Pakistan and South Africa will face each other in a warm-up Twenty20 match on 1 June at TrentBridge, Nottingham ahead of ICC Twenty20 World Cup 2009 which starts from 5 June. This is going to be the first of their two scheduled practice matches before the final event kicks off. Both Pakistan and South Africa would test their squad strength, in stead of focusing on the result of the game. However, it does not mean that Pakistan and South Africa will have no objective around this match. Of course, they would like to win in what would boost up their confidence level, but the main focus will be on having a good preparation for the final event of twenty20 world cup.
Match: Pakistan vs South Africa, Warm up Match, ICC World Twenty20 2009
Date: 1 June 2009
Venue: TrentBridge, Nottingham
Kick off: 16:30 GMT (Local Time 17:30)
South Africa has been in excellent form of recent in all three formats. So, naturally the Protease would like to continue it in the upcoming twenty20 world cup too, but before they would like to test their squad strength against Pakistan. You might think that this is just a practice match and there would have enough excitement. Well, I do not think so. Though win or defeat would not be the main focus, but it does not mean that Pakistan and South Africa would let each other come, see and win on the field.
Pakistan has pretty strong batting line up in the presence of some of the big hitters like Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Salman Butt, Misbah-ul-Haq and Sohail Tanvir. Moreover, there are experienced batsmen like Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik who are also expected to play a big role behind Pakistan’s twenty20 world cup mission. I think, Pakistan should give a chance to their uncapped opener Shahzaib Hasan and another young opener Ahmed Shehzad in either of the two warm-up matches. To be honest, I believe, Pakistan would feature Shahzaib against South Africa.
Mohammad Aamer is another uncapped player in the Pakistan squad and I think, the pacer should also feature against South Africa. Pakistan has a very strong pace attack in the presence of Umar Gul, who is currently the highest wicket taker in Twenty20 international. Their pace attack also feature Sohail Tanvir, Yasir Arafat and Iftikhar Anjum who replaced injured Shoaib Akhtar. In the presence of Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik, Pakistan seems to have very strong spin attack.
South African batting line up includes some of the biggest hitters of today including Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs, AB de Villiers, Albie Morkel, Roelof van der Merwe, Jean-Paul Duminy and Mark Boucher. So, there is no question regarding the quality and strength of their batting line up. Their pacer attack features pacers like Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn, Wayne Parnell, Yusuf Abdulla, all rounder like Albie Morkel and Jacques Kallis. Led by Vice-captain Johan Botha, their spin attack includes Jean-Paul Duminy, Jean-Paul Duminy and Robin Peterson.
Online Live Score and Updates
Well, I did not see any website giving live score of the warm-up matches yet, not even Cricinfo. However, the match between Pakistan and South Africa is a big match, and I think, some websites including Cricinfo would give live score of the match, though I am not sure about it yet. However, I will share the online live score websites with you whenever I would know about any site giving live score of the match. If the match is shown live on television, then we will provide you live score with live text commentary.
Overall, I think, both sides have equal chances to win the match. Neither side would like to lose the match, even though they would be experimenting with the squad. So, I think, there will be sheer amount of excitement for the cricket fans in the match if both teams can live up to the expectation and play their natural cricket.
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