Pakistan vs Ireland preview
Posted on | March 17, 2007 | No Comments
World cup debutants Ireland will look to spring a surprise on Bob Woolmer’s Pakistan side when the two meet on St Patrick’s day in Kingston.
Pakistan lost to the West Indies by 54 runs in their opening group game, and that result makes this game a must win for Inzamam’s boys. Their bowlers did pretty well in that game, but their batting let them down. Had somebody stuck around with Shoaib Malik, the result could well have been different. Many are asking for Rana Naved Ul Hasan to be replaced by Mohammad Sami, but it is unlikely that Pakistan will tinker with the side that lost the first game. Iftikhar Rao was the best bowler on display against the Windies. He can extract bounce and swing the balll, and the Irish left handers will have a hard time negotiating him. Danish Kaneria will be difficult to negotiate for the Irish, who haven’t played any top class spinner till date in this tournament, apart from Utseya.
Ireland had a great day against Zimbabwe when they tied their world cup debut game.Their batting at the top had its technical inadequacies but Jeremy Bray held the innings together. The Pakistani bowling attack is much stronger though. The bowling was nothing extraordinary- it was a a mixture of normal bowling and abnormal Zimbabwean batting which lead to the tie. Eoin Morgan is respected by the Pakistanis, as some of them have seen his county exploits for Middlesex. Portefield will look to get over his disappointment of getting a duck on WC debut. Trent Johnston and Langford Smith will hold the key with the ball, but slow bowler Andre Botha will also be someone to watch out. Rankin is tall and could get some bounce if he hits the deck hard early in the innings, but he also needs to complement that with accuracy.
Pakistan also lost their opening WC match to the West Indies in 1992, when they went to lift the cup. The Irish will need to play out of their skins, and the Pakistanis will need a real off day if Adrian Birrell’s side are to harbour hopes of an upset. But I think, it will be business as usual for Pakistan. They just need to do the basics right, and a win for them is the most probable result IMO.I’d tip Nazir to play well at the start, and Iftikhar or Gul to come good with the ball again.
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