India vs Pakistan Practice Match Preview, Live Score: T20 World Cup 2009

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India vs Pakistan Practice Match Live Updates: 3 June 2009

India and Pakistan will face each other in a much-anticipated warm-up match on 3 June 2009 ahead of the upcoming twenty20 world cup 2009. This is a mere practice match where both teams will be focused to test their squad strength in stead of winning the game. Well, it does not mean that the two arch-rivals would not try to win the match. In fact, India and Pakistan are the two big rivals in world cricket and whenever they face each other, cricket fans just expect a classic match. This match is no different as well. So, cricket fans are expecting a highly entertaining match tomorrow at the Kennington Oval, London, England.

Match: India vs Pakistan, Warm up Match, ICC World Twenty20 2009

Date: 3 June 2009

Venue: Kennington Oval, London, Englanddd

Kick off: 16:30 GMT (Local Time 17:30)

Live TV: Star Cricket Television Channel

The interesting thing is that India and Pakistan are the two finalists of the inaugural twenty20 world cup 2007, but both teams lost their first warm-up games against New Zealand and South Africa respectively. So, both teams would now like to win the next match before they start their twenyt20 world cup 2009 mission. There is no doubt that both teams would like to bring some changes in their squad in order to ensure that all the squad members get some practice before the final event kicks off on 5 June 2009.

India lost the first only by 9 runs against New Zealand, even though they were on the right track till the end of the match. Indian bowlers conceded some extra runs towards the end of the New Zealand innings, while Indian batsmen failed to dominate over the Kiwi bowlers when it was needed in the dead overs. However, India’s overall performance was no too bad.

Channelnewsasia reported:

India were well on course to make the 171 they needed for victory during a fourth-wicket stand of 69 between Suresh Raina (45) and Ravindra Jadeja which featured some superb clean hitting to match the top-order fireworks of opener Rohit Sharma (36).
Left-arm spinner Vettori, who finished with excellent figures of three for 24 in three overs, had big-hitting rival captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni stumped for just six and after Raina holed out to medium-pacer Jacob Oram the innings fell away despite a run-a-ball 41 from Jadeja.

In contrast, Pakistan failed to play according to their potential in all three departments against South Africa as they lost the game by 59 runs. Pakistani bowlers conceded many runs from the beginning of the South African innings as South Africa took 186 runs losing 7 wickets. However, two spinners: Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi- could get some success over the South African bowlers. Pakistan’s batting was most disappointing as they failed to deliver what they were expected to. Pakistan lost wickets pretty regularly and got all out only for 127 runs while chasing the winning target of 187 runs.

So, you can see that Pakistan has a number of things to worry about ahead of the match against arch-rival India. Pakistan cricket has been suffering a lot mainly because of the country’s deteriorating security conditions. Many cricket playing nations are reluctant to tour Pakistan and ICC has recently stripped off Pakistan’s host status for the ICC World Cup 2011 which is supposed to take place in South Asia.

After arriving England, Pakistan captain Younis Khan revealed his excitement as Pakistan would return to international cricket and he vowed to win the ICC World Twenty20 2009.

AFP reported:

"It is special to be back on the world stage, especially in Twenty20 and in England, the media are here so lots of hopes are here," the talented batsman told reporters at Lord's here on Sunday.

"We are suffering from not playing regularly, and no-one is coming to Pakistan," he added.

"My confidence is that I'll take this trophy to Pakistan," he said. But such has been Pakistan's relative lack of international cricket that he added: "It will be an achievement for us to finish in the top four."

So, there is no doubt that Pakistan cricket will receive a massive boost if they can win the tournament this time what they failed to do two years back when they were beaten by the eventual champion India in South Africa. That is why, Pakistan is expected to be determined to do well in the upcoming tournament.

Pakistan cricket team has some good players in the presence of a number of hard hitters like Shahid Afridi, Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal and Misbah-ul-Haq. Young opener Ahmed Shehzad showed some prospect against South Africa in the first warm up game, scoring 31 runs from 26 balls. Pakistan’s lower order showed some considerable success in the warm up match, and this shows that Pakistan has a good batting depth which could be pretty much effective if top order batsmen can perform according to their potential.

Well, I think, Pakistan would like to bring some changes in their squad for the match against India. Pakistan should give a chance to their two uncapped players: opener Shahzaib Hasan and pacer Mohammad Aamer because they were absent against South Africa. Moreover, a middle order batsman Fawad Alam also deserves a game before the final event starts next Friday. Pacer Yasir Arafat is also expected to get a game against India.

Defending champion India did not play two key batsmen: Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh against New Zealand in the first practice game. Naturally, they would now like to play the two batsmen against Pakistan before heading to the final tournament. These are the two possible changes you might see in India’s final eleven against Pakistan. Pacer Zaheer Khan is recovering from injury and would not be able to play against Pakistan in the last warm up game.

Online Live Score and Updates
You can get the live score and updates of the match from www.cricinfo.com. You can also get updated score with live text commentary in one of our blogs: Sports37. So, be with us and enjoy the live updates of the match in Sports37.

There is no favorite when India and Pakistan play against each other. India seems to be slightly ahead of their arch rivals in terms of recent form and squad strength, but you can not just write off Pakistan yet. They have a very balanced squad and Pakistan has the reputation to bounce back. So, we can expect that we are going to see another classic match between India and Pakistan on Wednesday.