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PAKvAUS: Limited-overs series shifted to Lahore, confirms Sheikh Rasheed

Lahore

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Filed Under: on Friday 18 March 2022

Sana Mir, others to play in Fairbreak Invitational

Pakistan’s top cricketers Sana Mir, Diana Baig, Fatima Sana and Aliya Riaz are confirmed to play the Fairbreak Invitational Tournament 2022, a franchise league featuring players from more than 30 countries starting May 1 in Dubai. The tournament features an array of players from all over the world, while South Asia is represented by a stellar line-up of women from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan. The event will be played by six teams in 19 games over the course of 15 days. The Invitational tournament is an International Cricket Council (ICC) sanctioned venture, taking place in Dubai in conjunction with Cricket Hong Kong. There is a good number of players from Hong Kong that will be featured in the tournament as well. Meanwhile countries like Japan, and island nation of Vanuatu will also be showcased in the tournament to assure inclusivity and equal opportunity for all. According to the FariBreak website the tournament is the first private franchise league in women’s cricket. FairBreak had also launched the Women’s International Cricket League in Australia back in 2014. “We envision a world where people have fair and equal access to opportunities that enable them to succeed in their chosen endeavour, independent of gender or geographical location. Our mission is to progress gender equality and equity on a truly global scale, using cricket as our primary vehicle to launch FairBreak,” reads their official statement on their motivation behind holding the league. Ebba Qureshi, who is working on the tournament with FairBreak confirmed the participation of the Pakistan favourites in the event last week.

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Filed Under: on Wednesday 16 March 2022

When a draw felt better than victory

Patience is key when you are watching Pakistan bat on a day five pitch, trying to stave off a defeat in a Test match at home, against Australia. The moment was historic. Australia are visiting after 24 long years. None of the players in their team, even the veteran Nathan Lyon, 34, has played a single match in Pakistan. The only player to have any sort of connection with Pakistan, remember that too a non-cricketing one, is Usman Khawaja. It is where his parents were born and where his extended family lives. He is asked to prepare trivia for other players so that they can learn more about the country. The setting of the second Test was also majestic. Pakistan had planned a spinning and reverse swinging track in Karachi, after a horrible and “dead” track in Pindi saw batters dominate all five days. But Pakistan lost the toss and Australia did to the hosts what was planned for the visitors. Pat Cummins and co batted first, scored a mammoth total and then dismissed Pakistan on a low score. They didn’t enforce the follow-on, batted a few more overs, got to a substantial target and then asked Pakistan to save the Test with nearly two days to bat. History is witness that such a big task of batting two days on a spinning track is rarely achieved in Test cricket. Teams and batters wither under the pressure when the ask is to just stay on the crease. Australia had nearly prepped their celebrations when Azhar Ali and Imamul Haq went back to the pavilion for only 21 runs. However, team Pakistan and their two most in-form batters, skipper Babar Azam and wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan, had other plans. Babar first coupled up with Abdullah Shafiq and made sure Pakistan ended day four without losing a third wicket. On day five, when Babar’s stern focus was broken by Nathan Lyon after the right-handed batter had nearly taken Pakistan to the end of the line, Rizwan took charge of Pakistan defence in the final moments of the game. Everyone was unhappy that Babar couldn’t complete his double ton, getting out just four runs short, on 196, but they were also blown away by the sheer determination he had shown in the face of adversity. While displaying his nerves of steel, Babar registered many records too. He improved his highest Test score. While he became the highest run-scorer for Pakistan in the fourth innings, he also became the highest run-scoring captain in fourth innings. He also surpassed Shoaib Malik's record (369 balls) of playing most deliveries by a Pakistani batter in the fourth innings during his knock. Rizwan, on the other hand, may not have rewritten the history book like Babar, but his fourth innings antic earned him the respect of the fans at the National Stadium of Karachi, where even when he was blocking deliveries, he was being showered with cheers from the home crowd. At the end of the day, no one can take the credit away from Pakistan for putting up an iron-clad defence up against Australia, but the visitors deserve plaudits for their never-say-die attitude in the second Test. The bowlers bowled their heart out, while the near-in fielders took hits from batters, but kept fielding in the close circle to take that match-changing, one lucky catch. All in all, if Pindi Test was the worst example of why Test matches should stay, the second Test between Pakistan and Australia in Karachi was one of the best arguments in favour of the five-day format. The match had all the elements that make a Test match such an interesting idea, and it was also the perfect promotion of the concept that even a draw can be as entertaining as a Test match with a result.

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When a draw felt better than victory

Patience is key when you are watching Pakistan bat on a day five pitch, trying to stave off a defeat in a Test match at home, against Australia. The moment was historic. Australia are visiting after 24 long years. None of the players in their team, even the veteran Nathan Lyon, 34, has played a single match in Pakistan. The only player to have any sort of connection with Pakistan, remember that too a non-cricketing one, is Usman Khawaja. It is where his parents were born and where his extended family lives. He is asked to prepare trivia for other players so that they can learn more about the country. The setting of the second Test was also majestic. Pakistan had planned a spinning and reverse swinging track in Karachi, after a horrible and “dead” track in Pindi saw batters dominate all five days. But Pakistan lost the toss and Australia did to the hosts what was planned for the visitors. Pat Cummins and co batted first, scored a mammoth total and then dismissed Pakistan on a low score. They didn’t enforce the follow-on, batted a few more overs, got to a substantial target and then asked Pakistan to save the Test with nearly two days to bat. History is witness that such a big task of batting two days on a spinning track is rarely achieved in Test cricket. Teams and batters wither under the pressure when the ask is to just stay on the crease. Australia had nearly prepped their celebrations when Azhar Ali and Imamul Haq went back to the pavilion for only 21 runs. However, team Pakistan and their two most in-form batters, skipper Babar Azam and wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan, had other plans. Babar first coupled up with Abdullah Shafiq and made sure Pakistan ended day four without losing a third wicket. On day five, when Babar’s stern focus was broken by Nathan Lyon after the right-handed batter had nearly taken Pakistan to the end of the line, Rizwan took charge of Pakistan defence in the final moments of the game. Everyone was unhappy that Babar couldn’t complete his double ton, getting out just four runs short, on 196, but they were also blown away by the sheer determination he had shown in the face of adversity. While displaying his nerves of steel, Babar registered many records too. He improved his highest Test score. While he became the highest run-scorer for Pakistan in the fourth innings, he also became the highest run-scoring captain in fourth innings. He also surpassed Shoaib Malik's record (369 balls) of playing most deliveries by a Pakistani batter in the fourth innings during his knock. Rizwan, on the other hand, may not have rewritten the history book like Babar, but his fourth innings antic earned him the respect of the fans at the National Stadium of Karachi, where even when he was blocking deliveries, he was being showered with cheers from the home crowd. At the end of the day, no one can take the credit away from Pakistan for putting up an iron-clad defence up against Australia, but the visitors deserve plaudits for their never-say-die attitude in the second Test. The bowlers bowled their heart out, while the near-in fielders took hits from batters, but kept fielding in the close circle to take that match-changing, one lucky catch. All in all, if Pindi Test was the worst example of why Test matches should stay, the second Test between Pakistan and Australia in Karachi was one of the best arguments in favour of the five-day format. The match had all the elements that make a Test match such an interesting idea, and it was also the perfect promotion of the concept that even a draw can be as entertaining as a Test match with a result.

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Babar's 196 and Rizwan's century lead Pakistan to earn draw in Karachi Test

Babar's 196 and Rizwan's century lead Pakistan to earn draw in Karachi Test

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An ode to ‘GOAT’ Babar Azam

Karachi is the city of the unexpected. The people who live here are struck by surprises on a daily basis in the form of sudden and senseless traffic jams, mugging on a full of life and full of lights road and sometimes in a good manner too, where a light breeze takes the pain of the warm weather away for an hour or at least a few minutes. On Tuesday, when everyone was expecting the expected in the city, and the National Stadium of Karachi, where Australia are currently playing Pakistan in a Test after a 24-year-long gap, something truly unexpected happened. And it wasn’t the magnitude of the event which was surprising. Actually, it was the sheer audacity of the doer to do what no one had even wondered he could do. Babar Azam, captain in all formats for Pakistan, was asked to put up a solid defense against one of the world’s best bowling sides on a day four pitch, where spin and reverse swing were both being used against the hosts. If the toss had gone the other way, it would have been the Australians batting to try and save the Test, however, Pakistan themselves fell into the ditch they had dug for the visitors. So what does one do when their back is against the wall? It is a simple equation to be honest; you fight or you flight, and Babar picked up his willow to fight. He had to fight the naysayers who were questioning his captaincy credentials after the drawn Pindi Test and the first innings collapse in the second Test. He was up against the best combination of pace and spin that Australia’s bowling arsenal had. He had to carry a youngster, Abdullah Shafique, with him, give him confidence to stay on the crease and keep his comrade calm so as to avoid any unwanted aggression which may result in an initiation of a batting collapse. But most of all, he had to fight the Pakistani instinct to go into a shell in such moments. A decade and more worth of data will surely suggest that whenever Pakistan had tried to save a Test by blocking, they had lost comparatively more wickets and matches. Moreover, Babar must’ve seen the fates of opener Imamul Haq and one-down Azhar Ali, who both went for defense rather than offence and lost their wickets. Only Babar can tell what he was thinking before he came out to bat, but boy did he come out swinging. While Pakistan could hit only 16 fours in the first innings, Babar alone took charge of the boundary-scoring and hit 12 fours before stumps on day four in the second innings. In the context of match and compared to Australia’s batting, this may seem a worthless stat, but when compared to the other Pakistani batters, Babar was driving at 100mph, while others were riding bicycles, with safety tires on. And if all his sensible shot-making and clever blocking wasn’t enough, he took a risk, when on 99 exactly, to show that he wasn’t going to get nervous in the nineties and let Australia take advantage. Instead, he played a sweep shot over the short fine leg fielder to exude confidence. And then came the celebration. A loud roar while approaching the umpire’s end, followed by a calm helmet removal and the trademark bat raise was as majestic as any Pakistani batter can ever offer. But there was an addition and it speaks volume about what kind of a player Babar is and also what he wants to become. Babar looked at the dressing room, staring into the eyes of his teammates and probably into the souls of his haters, and then he signaled with his arms that ‘I am here to stay’. The statement couldn’t have been clearer. Come Wednesday, maybe Babar loses his wicket early on day five and maybe Pakistan lose the Test against Australia, but the aggressive fight shown by him has set a clear example for his successors that going down fighting is way better than dying in a hole.  

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Filed Under: on Tuesday 15 March 2022

Ramiz Raja determined to bring auction model in HBL PSL from next season

Ramiz Raja

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