BRIDGETOWN, Feb 18: Pakistan will be facing a fairly easy path to the Super Eight stage after being placed in Group D of the Cricket World Cup 2007 which commences in the West Indies from March 13.
Inzamam-ul-Haq’s men will possibly face some stiff opposition from Brian Lara’s West Indies only since the other two sides in Group D – Zimbabwe and Ireland – are unlikely to pose a challenge to the Asian cricketing giants.
Following are the groups and fixtures.
GROUPS
Group A: A1 Australia, A2 South Africa, A3 Scotland, A4 Holland.
Group B: B1 Sri Lanka, B2 India, B3 Bangladesh, B4 Bermuda.
Group C: C1 New Zealand, C2 England, C3 Kenya, C4 Canada.
Group D: D1 Pakistan, D2 West Indies, D3 Zimbabwe, D4 Ireland.
Venues
Group A: St Kitts (matches start 1330GMT).
Group B: Trinidad and Tobago (matches start 1330GMT.
Group C: St. Lucia (matches start 1330GMT).
Group D: Jamaica (matches start 1430GMT)
Warm-up matches: March 5: Bermuda v England (Arnos Vale Ground, Kingstown, St Vincent) Scotland v Sri Lanka (Three Ws Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados) South Africa v Ireland (Sir Frank Worrell Memorial Ground, St Augustine, Trinidad) Kenya v West Indies (Trelawny Stadium, Jamaica)
March 6: Australia v Zimbabwe (Arnos Vale Ground, Kingstown, St Vincent), Bangladesh v New Zealand (Three Ws Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados) Pakistan v Canada (Sir Frank Worrell Memorial Ground, St Augustine, Trinidad) India v Netherlands (Trelawny Stadium, Jamaica)
March 8: Bangladesh v Scotland (Three Ws Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados) Bermuda v Zimbabwe (Arnos Vale Ground, Kingstown, St Vincent) Canada v Ireland (Sir Frank Worrell Memorial Ground, St Augustine, Trinidad) Kenya v Netherlands (Trelawny Stadium, Jamaica)
March 9: New Zealand v Sri Lanka (Three Ws Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados) Australia v England (Arnos Vale Ground, Kingstown, St Vincent) Pakistan v South Africa (Sir Frank Worrell Memorial Ground, St Augustine, Trinidad) India v West Indies (Trelawny Stadium, Jamaica)
March 11: OPENING CEREMONY (Trelawny Stadium, Jamaica)
Fixtures:
March 13 WIS v PAK
March 14 AUS v SCO, KEN v CAN
March 15 SRI v BER, ZIM v IRL
March 16 RSA v NED, ENG v NZL
March 17 IND v BAN, PAK v IRL
March 18 AUS v HOL, ENG v CAN
March 19 IND v BER, WIS v ZIM
March 20 RSA v SCO, NZL v KEN
March 21 SRI v BAN, ZIM v PAK
March 22 SCO v NED, NZL v CAN
March 23 IND v SRI, WIS v IRL
March 24 AUS v RSA, ENG v KEN
March 25 BER v BAN
Super Eight Series (top two from each group progress though none from the same group play each other in Super Eights.)
March 27: D2 v A1
March 28 A2 v B1
March 29 D2 v C1
March 30 D1 v C2
March 31 A1 v B2
April 1 D2 v B1
April 2 B2 v C1
April 3 D1 v A2
April 4 C2 v B1
April 7 B2 v A2
April 8 A1 v C2
April 9 D1 v C1
April 10 D2 v A2
April 11 C2 v B2
April 12 B1 v C1
April 13 A1 v D1
April 14 A2 v C1
April 15 B2 v D1
April 16 A1 v B1
April 17 A2 v C2
April 18 D1 v B1
April 19 D2 v B2
April 20 A1 v C1
April 21 D2 v C2
Semi-finals
April 24: Super Eight 2 v Super Eight 3 in Jamaica
April 25: Super Eight 1 v Super Eight 4 in St Lucia
Final: April 28 in Barbados.—AFP