazir, Imran Farhat, Khalid Latif, Shoaib Malik(c), Umar Akmal, Fawad Alam, Abdul Razzaq, Sarfraz Ahmed(w), Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Talha, Shahid Afridi, Wahab Riaz
England (From): Joe Denly, Matt Prior(w), Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood(c), Eoin Morgan, Luke Wright, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Tim Bresnan, Ryan Sidebottom, Alastair Cook, Liam Plunkett, Ajmal Shahzad, James Tredwell
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