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| December 12, 2005 | Monday | Ziqa’ad 9, 1426 |
Bowlers brace for more onslaught in second ODI
LAHORE, Dec 11: Bowlers will be under pressure once again on Monday to stop the run-flow on a flat surface when Pakistan and England clash in the second One-day International at Qadhafi Stadium. Pakistan bowlers, who were hammered to all parts of the ground in Saturday’s first game, will be feeling the heat in a bid to stop the visitors from taking a 2-0 lead.
England won the first match by an emphatic margin of 42 runs after piling up 327-4, batting first — a target described as a difficult task by the Inzamamul Haq, the Pakistan captain, at the post-match news conference.
Another win on Monday will brighten England’s chances to wrap up the series on a winning note and salvage some pride dented by the Test series loss.
The toss will be a vital factor though Inzamam had ruled out that it (toss) had played any role in his team’s defeat in the first ODI.
England, after winning the toss, wisely chose to bat first since they wanted to avoid batting second under foggy and dew conditions in the evening.
As long as the sun shone, batsmen peppered the boundary with fours and sixes. But after sunset, it was a different story as the dew made the ground heavy and played a villain role in turning boundaries into twos and twos into singles.
Between the 25th and 42nd over, Pakistan managed just two boundaries while well set Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Yousuf were on the crease.
Meanwhile, England captain Marcus Trescothick hoped his boys would continue the same performance in the remaining matches to win the series by a big margin.
“No doubt, the batsmen and the bowlers did excellent job despite losing the Test series and I do hope similar kind of fightback will be in the offing for the remainder of the tour,” the skipper said.
A spokesman for the England team said that at the moment both Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen were fit and available for the second ODI.
Flintoff felt pain after a ball off speedster Shoaib Akhtar hit him on the ankle while Pietersen was bothered by a back-pain while batting. Later, England changed Pietersen with super sub Liam Plunkett.
Pakistan are likely to retain the same playing XI that played in the first ODI.
The wicket prepared for the second ODI looks perfect for batsmen, thus promising more entertainment for the fans.
Teams (from):
Pakistan: Inzamamul Haq (captain), Younis Khan (vice-captain), Salman Butt, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Yousuf, Kamran Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Yasir Arafat, Rana Navedul Hasan, Shoaib Akhtar, Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Sami, Muhammad Asif, Arshad Khan, Yasir Hameed.
England: Marcus Trescothick (captain), Andrew Strauss, Kabir Ali, James Anderson, Ian Blackwell, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Stephen Harmison, Geraint Jones, Kevin Pietersen, Liam Plunkett, Matt Prior, Vikram Solanki, Shaun Udal.
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