Winner winner chicken dinner. The chance to promote is still mathematically possible as long as we win well on the last hurdle.
Home Pakistan
Away UAE
Ground Fongos CG
League Nat One Day 3
Date 21 Oct. 21 16:00
Crowd 20,000
Weather Cloudy
Pitch Slow
Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat.
Pakistan UAE
Batting - Top Order 14,336 14,198
Batting - Middle Order 11,208 13,147
Batting - Tail 4,694 5,105
Bowling - Seam 14,337 (20) 13,283 (20)
Bowling - Spin 13,024 (30) 14,024 (30)
Fielding/Keeping 16,783 17,574
Overall 234,354 246,059
Zaid Abbas (3 points), Rahul Jabbar (2), Shuja Ul-Ghani (1)
UAE won by 4 wickets
The match in a tweet: 16 wickets fell in this match and 15 of them involved catches, the other a stumping. Think the bowlers dismissed themselves today or maybe they felt the pressure of good bowling.
Cynical Commentary:
The commentators have ripped into the batsmen today, here’s some snippets.
“Regulation catch for Ghayth at first slip - a straight one from Abbas but Dar has played the wrong line and got the nick.”
“Regulation stumping for Salah and very satisfying for Qassem who beat him in the air and off the pitch.”
“You don't get many easier catches than these as it is dollied up to mid-off”
“Oh dear, Masood has chipped this one straight down the throat of mid off. Soft dismissal.”
“Oh my ... what a soft dismissal! The ball stopped a touch on Saleem who was on the back foot and he ended up chipping it straight to cover. Tame way to get out. Abbas can't believe his luck.”
“Bokhari a bit lazy with the drive”
“Oh dear, Pasha has just chipped that back to Naito for the simplest of return catches! Naito can't believe his luck!”
“It's a combination of smart bowling and poor batting.”
“An ugly swipe takes the top edge.”
We also love a repeated commentary line:
“ 30.5 W Abbas to Ansari : [catch] A hint of swing, a hint of an edge, a hint to the umpire and a hint of an index finger.”
“36.3 W Mohammad to Jamil : [catch] A hint of swing, a hint of an edge, a hint to the umpire and a hint of an index finger.
Tight bowling and consistent wickets strangled the Pakistan innings. All our bowlers had economy rates less than 4 runs an over. Qassem and Abbas took 3 each, Mohammad 2 and Armanjani and Naito each snagged one.
5/14 rang alarm bells but fortunately Abbas and the finisher himself Jabbar were able to settle. Armanjani coming into see out the win after Abbas got out.
Our best:
Zaid Abbas - 3/29 off his 10 overs and a match saving 38 with the bat.
Rahul Jabbar - 66 runs to see out the chase.
Kamal Qassem - 3/33 off his 10 and a catch!
Rais Armanjani - 1/26 off his 7 including a maiden. Finished the chase off with an unbeaten 29.
Yusuf Mohammad - 2/35 off 10.
Around the Ground:
South Africa beat West Indies by 1 wicket in a thriller.
USA beat Ireland by 5 wickets.
Mathematical Methods with MrMoose:
Only Pakistan are mathematically out of the promotion chance.
South Africa are top with 3 wins but in no way are they home and hosed. The four other nations are all equal on 2 wins.
UAE vs USA
The winner will promote if their NRR is better than the winner of Ireland/West Indies or South Africa, should Pakistan snag an upset win.
South Africa vs Pakistan
If South Africa win, they promote. Simples.
Ireland vs West Indies
The winner will promote pending NRR.
So leading into day 5 mathematically we can finish anywhere from top to bottom. Let’s win and then bring out the calculators.
