Archives

Chris Dhambarage reporting from Sharjah.

Sharjah.UAE. Monday.

Pakistan restricted New Zealand to 213 for 9 in a crucial Sharjah Cup 2002 cricket tournament match played at the Sharjah cricket stadium here today.

Pakistan who need to win this game to qualify to play in Wednesday's final dominated the latter stages after an early set back following some inspired bowling from Wasim Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq. In fact Akram finished off in style with two wickets in successive deliveries in the penultimate of the innings. He returned excellent figures of 3 for 43 and Saqlain was equally good with 3for 26.

However the Kiwis got off to a flying start while collecting 60 uns in the first ten overs of the innings. The openers Nathan Astle and Matthew Horne laid the foundation for a formidable total adding 76 runs in just under 14 overs after skipper Stephan Fleming had won the toss and elected to bat first.

Nathan Astle led the way with some big hitting hoisting one six and stroking half a dozen of boundaries. Together with Matthew Horne the pair completely dominated the early stages of the innings adding more pressure on the opposition.

Astle and Horne really went after the Pakistan pace attack and collected 19 runs in Waqar Younus' sixth over. But the introduction of spinner Saqlain Mushtaq completely changed the situation as New Zealand collapsed to 79 for 4 at one stage. This was mainly due to some good accurate bowling from Saqlain Mushtaq whose first spell cost him only 17 runs. He first held on to a superb return catch to dismiss Mathew Horne in the 12th over with the total at 75. Two overs later he removed the dangerous Nathan Astle with skipper Waqar Younus hangning on to a good running catch.

Astle was threatening to take control of the situation having scored 36 from 38 deliveries. The Pakistanis then came back into the game with their fielders backing up well and were also successful in bringning the scoring rate down to a great extent. The Pakistanis really came into their own with Shohaib Akhtar producing another hostile spell of bowling capturing the wicket of Matthew Sinclair in the 15th over. The Rawalpindi Express went through the gate of Sinclair with a beauty and beat the batsmen on more than a couple of occasions.

New Zealand made a slight recovery through all rounders Chris Harris and Scott Styris with the pair adding 40 runs for the sixth wicket. Both were more determined to occupy the crease rather than accelerate the scoring rate. But the return of ace fast bowler Wasim Akram saw the dismissal of Harris with the total on 141. The New Zealand all rounder scored 35 from 67 deliveries inclusive of four boundaries.

Scott Styris then smashed 43 from 63 balls and took the New Zealand score pass the 200 run mark in the 49th over. Styris hoisted one six and one boundary while Adams also played a good supporting role with a contribution of 21 off 28 deliveries.

New Zealand:

M. Horne c and b Saqlain 27 N. Astle c Waqar b Saqlain 36 J. Oram run out 0 M. Sinclair b Akhtar 0 S. Fleming lbw b Razzaq 12 C. Harris lbw b Akram 35 S. Styris b Akram 43 A. Adams st Latif b Saqlain 20 B. Walker not out 16 D. Tuffy b Akram 0 I. Butler not out 1 

Extras: (b2, lb13, w6, nb2) 23 Total (for nine wickets) 213 

Fall of wickets: 1-75, 2-76, 3-76, 4-79, 5-101, 6-141, 7-176, 8-205, 9-205 

Bowling: Akram 10-0-43-3, Waqar 9-0-46-0, Akhtar 10-0-41-1, Saqlain 10-2-26-3, Razzaq 7-2-24-1, Afridi 4-0-18-0 Overs: 50

Umpires: David Shepherd (Eng), Srinivas Venkataraghvan (Ind). 

Third umpire: Russel Tiffin (Zim) 

Match referee: Gundappa Vishwanath (Ind) 

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager