Pakistan, a team filled with legendary cricketers from the past and unlimited talent in its present players, is going through one of the worst patches. Spot fixing allegations leading to the suspension of three key Pakistan players Muhammad Aamir , Muhammad
Asif and Salman butt has already shattered the hopes of the fans for the world cup campaign. A fight back in the one day series against the England side played in summer this year and then a good competitive tournament against South Africa this year has certainly
given the fans a glimpse of how well the team can still perform even in the worst of circumstances but a lot of victories under their name is what is required before the world cup 2011.
What the Pakistan cricket team really wants is a good momentum prior to the world cup to provide the players with enough confidence to show some character and class while producing competitive cricket. In this regard, the New Zealand tour is very important.
Unfortunately the opener of the tournament was a devastating one for Pakistan as they lost to Auckland in a T20 format from 5 wickets.
Auckland won the toss and chose to field. Pakistan team was put into trouble straight away from the very first ball that they faced. In the third over only, Pakistan had lost their three top wickets just for the total of 7 runs. All the early destruction
was done by left arm seamer Michael Bates.
After the poor initiation to the Pakistan innings, they never recovered. Umar Akmal was the only batsman that showed very little signs of promise for his 25 runs. Younas Khan made 18 runs before he was dismissed by Roneel Hira, a Left-arm spinner. Fawad
Alam was sent back to the dressing room on a duck as he was given run out witch made the matters worse for the visiting team. Abdl Razzaq, the man of crisis for Pakistan was unable to take the Pakistan team out of the slump when he was given out on 16 runs
courtesy some decent bowling from Bhupinder Singh.
Auckland wanted to chase the total in a quick blaze. Colin de Grandhomme started attacking the Pakistan bowling and made a blistering 20 from only 12 balls until was caught at gully by Shehzad on the bowling of Shoaib Akhtar. The other opener, Martin Guptill
remained not out for his 28 and played the key role in the chase. Shoaib took another wicket but with an expensive economy rate of 7.75 runs per over for his four.
Saeed Ajmal was the pick of the bowlers for Pakistan as he took 2 wickets with an economy of only 5 runs per over. Wahab Riaz also took one wicket but the situation for Auckland never became uncomfortable and they were able to win the match by 5 wickets
with still 40 balls remaining.
The match was a 12 a side with one non batsman for both sides. From Pakistan it was Shoaib Akhtar and for Auckland it was Bhupinder Singh. The opener of the New Zealand tour did not turn out for Pakistan the way it should have but certainly a lot more is
expected from Pakistan in the series starting on the 26th December where Pakistan will play its first T20 against New Zealand.
Will New Zealand take advantage of this early on defeat in the warm up game? Will Pakistan strike back and forget about the poor opening performance in the warm up game? For the love of the fans let’s hope that Pakistan plays some good competitive cricket
and give the viewers a treat to watch.