Sarfaraz Ahmed Joins Pakistan Cricket Team in India

while reading todays news paper i find a blastic news that Sarfaraz Ahmed on the way to india for substitute Kamran Akmal Due to his injuries
Sarfaraz Ahmed played with Pakistan Under 19 Cricket Team
He has honour to win Under 19 World Cup
He took 45 catched and 8 Stumps in his First Class Cricket

Pakistan Vs India Match at Kanpur (11-11-2007)

It was interesting that both teams wanted to bowl first at the toss in the third one-day international in Kanpur.

Pakistan got to do so, but were outplayed by India who took a 2-1 series lead, and perhaps Shoaib Malik will hope to lose the toss for the last two matches.

So far the toss winner has lost every game of the series.

Both teams opted for the extra spin option (Abdur Rehman and Murali Kartik respectively) and with cracks in the wicket likely to break-up as the game progressed, India's job was to get a score they would feel confident of defending.

So it proved, though not without a little help from the Pakistani fielders.

Sourav Ganguly was dropped off the very first ball by wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal off Shoaib Akhtar.

And the Prince of Calcutta, with his partner Sachin Tendulkar, made Pakistan pay, hitting 67 from the first 10 overs.

After that initial flurry, Sohail Tanvir and the Pakistani spinners tightened things up as the wicket started to dry and turn.

India knew a big score was possible providing they had wickets in hand and the acceleration came in the 34th over, Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Dhoni each hitting a pair of sixes as 50 came off just four overs.

The pair put on 100 off 91 balls for the fourth wicket, though not without a little luck for Yuvi, first dropped by Salman Butt at extra cover, and then surviving a close lbw shout off Rehman.

The last time I was in Kanpur, I didn’t blink too much despite some of the worst pollution in the world.

Just as well otherwise I would have missed most of Shahid Afridi’s whirlwind 100 off just 45 balls.

That knock I suspect was very much in his captain’s mind when he promoted the big-hitting all-rounder to opener, something which appeared to be paying off as 24 runs came off the first two overs.

On this occasion though, Afridi’s innings was a comparatively brief one, out in typical fashion, bowled trying to hit Irfan Pathan out of the ground.

Opener Butt oozed class with exquisite strokeplay as he hit a superb 129.

But there was only modest support at the other end for him, and when he was ninth man out the match had already started to slip away.

Yuvraj deservedly took the man-of-the-match prize for a fine all round performance: 77 with the bat, brilliant fielding to run-out Mohammad Yousuf, and then trapping Malik lbw.

And Pakistan must now win both the remaining two matches if they are to clinch this series.

Salman Butt Amazint 129 aganst India

The performances of the spinners was a crucial difference between the two sides: Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik and Abdur Rehman had combined figures of 2 for 149 from 20 overs; Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Yuvraj Singh and Sachin Tendulkar, on the other hand, returned figures of 3 for 99 from 22 overs. Even Salman Butt only managed 15 from 32 balls against Harbhajan.
Butt continued his amazing form against India. In 14 games against them, he has scored 673 runs at an exceptional average of 51.77, with four hundreds. Against all other teams, he has only managed 615 runs at an average of 24.60.
When Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni get together against Pakistan, it invariably means bad news for them. The 100-run stand between the two, off just 92 balls, is their fourth in seven innings versus Pakistan, against whom they average 99.80 per partnership - the partnership sequence reads 20, 102 not out, 146 not out, 6, 105, 20 and 100.
Dhoni also became the tenth batsman to get to 1000 ODI runs in 2007 - his aggregate for the year after the Kanpur game stands at 1034. Kumar Sangakkara, Adam Gilchrist and Andy Flower are the only other wicketkeeper-batsmen to score 1000 runs in a calendar year; Gilchrist has achieved it twice - in 1999 and 2003.
The 68-run first-wicket stand between Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly is their 44th fifty-plus stand for the opening wicket, which is a record. Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist are second with 43.
India's total of 294 for 6 is the highest in an ODI in Kanpur, going past the 259 they scored against England in the Nehru Cup in 1989-90.
The nine sixes that were struck in the Indian innings is the highest for them in an ODI against Pakistan, equalling the record they had set in vikashanapka in 2005.
Mohammad Yousuf was run out for the 36th time in ODIs. Among Pakistan's batsmen, only Inzamam-ul-Haq (40) and Wasim Akram (38) have been run out on more occasions.
Umar Gul's figures of 1 for 70 are his most expensive in terms of runs conceded in a single ODI. In 36 previous matches he had never conceded more than 61 runs.
Sohail Tanvir became the fourth Pakistan batsman to be run out without facing a ball in an ODI against India. Saqlain Mushtaq, Moin Khan and Azhar Mahmood are the others.