NAT Discussion and Announcements

[Boom83]

Masha Allah.

Awesome good job and very good tour.

Keep going.

Best of luck for rest

[MOD-wmchamps]

Final match of the tour vs Kenya in Uneven/Overcast conditions.

We won the toss and elected to bat first.

Kenya had a fantastic start with the ball, picking up 2 wickets from the first 2 balls of the match, and then had us 3 down before the 10 over mark.
After which our batsmen went into consolidation mode, as our RR only went above 6.00 in the last 3 overs, when Saeed Amjad came in and smashed 29 runs off just 13 balls, helping us post a total of 135/4.
Notable contributions came from Masood Gulzar, who played the anchor role early on, scoring 43 runs from 47 balls.
Ilyas Khanum also scored 37 not out.

Our bowlers performed well, led by Tasawar Raja from the front who was the star with figures of 4-1-10-3. which dented their middle order and he also had a run-out to his name.
Junaid Jamshed was the other standout bowler, with figures of 4-0-19-3.
None of their batsmen were allowed to settle in, and they were all out for 109, which gave us the win, and more importantly, promotion to Division 2 in T20s, which will give a boost to our T20 WC qualification hopes.

Player of the Day is shared between Masood Gulzar, Saeed Amjad, and Tasawar Raja for their impressive performances.

Match Ratings
Pakistan Kenya
Batting - Top Order 14,008 14,144
Batting - Middle Order 12,118 11,388
Batting - Tail 5,086 6,477
Bowling - Seam 14,049 (12) 14,462 (16)
Bowling - Spin 14,566 (8) 14,518 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 16,696 15,691
Overall 241,129 241,001

Thank you to everyone who showed their support, and now we move onto the ODI tour, for which squad selection discussions are being held in the Association, where we invite you all to join us.

[sheikh03]

Congrats for a successful tour

[Shahzaday11]

Well done dear. Good selection of squad followed by team selection and good tactics gave us the promotion and its a celebration time.

[MOD-wmchamps]

Touring Squad:

Batsman

Saeed Amjad (12 caps)
Galileo Galilei (19 caps)
Ammar Cheema (3 caps)
Aamer Munaf (11 caps)
Shah Saeed (13 caps)
Ahsan Waqas (Debut)

Keepers

Masood Gulzar (8 caps)
Haroon Jabbar (3 caps)
Ilyas Khanum (3 caps)

All Rounders

Shaheer Akhtar (RM) (22 caps)
Aaqib Estijaab (RFS) (Debut)

Bowlers

Sarfraz Waqas (RFS) (9 caps)
Imranullah Adnan (LFS) (12 caps)
Muslim Rauf (LWS) (13 caps)
Tasleem Agha (LWS) (9 caps)
Misbah Burfat (RM) (ODI Debut)
Junaid Jamshed (RFM) (5 caps)
Tasawar Raja (RF) (7 caps)

Pitches:

vs South Africa: Dry
vs Netherlands: Dry
vs Ireland: Slow
vs Bangladesh: Dry
vs Sri Lanka: Slow

[MOD-wmchamps]

Played a friendly vs Ireland where we gave a chance for our fringe players to impress before the WC rolls around.

Bowling first in Sticky/Hot conditions, the bowlers gave us an excellent start, led by Nawaz Abubakar picking up 5 wickets.
A 10th wicket 48 run partnership took them to a competitive total of 153.

Slow and steady was the way to go in the chase, led by Taufiq Afzal scoring an unbeaten 48.
We managed to win by 3 wickets, and we also managed to do so with a 33k ratings deficit, which you would not have known by just watching the match as it was a close game.

[MOD-wmchamps]

First match of the tour vs South Africa, and what a thriller it was!

Winning the toss and bowling first, our bowlers provided a good start, reducing South Africa to 71/5.
Their batsmen then entered into consolidation mode, as they managed a 6th wicket partnership of 97 runs, with Norval Munro playing a captain's innings of 101 not out from just 125 balls.
In the end, they managed to score 230/8 in their 50 overs.
Tasawar Raja was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 10-0-23-2.

In reply, our batting followed a similar pattern to theirs, in the fact that their bowlers also provided them with a good start, reducing us to 98/5, and then 149/7, with only Shah Saeed left with the tail.
What followed then was a great example of strike farming, as Saeed tried his best to protect Tasawar Raja from the strike, but Raja showed that he can bat as well, and gave good support to Saeed, both of them sharing an 80 run partnership for the 8th wicket.
Unfortunately, Saeed got out on the penultimate ball of the match, and we could only get a single off the last ball to tie the game.
Shah Saeed is the pick of the batsmen, scoring 80 runs from just 83 balls.
Tasawar Raja ended up unbeaten on 30 runs.

Player of the Day is shared between Shah Saeed and Tasawar Raja for that match-saving partnership, and for Raja's economical bowling.

Both teams played well, and hopefully we can build on this and get some wins.

South Africa v Pakistan >> Match Ratings
Match Ratings
South Africa Pakistan
Batting - Top Order 15,644 15,151
Batting - Middle Order 12,989 14,114
Batting - Tail 6,055 5,795
Bowling - Seam 16,433 (20) 15,469 (20)
Bowling - Spin 15,907 (30) 15,073 (30)
Fielding/Keeping 18,235 17,811
Overall 267,994 264,036

[Shahzaday11]

Once i thought its over but what a match.

[sheikh03]

Last 2 overs ruined our win!!

[MOD-wmchamps]

Last 2 overs ruined our win!!

It did, but I am pleased with the effort.
Tasawar Raja is a bowler, so he did really well in supporting Shah Saeed looking at the fact that we were 149/7.

[MOD-wmchamps]

Once i thought its over but what a match.

It definitely looked over when the 7th wicket fell, but huge credit to our Players of the Day for saving the match.

[MOD-wmchamps]

Second match of the tour vs the Netherlands, and this was another close one.

Once again we won the toss, and elected to bowl first.

Debutant Misbah Burfat got an early wicket, but then the Dutch put on a 2nd wicket partnership of 90 runs.
After that the game was pretty even, but some late hitting provided them with a score of 236/7.
Junaid Jamshed was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 10-0-34-3

In our reply, we lost an early wicket as well, and then we also managed a good 2nd wicket partnership of 70 runs.
We also had a 4th wicket partnership of 48 runs, and we were also losing wickets regularly, but the batsmen were also getting us closer to the target, making this a close game.
In the end, we managed a 3 wicket win in the 48th over.
From the batting, standout performer was Aamer Munaf with 77 runs, who is also the player of the day for anchoring the chase.
Honorable mention goes to Junaid Jamshed for his bowling.

Pakistan v Netherlands >> Match Ratings
Match Ratings
Pakistan Netherlands
Batting - Top Order 15,048 15,405
Batting - Middle Order 12,052 13,884
Batting - Tail 5,242 7,016
Bowling - Seam 15,389 (20) 14,315 (20)
Bowling - Spin 14,512 (30) 15,162 (30)
Fielding/Keeping 17,154 17,678
Overall 249,908 265,357

[Shahzaday11]

A great win

[MOD-wmchamps]

Third match of the tour vs Ireland.

Ireland had an excellent start with the ball, and other than a 6th wicket partnership of 72 runs, nothing else went right for our batsmen.
The Irish bowlers bowled well and kept our batsmen in check.
We finished the innings on 209/8, allrounder Shaheer Akhtar top scoring with 73 runs.

We got an early wicket in reply, but a 2nd wicket partnership of 98 runs got Ireland well along in the chase.
At 190/5, most people would have thought that it was game over for us, but 4 wickets in 2 overs brought the game back to life, and gave us a tense finish.
Unfortunately for us, their last pair managed an unbeaten 21 run partnership which gave them a narrow 1 wicket win.

Match Ratings
Ireland Pakistan
Batting - Top Order 14,736 14,083
Batting - Middle Order 12,970 13,180
Batting - Tail 5,972 5,794
Bowling - Seam 14,516 (30) 14,701 (30)
Bowling - Spin 13,886 (20) 14,725 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 17,696 16,625
Overall 253,152 249,864

Next up is a tough match against Bangladesh, in a must win game for us in order to avoid relegation.

[MOD-wmchamps]

Fourth match of the tour vs Bangladesh.

Winning the toss and bowling first, we managed to get an early wicket in the 3rd over, and had them 3 down in just 11 overs.
What then followed was a 127 run partnership for the 4th wicket, and after that they made full use of the momentum they had by posting a total of 250.
Pick of the bowlers was Junaid Jamshed, as he kept things tight with figures of 10-0-34-0 despite not getting any wickets.

We also lost an early wicket in response, but Aamer Munaf and Masood Gulzar provided good support to opener Galileo Galilei to get us going in the chase. From 118/2, we then collapsed to 133/6, as our chase started to falter.
Shah Saeed tried his best to farm the strike with just the tail for company, but his efforts went in vain as we were all out for 197.
From the batsmen, Galileo Galilei scored 58 runs.

Player of the Day was Galileo Galilei for his half-century which got us off to a good start.

Match Ratings
Bangladesh Pakistan
Batting - Top Order 14,345 14,289
Batting - Middle Order 11,785 11,873
Batting - Tail 5,623 5,050
Bowling - Seam 14,324 (20) 14,568 (20)
Bowling - Spin 14,577 (30) 14,038 (30)
Fielding/Keeping 16,358 16,324
Overall 242,846 240,024

The equation is really simple now, if we win we stay up, otherwise we get relegated.