PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, 7 March 2007 — Pakistan’s Inzamam ul-Haq and Mohammad Hafeez geared up for the World Cup with impressive half-centuries in a warm-up match against Canada here yesterday.
Hafeez top-scored with a solid 61 while Inzaman contributed 59 as Pakistan posted a challenging 273-8 in a match reduced to 48-overs-a-side due to the collapse of a sightscreen. The game was held up for more than an hour.
Wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal then built on the efforts of skipper Inzamam and middle-order batsman Hafeez, smashing a brisk 56 not out off just 37 balls with the help of four sixes.
Pakistan experimented with their batting order in their first practice game, with number-three batsman Younis Khan opening the innings. They were struggling at 66-4 after being put in to bat, but Inzamam and Hafeez bolstered the innings with a 93-run stand for the fifth wicket.
The Pakistani captain smashed 11 fours in his 64-ball knock before being caught in the covers off left-arm spinner Sunil Dhaniram.
Hafeez hit one six and five fours in his 71-ball knock.
Canadian seamer Henry Osinde did the early damage with two wickets to eventually finish with 2-41. Former West Indies fast bowler Anderson Cummins and Dhaniram grabbed two wickets apiece.
Pakistan are in Group D with the West Indies, Zimbabwe and Ireland, while Canada are in Group C with New Zealand, England and Kenya. The top two sides from each group will qualify for the Super Eight stage.
Dutch Seamer Ten Doeschate
Scalps Five Versus India
In Trelawny, Jamaica, Netherlands all-rounder Ryan ten Doeschate grabbed five wickets to steal the show in India’s total of 300 for nine in their World Cup warm-up game yesterday.
The South Africa-born player first removed Saurav Ganguly (19) off his first ball and bowled fellow opener Virender Sehwag (28) displaying controlled seam bowling in helpful conditions, including a stiff sea breeze across the open stadium.
Skipper Rahul Dravid top-scored with 74 to calm the nerves. Sachin Tendulkar added 61 as two of the game’s most prolific scorers added 116 runs for the fourth wicket. Ten Doeschate, seen as key to Dutch hopes of impressing at the World Cup, finished with five for 57 after the 1983 champions slowly pulled away to a stiff total on a slow pitch. The bowler first ended a 60-run opening stand when a subdued Ganguly chipped a catch to cover before he bowled Sehwag with a clever off-cutter.
Fellow seamer Darron Reekers, who works as a handyman when he is off cricket, then forced the attacking Robin Uthappa to play on to the stumps with an in-coming delivery to reduce the Indians to 82 for three.Tendulkar, who holds a spate of one-day records, took command with fine placements and forceful shots, hitting two sixes and five fours. Dravid also struck five fours and two sixes in his 90-ball anchoring effort. Wicketkeeper Mahendra Dhoni (21) and Irfan Pathan (25 not out) added quick runs in the end although the Dutch fielded sharply and kept taking wickets.
Australia’s Clarke in the
Runs Against Zimbabwe
In Kingstown, St Vincent, Michael Clarke’s 82 was the centerpiece of Australia’s 290 for seven in their opening World Cup warm-up match against Zimbabwe at Arnos Vale.
Makeshift openers Shane Watson (81) and Brad Haddin (47) were the other major contributors.
All three of Australia’s top scorers were dropped once each by a Zimbabwe side that used eight bowlers before belatedly finding some form in the field.
Clarke’s miss was arguably the worst of the lot when, on 58, he hit left-arm spinner Sean Williams straight to Terry Duffin in the covers. Watson was given a chance to open the innings with Matthew Hayden still nursing a toe injury. So too was keeper Haddin following the late arrival here Monday of first choice gloveman and opener Adam Gilchrist after the birth of his third child. However, although Australia had been on course for a score in excess of 300, several batsmen got themselves out, with only captain Ricky Ponting, who won the toss, undone by a good ball. Even so their total is likely to prove too much for Zimbabwe.
Australia decided to give 12 of their squad a game, with Andrew Symonds (biceps injury) the other member of the 15-man party to miss out. Haddin was given a life on two when he skied seamer Christopher Mpofu to point where Williams dropped a catch he ought to have held.
Oram Ignores Broken Finger
to Rescue Kiwis
In Bridgetown, Barbados, New Zealand all-rounder Jacob Oram ignored a broken finger which he had considered amputating to score 88 in a World Cup warm-up match against Bangladesh yesterday.
The hefty 28-year-old came in to bat with the Kiwis in serious trouble at 75 for six but he and Brendon McCullum blasted a seventh-wicket 105-run partnership to pave the way for a respectable total of 226 all out off 49.2 overs. Oram arrived in the Caribbean last week nursing a badly broken finger on his left hand and was intending to play with a fibreglass sheath to protect it from further damage.
He told reporters that he may need pain-killing injections to help him play and even suggested he would have it surgically removed if it meant he could take part in the World Cup. He and McCullum (46) barely gave a chance before the latter was run out by a direct hit from the outfield by Mashrafe Mortaza at the 3Ws Ground. Oram eventually went 12 short of his ton when he holed out to Syed Rasel at long-on. He hit five fours and a massive straight six in his 107-ball stay.
Mortaza was the pick of the Bangladesh bowlers with four for 44 off 9.2 overs.
