Part V
Watch cricket highlights: Pakistan vs New Zealand – the 2nd semi final of the Champions Trophy.
Team Info: NZ – Redmond (had a great game in similar circumstances vs Ireland – T20 WC) for Ryder. Pakistan – Nazir back from injury for Misbah
Scoreline: Pakistan 233 Umar Akmal 55 | Ian Butler 10-44-4 Vettori 10-2-43-3
NZ get there with a couple of overs to go Grant Elliott 75 no, Vettori 41 Ross Taylor 38 | Aamer 10-2-32-1
NZ have been my personal favourites to make it out of their group and perhaps go further, but once Ryder was out, I doubt I genuinely felt they could go past the semis. So, super day for New Zealand cricket and its supporters.
The core of the NZ bowling attack is based on a combination of discipline and striking abilities (Bond, Butler, Vettori). So what was expected when Pakistan came out to bat was an effort to dismantle this discipline through attacking brilliance. Instead, what was on offer was a weak attempt at Younus Khan’s favourite cricket concept – partnerships – which he might well have stitched into the players’ pillows last night. Didn’t quite work. It has worked in the past (like the game vs India), so that’s the flipside to it. But it never really looked the right approach against this bowling attack.
The next was the assessment of a fair total on the track. To come up with 200 indicates – underestimation of the NZ batsmen/overestimation of the Pakistan bowling attack/a genuine case of misreading the pitch – or a combination of all three.
NZ on the other hand took the other approach. To start with, their bowling except at the death got it right – even Mills had his head screwed on for a change. And when they came out to bat, the glimmer boys looked to attack the Pakistani bowlers whenever possible, while the partnership kind of guys (Vettori, Elliott) put on a partnership. In the end I guess, it came down to the definition of roles for players and how only one side got it right today.
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The controversial aspect of ball tampering was once again woken up in a Pak-NZ game with Simon Doull this time going nuts on air, ranting on without any attempt at subtlety.
