Pakistan vs England Preview and Live Score: T20 World Cup 2009

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Pakistan vs England Live Updates: 7 June 2009

England will face Pakistan in a do or die Group B match tomorrow (7 June) at the Kennington Oval, London. This will be first match of Pakistan who were the runners up of 2007 twenty20 world cup, while England has already played their first game and suffered a shocking defeat to Netherlands. Naturally, this is a must win match for England.

Match: Pakistan vs England, Group B, ICC World Twenty20 2009

Date: 7 June 2009

Venue: Kennington Oval, London, England

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

England has to win against Pakistan if they are to keep their hopes of progressing to the super eight alive. On the other hand, Pakistan will be looking for a good start in the tournament following their 9-wicket defeat at the hands of arch-rivals India in the practice match. England knows it very well that a defeat against Pakistan will ensure their elimination from preliminary round of the tournament. So, English cricketers will be looking to give their best against Pakistan and clinch a spot in the Super Eight. Captain Paul Collingwood is still confident that England can reach the last eight of the tournament.

AFP reported:

"We're still in the tournament, we have 24 hours to get our heads around it and we have to play a hell of a lot better on Sunday.

"Pakistan are obviously a very good side," Collingwood told reporters at Lord's. "They got to the final of the last Twenty20 World Cup, they're very skilful and we're going to have to be at our very, very best to beat that side but we can do it."

Well, for Pakistan, having a good start would be more important than any other thing. They would go into the game knowing that even a defeat would end their Super Eight hopes. So, Pakistan is not facing as much pressure as England. However, that does not mean that Pakistan can afford to be relaxed ahead of the game. They lost both the practice games against South Africa and India, and the way they lost the games indicates an alarm for the Younis Khan boys. Pakistan lost to South Africa by 59 runs, while India defeated Pakistan by 9 wickets. In both games, Pakistan failed to show any kind of competition against their opposition.

England was shocked when they lost to minnows Netherlands by 4 wickets. England has a number of things to learn from this defeat. First of all, England middle order failed to capitalize on the momentum given by their openers against Netherlands. I think, England was about 20 runs short of a score which they could have achieved, had their middle order batsmen lived up to the expectation after a century partnership from the openers. Like the middle order batsmen, England bowlers also failed to keep the pressure on the opposition batsmen in the middle overs. So, England has to improve on these places, if they are to reach the super eight.

Pakistan’s performance in the warm up matches may not have been impressive, but they have a number of match winners in Salman Butt, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Younis Khan, Kamran Akmal, Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Gul. Saeed Ajmal’s spin is also very effective. Young opener Ahmed Shehzad played very well in the warm up games, and I think, he would be crucial against England too. The man I am eagerly waiting to watch is young left-arm pacer Mohammad Aamer who showed the kind of talent he possesses against India in the last warm up game.

England got an excellent opening pair in Ravi Bopara and Luke Wright. However, their middle order does not look very strong and balanced. Specially, the team is already missing all rounder Andrew Flintoff. More than that, England missed the service of hard-hitting batsman Kevin Pietersen against Netherlands as Pietersen did not get over his Achilles problem fully. Now, it has been reported that England would make a late call on his availability in the last group stage match against Pakistan.

Press Association reported:

The influential Hampshire batsman sat out Friday night's humiliating four wicket defeat by Holland with a recurrence of the Achilles trouble which forced him to miss the recent one-day series with West Indies.

Pietersen has been given treatment for the last two days and received an injection, but England are unlikely to make a final decision on his availability until Sunday.

In the absence of Flintoff and Pietersen, England is left with only one reliable middle order batsman: Paul Collingwood. Owais Shah, Eoin Morgan and James Foster all have considerable success in domestic twenty20 tournaments, but neither of them have many successes in twenty20 internationals. So, it would be a big blow for England, if Kevin Pietersen can not get over his injury. I think, England should play Graeme Swann; no matter whether leg spinner Adil Rashid plays alongside him or not. Swann has huge experience and he can check the run rate. I do not know why England did not play all rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas against Netherlands, but I hope that England would not commit the same mistake again against Pakistan.

Online Live Score and Updates

You can find the live score and updates of the match in popular cricket websites like cricinfo.

Overall, I think, it would be a highly competitive match because both sides would like to win the game anyhow. Neither side has anything from their recent matches to be inspired themselves, but it is expected that both England and Pakistan would put on each and every bit of effort to win the match.