Lacklustre ICL Pak blown away by World XI

Hyderabad: It’s an amusing tale when Naved-ul-Hasan walks in to bat around the 10th over. And it doesn’t sink in that Matthew Elliott collects three wickets with his innocuous left-arm spin.

This was the plight of ICL Pakistan as they capitulated for 113 against ICL World after electing to bat in the sixth game of the ICL 20s World Series at Lal Bahadur Stadium, Hyderabad. World XI chased down the target comfortably losing four wickets.

ICL World will lock horns with ICL India in the finals tomorrow.

Whether it’s the sheer disappointment of losing the final of the Edelweiss 20s Challenge, Pakistan have looked rudderless in the World Series.

They would have hoped that ICL World would do an encore of the hara-kiri. That wasn’t to be as openers Elliot, and Ian Harvey, who was undefeated with 52, raced to 49 in six overs.

There was a glimmer of hope when quickie Riaz Afridi snared Elliott and Lou Vincent in consecutive deliveries—the latter was bowled off a beauty.

Harvey and Damien Martyn ensured no further hiccups as the runs trickled freely. Although Afridi snared two more towards the end—getting the wickets of Martyn and Upul Chandana (for a blob)—, World XI were always in control of the chase.

ICL Pakistan lost it in the first session. Clean hitting comes as naturally to them as breathing. Today they struggled for ideas against Johan van der Wath who got a fair bit of zip on the ball.

The pressure got on to Abdul Razzaq who couldn’t clear Daryl Tuffey and perished for 11. Van der Wath got into the act in the fifth over sending back Inzamam-ul-Haq for one to make it 19/2.

Sensing that the game was slipping out of control Razzaq’s opening partner, Taufeeq Umar, started manufacturing shots. It wasn’t expected to last long; it didn’t when Chandana had him for 19.

In fact Pakistan’s mindset could be best summed up by the stroke Hasan Raza attempted off just the first ball he faced: a horizontal bat shot (actually a nothing shot) charging down the wicket.

There was a common pattern underlying the dismissals of Imran Farhat, Naved Latif, Humayun Farhat and Raza: none of them applied method to madness.

The spinners, Elliot and Chandana, took five wickets between them—a story that was completely out of sync with Jeff Dujon’s prediction that it would be a run fest.

ICL World

Chris Cairns (captain), Andrew Hall, Chris Harris, Damien Martyn, Daryl Tuffey, Ian Harvey, Jimmy Maher, Johan Van Der Wath, Lou Vincent (wicketkeeper), Marvan Atapattu, Mathew Elliot, Michael Kasprowicz, Russel Arnold and Upul Chandana

Coach: John Emburey

ICL Pakistan

Inzamam-ul-Haq (captain), Arshad Khan, Hasan Raza, Humayun Farhat (wicket-keeper), Imran Farhat, Imran Nazir, Shahid Nazir, Naved-ul-Hasan, Abdul Razzaq, Taufeeq Umar, Shabbir Ahmed

Coach: Moin Khan