Asif and Malik see Pakistan home v New Zealand in Super-12 match in Sharjah
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hi guys, and welcome to our Golf News T20 World Cup coverage.
00:14We've had two thrilling games today as South Africa overcame West Indies in the early match
00:19before we had a thriller between Pakistan and New Zealand.
00:24First of all, I'll say hello to Mr Cricket UE himself, Anas Sajjan, and we'll go around
00:29the table.
00:30Thank you Matt, hello Mr Shyam, hello Ashfaq Bhai.
00:35Well, the first match in Dubai, to be very honest, when I saw the start of West Indies
00:41I felt that Evan Lewis is playing on a different wicket, but I'm afraid when I saw Lyndon Simmons,
00:47I thought he's playing on the Sharjah wicket because he scored 16 of 35 balls, and it really
00:53dearly cost the impetus West Indies required, but having said that you have to give credit
00:58to South African bowlers, they bowled beautifully, especially Keshav Maharaj who picked up two
01:02wickets for 24 in his four overs and restricted the strong West Indian team to 143, with South
01:09Africa chased down with ease.
01:13And it's kind of funny now because when we've looked back at a few of the IPLs that have
01:19been here now and a few of the other test matches, Sharjah has been the high scoring
01:24stadium and the other guys have been low scoring, but it looks to be a little bit different
01:28this time around.
01:29What do you think, Shyam?
01:30Yes, part of the problem is the newly laid wicket, see, when you relay a strip, it takes
01:38a while for it to settle down, several matches have to be played so that it gets worn out
01:42and again rolled over to get a certain level of, what do you call it, bounce.
01:47Now yesterday's match where Afghanistan played Scotland, there was enough bounce, you could
01:53see the Afghanistan batsman playing with abandon.
01:57But today, I clearly remember Imad Wasim saying that the ball is keeping low and you could
02:04see that the ball was keeping low.
02:06So which makes it difficult actually.
02:10It's difficult to get the ball off the square and especially to get under the ball, it's
02:13difficult if the ball is keeping low, that is precisely the problem with Sharjah.
02:17Having said that, not all the strips in that square is behaving the same manner.
02:23But this particular one, it's keeping low.
02:25Okay.
02:26That is way out of my comfort zone in terms of technology, I'm sorry.
02:33You guys will know a lot better about that than I would.
02:35Now the thing that we'll quickly discuss, we'll go back to Anas before we get to a smiling
02:42Ashfaq and we talk about the second game, where does this leave the West Indies?
02:46Well, West Indies have to do a lot of catch up with just three matches to go and mind
02:52you out of which they have to play Australia.
02:56All the big boys are playing in that team, all the big teams are in that group.
03:00So it's not going to be easy.
03:01They lost the first match where they were bowled out for 55 today.
03:04Again, as I said about the way the innings has been going around, Russell looks totally
03:08out of sorts.
03:10And now they have to play Australia.
03:13Who else are the team other than this team, Shyam, I'm not able to recollect.
03:16It's Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
03:18These are not easy teams.
03:20They need to win all three games if they need to go to the knockout.
03:25And especially in these pitches, even Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, it could be a handful.
03:30Very much.
03:31Very much.
03:32Very much.
03:33And I mean, sometimes I think that maybe there's a little bit of an advantage with these guys
03:36coming through the qualifiers in Oman and Abu Dhabi.
03:40They've got their eye in a little bit more than some of the other teams because they
03:44were playing these warm up games that didn't mean quite as much.
03:47But Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, they knew it was a must win situation.
03:52And so maybe they are, you know, they may come into these games with a little bit more
03:56of a bounce, shall we say.
04:01Not just that, actually, they could even, you know, sell the other team's fortunes in
04:06the sense like they could, in a crucial match, they could upset them and that there goes
04:10the chance they could bounce these teams out of the tournament.
04:13Exactly.
04:14Exactly.
04:15Okey dokey.
04:16We'll move on to our, like I say, our smiling friend in the corner here.
04:21Pakistan have won their second on the bounce as well.
04:24They beat New Zealand this evening.
04:26It was a little bit tight, but they got over the line in the 19th over.
04:30Ashfaq, take us through what was it like for you?
04:34Thank you, Matt.
04:35Thank you, Nisbhai.
04:36Thank you, Shyam.
04:37It was a tough match today.
04:40Pakistan has a record of, bad record of scoring low total.
04:43I was scared today, a bit today, and it was a pitch, new pitch, the ball was keeping low
04:49and the ball was not coming into the bat and it was very difficult to hit.
04:53And the blow came and Babar Azam was bowled out and suddenly the score started drying
05:00out.
05:01But credit goes to Rizwan who kept one end safe for some time.
05:05Fakhar played well, but Hafeez was caught brilliantly.
05:09He was in good nick.
05:12But the trophy went to Asif Ali, who just took it deep and hit three sixes and suddenly
05:19changed the complexion of the match.
05:21And of course, experienced Shoaib Malik, which is the best change, last minute change in
05:26Pakistan's court.
05:27Nothing.
05:28It was his dream in inks.
05:30It looked like a moment of genius bringing him in now, because Malik and Ali were the
05:37guys that got you over the line when it got a bit nervy.
05:40It was very comfortable.
05:41Another thing is the bowling attack was superb.
05:44Haris Rauf was brilliant and but Hafeez, he is a part-time bowler, he picked two wickets.
05:51As Shyam said, the ball was keeping low.
05:54So Hafeez took advantage of that and the batsman went up to him, he gave him the bat and got
06:01trapped.
06:02So he got one of them out.
06:05Shaheen Afridi couldn't take in the first over, but he did so well.
06:1021 runs in four overs and also picked wicket at the end.
06:14I think overall, it was a good match.
06:17Pakistan, I would say there's a bit of scare in the middle.
06:21But as I said in the beginning, Pakistan has a very deep batting lineup.
06:24They still had to go.
06:27There were two other players, Shahdaab and Hassan Ali, who could bat, they were also
06:30there still.
06:31There was no dearth of batting lineup.
06:34And they did it at the right moment.
06:37And do you think that, you know, like you say, that's four points in the bag now.
06:41Are you looking good for the semifinals?
06:43Yeah, I think so.
06:45There's only Pakistan there.
06:48As I said, Scotland and other teams, I don't think Pakistan will have any problem.
06:55So I can see them in the semis, in the next round.
07:01And Anis, where does this put New Zealand, in your opinion?
07:05Obviously, they were regarded as one of the dark horses, but this is a little bit of a
07:10setback for them?
07:13To be very honest, they probably scored 15 runs short on this wicket.
07:16But you have to give credit to Pakistan bowlers, they are very tight, very disciplined.
07:20I was lucky to see the game in this historic, iconic Sharjah Stadium.
07:25As Ashfaq and Shyam mentioned that it was a newly laid strip, so the ball was not coming
07:30onto the bat.
07:31It was not easy to get the big shots running.
07:34And you have to give credit to Pakistan bowlers.
07:37But mind you, they were in a precarious position.
07:40But the calmness of Shoaib Malik, and I'm very proud to say about this boy Asif Ali,
07:44who was a part of the Danube squad for five years.
07:48Not because he was a part of the squad, he scored that runs, but I knew his potential,
07:52he's got the big shots.
07:54And that one over from Saudi and the second one of Santana, which Shoaib Malik took, changed
07:59the whole complexion of the game.
08:01And in the end, to be very honest, Pakistan won with more than one over to spare.
08:05Full credit, and I think they put their one foot into the semi-final.
08:08Okay.
08:09And Shyam, just from your point of view, just looking ahead, we've now got a couple of games
08:17under the belt for most teams.
08:19How do you see things panning out for Group A and Group B?
08:25For Group A, Pakistan definitely is going through the other one.
08:30But none of the other teams have two wins already, only Pakistan seems to have that.
08:36And so it's too early to make a call on that, because South Africa lost one and won one.
08:42Australia has played only just one match.
08:44So has England.
08:45England is playing their second match tomorrow.
08:47So it's too early to make a prediction on how it will pan out.
08:52The only thing we can say for sure is from Pakistan, Pakistan has won two games.
08:57Okay.
08:58That's why he's smiling away in the corner right now.
09:02He's delighted.
09:03Actually, the only other team to play two games was West Indies, and they lost both
09:09of them.
09:10And like Anish said earlier, I mean, they're in a pickle there and they need to win all
09:15the games to stay alive.
09:17Even then, they are not assured of going through.
09:19I think it's already out of their hands.
09:22Yeah.
09:23It is.
09:24They'll have to depend on other favourable results from the others in the same group.
09:29Okay.
09:30Now, we'll be back again tomorrow.
09:33We've got another action-packed day again tomorrow.
09:38We'll be here again.
09:39In the meantime, all our previews and our reviews will be up along with our analysis
09:45Before we get into the live action tomorrow at gulfnews.com, I'm sure you can always follow
09:52the action there.
09:53And thank you to Anish, to Sham and to Ashfaq once again.
09:58And we shall join you again tomorrow evening and we'll go over the latest developments
10:03and we'll just see where we are by that time.
10:05And I think it will just get more intriguing as we go on.
10:10So thanks, everybody.
10:13Bye.