Showing posts with label Test Match. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Test Match. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Picture of the Day

Was sent this screen grab today from the Lord's Test match. Pretty damning, eh?


Salman Butt: ensuring compliance?

Anyone who has played any cricket or follows cricket closely could tell you that no fielder would be looking at the bowler at the point of delivery. They'd be looking straight ahead, at the batsman, in anticipation of the shot. That's fielding basics. But then not all fielders have money riding on no-balls.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

A Tale of Two Quotes

Here is ALL you need to know about the mental state, the preparedness and the planning tactics of Pakistan and Australia on the eve of the third test match at Hobart:

Two juxtaposed quotes from Osman Samiuddin's preview on cricinfo:


Quotes
"What we have to do down here is not let them get back into the game like we let them start in Sydney. There's still a lot of mystery around about them."
Ricky Ponting on the riddle that is Pakistan
 
"There is no doubt that Sarfraz will play."
Intikhab Alam, Pakistan's coach, puts an end to all speculation regarding Pakistan's wicketkeeper in Hobart

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Why No Sports Team Wants to Visit Pakistan, Really

First of all, can I just vent my total and utter disbelief and agony at the depths that the Pakistani cricket team has sunk to? I mean, here we were, on the brink of winning our first test in Australia in 15 years (!) and we end up losing??! One always had an uneasy feeling about Pakistan's ability to chase anything over 150 - despite there being a full two days of play left - but even so, I calmed myself by thinking 'Pakistan just cannot be as predictable as to collapse once again.' Obviously, their unpredictability lay only in proving me wrong about their predictability. Aaaaaaargh!!! Bloody bunch of wankers!

Top three wankers-in-chief:

1. Kamran Akmal: Dropping not one, not two, not three but four fucking catches and missing one run out. And this is the man with the gloves! Oh yeah, and scoring a grand total of 25 runs in two innings and getting out to ego shots when your side needed you to stay.

2. Misbah-ul-Haq: A grand total of 11 runs in the entire match. If he's the "sheet anchor" in the middle, no wonder the ship is adrift. Shite anchor, more like. Remind me why he's in the side again?

3. Mohammad Yousuf: For his bizarre captaincy that allowed Pakistan to snap defeat from the jaws of victory and for his general persona that makes it seem he'd much rather be preaching. Five Rupees had a post on this recently, commenting on how he spends more time trying to convert other cricketers to Islam than on actual strategizing. Perhaps, today he was too busy thinking about how to get Ricky Ponting to attend one of his tableegh sessions. Idiot.

Which of course segues nicely into the reason that no sports teams, other than Bangladesh, want to visit Pakistan. This is from Dawn:


9 African boxers embrace Islam
Wednesday, 06 Jan, 2010
        
KARACHI, Jan 5: Nine African boxers embraced Islam on the sidelines of an international boxing tournament on Tuesday, saying they were impressed by the humanity and righteous ways of the religion.
 
The boxers flew into Karachi to compete in the contest named after assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and drawing participants from 20 countries around the world.
 
It was a landmark tournament for Pakistan, coming 10 months after an attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore killed eight people, all but destroying the country’s hopes of hosting top-level international sport.
 
Six boxers from Central African Republic (CAR) --- Yagor Gbodo, Selebange Welcome, Niamogui Songnekani, NGoko Bongui, Ndarash and Bongola --- all chose to convert on the sidelines of the contest, which runs until Friday.
 
They were joined by Mendoua Blase, Ketchemi Joseph Justin and Tchwem Justin from Cameroon who also converted from Christianity to Islam. CAR coach Mohammad Kalambaye said the boxers were impressed by the teachings of Islam and Pakistan’s hospitality.—AFP


Within and without, it seems we're more intent on proselytizing than playing sports. And you wonder why our "conversion rates" are touching the sky.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

What the @#$%^&**!!???

So, I wake up late today, and as I'm having my breakfast, I suddenly remember the Pakistan-Sri Lanka test match, poised on a knife-edge (NOT!), and wonder if I can still catch the last few overs as Pakistan scores the winning runs for a well-deserved victory. I hope I'm not too late - after all, Pakistan needed only 97 runs to win with 8 wickets standing and could easily have raced to the target in the first session of play. I turn on the tv...

There's a slide announcing the upcoming matches. Ok, so I've missed it. Oh well. But wait: next to the 1st Test is written 'Sri Lanka Wins by 50 Runs'. WHAT THE F...?!?

We have not only LOST (!) a match that was almost signed, sealed and delivered (I am reminded of the smiling Aaqib Javed predicting an easy victory to Rameez Raja yesterday evening), but by FIFTY (!!!) runs??? You mean, we lost EIGHT wickets in the space of 46 runs??? You mean we did that without having Murali to bamboozle us? Or Malinga throwing vattas at us?

WHAT THE F...?!?