Group D - Pakistan, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland

[Pup Clarke]

.

Scotland cricket is oft-underrated.

I agree!!!!!.I see some of the cricket watching the club I play for West of Scotland.Very acceptable but the Pro's rule the roost and their aren't to many really good scottish players coming through.This shows as our best players are from other countries.Ryan Watson born in Zimbabwe and Paul Hoffmann from Australia.If you went to see the Pakistan/Scotland one day game last June you will appreciate that the Scots more than held their own and had the Pakistanies at 87-5.Late hitting from Razzaq however took Pakistan through.Good pro's in the leagues such as Matthew Horne,the former NZ test opener who not long ago was playing domestic cricket.And for the last 2 years we have had Subramanian Badrinath and Barrington Rowland both with 45+ batting averages in Indian domsetic cricket.

 

[Pup Clarke]

IMO Hamilton, with a bit of good fortune, could've made a top-class international all-rounder

The most farfetched comment ever on CW.Must be a contender.......

 

[Richard]

Not at all. In 1999, Hamilton looked the biz for all money. His First-Class bowling average was in the low 20s, he'd just enjoyed his best season with the bat of his career, and he looked like he could play the one-day game in a variety of roles - opening the bowling with Silverwood, opening the batting with White (as a dual-pinch-hitting role) or with Vaughan, or bowling second-change behind Gough, Silverwood and Hoggard and coming-in in the middle-order alongside White.

Perhaps better still, he'd mixed with the best in WC99. From 1999 onwards, all unravelled, and it was almost as much of a crying-shame as in White's own case - another potentially brilliant all-rounder who never came close to fulfulling his talent.

 

[Pup Clarke]

, and he looked like he could play the one-day game in a variety of roles
So that's why he got picked for Test cricket?

 

[Richard]

For... a single game.

And IMO they'd have done much better not to have taken him on that tour ITFP. IMO White's was much the more persuasive case - but instead they took the younger guy and his career was over before it started... then a couple of years later he got those dreaded "yips" and his career at domestic level was all but done, too...

Like I say - I genuinely believe his was a sad loss of a potentially superb talent.

 

[FRAZ]

Pakistan will qualify from this group !

 

[godofcricket]

My ideal WC 11 with batting order:

1: Imran Nazir
2: Younis Khan
3: Inzamam-ul-Haq
4: Mohammad Yousuf
5: Shoaib Malik
6: Kamran Akmal
7: Abdul Razzaq
8: Shahid Afridi
9: Shoaib Akhtar
10: Umar Gul
11: Mohammad Asif

 

[FRAZ]

My ideal WC 11 with batting order:

1: Imran Nazir
2: Younis Khan
3: Inzamam-ul-Haq
4: Mohammad Yousuf
5: Shoaib Malik
6: Kamran Akmal
7: Abdul Razzaq
8: Shahid Afridi
9: Shoaib Akhtar
10: Umar Gul
11: Mohammad Asif

Well If I put him at that spot then people say Fraz is being naive !!!

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Well If I put him at that spot then people say Fraz is being naive !!!

Yousuf at 3 and Inzi at 4, IMO.

 

[Richard]

Yousuf down 2 for me. Inzy has always been much best at 4 IMO.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Down 2? As in at second drop? Doesn't that mean Yousuf would be at 4?

 

[Neil Pickup]

Down 2? As in at second drop? Doesn't that mean Yousuf would be at 4?

Down 2 from 3, where you had him originally. So 5.

 

[Richard]

^^^Aye.

 

[godofcricket]

Well If I put him at that spot then people say Fraz is being naive !!!

Well i dont know what people think, but i would want to put him at number 3, the reason being that all of us know the pakistani openers are most likely to fail, i would then expect inzamam to lead from the front and whatever the small little pressure exerted on pakistan at that point i want him to control the situation. Its a much better condition for our best player to flourish when they are around 5/1 in 2 to 3 odd overs than around 40/4 in 15 odd, when he wont be able to play his natural game.

 

[alternative]

Younis should be batting at 3, followed by Mo Yo and Inzi. They need 2 good openers, may it be Kamran Akmal and Mohammed Haffes or Imran Nazir but thats their 3 opening combinations, they can't afford to use Youni's Khan at the opening slot imo.

 

[godofcricket]

Younis should be batting at 3, followed by Mo Yo and Inzi. They need 2 good openers, may it be Kamran Akmal and Mohammed Haffes or Imran Nazir but thats their 3 opening combinations, they can't afford to use Youni's Khan at the opening slot imo.

Well thats the thing i want to point at, even if u put younis at 3, he comes in at the time when u expect ur openers to be present, but that rarely happens, he comes in inside 2 to 3 overs on majority of the occasions. So it will be a major boost for the team and i think its likely to help the other inexeperienced opener on the other side.

I think pakistan has set up a very very defensive batting order, it seems as if they are scared to use there batsman. I definetly feel younis should play as an opener, i am not saying he needs to play like Nazir, but if he plays his natural game, thats all what hes required to do. Even if pakistan loose nazir early then u expect inzamam and younis to make a big parternship.

 

[alternative]

Well thats the thing i want to point at, even if u put younis at 3, he comes in at the time when u expect ur openers to be present, but that rarely happens, he comes in inside 2 to 3 overs on majority of the occasions. So it will be a major boost for the team and i think its likely to help the other inexeperienced opener on the other side.

I think pakistan has set up a very very defensive batting order, it seems as if they are scared to use there batsman. I definetly feel younis should play as an opener, i am not saying he needs to play like Nazir, but if he plays his natural game, thats all what hes required to do. Even if pakistan loose nazir early then u expect inzamam and younis to make a big parternship.

He has never opened the batting in OD's according to the Stats spider so i don't think this is the rite time to take such a big step, it could be a disaster for Pakistan.

 

[godofcricket]

He has never opened the batting in OD's according to the Stats spider so i don't think this is the rite time to take such a big step, it could be a disaster for Pakistan.

Yeah i can understand that, and i am 100% sure its not gonna happen during the WC. You have to remember that the pakistani batsmen have always been in disasters, sepcially openers, theres always pressure on our present no 3 and 4 (younis and yousuf) to come in and play 2 roles, the opening role, the middle-order batting role, and if they dont click, end of a chance to score big runs. The batting approach i am talking about wont create a bigger disaster already taking place with such a defensive line-up and my previous post just told u how it wouldnt affect younis khan opening the innings as hes already doing it.

 

[gunner]

most recently vs india in 2004 platinum jubilee odi
then he got out for a duck

 

[Neil Pickup]

Youni's Khan

This is the sort of thing that makes me want to find several hundred loaded guns and go on a no-holds-barred killing spree through the middle of a crowded shopping centre.