Report – Tendulkar – Akram T-20 Cricket Shield

Tendulkar – Akram T-20 Cricket Shield

India vs Pakistan

Sunday, 1ST April 2012 at Boomanulla Oval – Narrabundah

PAKISTAN 167/8 (20 overs); INDIA 116 all out (17.2 overs)

PAKISTAN WON BY 51 RUNS

Man of the Match: Moeen Cheema

It was a bright and sunny morning and by the time of the toss the dark clouds came rolling from the west over the Boomanulla Oval at Narrabundah. All 22 players from India and Pakistan were excited to be at the oval to play the first match ever to take place in the nations capital. There was strong support from the crowd from both countries including representation from the Pakistani High Commission.

India Eleven

The Deputy High Commissioner of Pakistan Hon Tasawar Khan tossed the coin along with the Captains Chakradhar Ravinuthala and Saeed Jafferey to start the match. Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat giving the opportunity for India to control runs by bowling good line and length.

Pakistan started well with the first ball being hit for a four. India following that bowled very tight three overs. The continuous rain was disrupting and making the ball slippery while the players did their best to keep the ball dry and above ground. Pakistani bastmen Khurram Butt and Sohail Lone were over the top and hit few magnificent fours across the ground to long on and through covers. Sidhu struck first for India and took the first wicket of Sohail Lone caught and in the next over Sheheraz Shah was clean bowled by Joshan. Joshan bowled a very good over for India at this particular stage. The first change of bowling saw results for Ashutosh who took the wicket of Kurram Butt (27 runs). Khurran was settling down and almost made a run at every ball that came to the bat. Syed Jaffry Captain came to the crease at the exit of Khurram Butt and showed his class by scoring runs from the first ball. Sohail Akbar’s stumping by Raj was excellent on the bowling of Ashutosh. Syed Jaffry along Irfan Yousaf contributed steadily to the score. Irfan was the highest scorer for Pakistan with 34 runs and was not out at the end of the 20 the over. Other high score contributions were Afzaal Anjum (28 runs), Khurram Butt (27runs), Syed Jaffry (26 runs), and Sohail Akbar (14 runs). In the penultimate over Chakra Captain for the Indian team took two wickets with Pakistan ending the innings with 167 runs in 20 overs.

When India started batting, the dark clouds had moved over but the ground and wicket were very wet. Indian batsmen found it hard to get the boundaries with the wet ground and were finding it difficult on many occasions to get a couple of runs when the ball would travel on the ground and stop even efore the Pakistani fielder could reach the ball. Ashutosh and Vijay opened the batting and Vijay scored a four off the third ball. Vijay was out in the next over caught in the bowling of Farhan Qureshi. Ashutosh stood the ground and batted over ten overs scoring steadily to be the highest scorer for India with 29 runs. Moeen Cheema was the striking bowler taking 3 wickets in 4 overs giving away only 16 runs. Indian batsmen were not able to get on top of the Pakistani bowling and faced quiet a few dot balls. Pakistani bowlers were keeping a good line and length and Indian batsmen found it hard to get the ball going for runs. There was some resistance shown by Arun scoring the second highest for India with 18 runs followed by Bhave 10 runs. India kept loosing wickets at intervals and by the 17 over were down 9 wickets. Pakistan also had another strike bowler Sohail Lone who bowled 4 overs, took 3 wickets giving away 25 runs. Between Sohail and Moeen, they took 6 wickets. India were all out for 116 runs in 17.2 overs.

Credit is to be given to both teams for displaying good sportsmanship and playing wonderful cricket on a pretty ordinary day. As Chris said at the end of the game, the game was played in the true spirit of Cricket and is a tribute to witness such a wonderful competition between two cricket loving countries.

The Organisers of this tournament would like to thank the sponsors Colliers International, Boomanulla Oval managers, ACT Liberals, and the Pakistani High Commission for their support.

For pictures please visit www.facebook.com/FINACT11   India Pakistan Match Scorecard

Lakshman Prasad

on behalf of FINACT Cricket Tournament Committee