junaid khan will miss newzealand series due to injury

Fast bowler Junaid Khan has been ruled out of Pakistan's two ODIs in New Zealand because of a thigh injury sustained while training last week. He will be replaced by Bilawal Bhatti and will be assessed again ahead of the World Cup.

"If Junaid recovers fitness, he will join the World Cup squad," Pakistan's chief selector Moin Khan said. Junaid had a fall while bowling in the nets during training at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore on January 15 and was sent to Pakistan's medical staff with pain in his right thigh and elbow.

"On re-examining Junaid's condition, Pakistan's physiotherapist Brad Robinson and PCB's head of medical & sports sciences Dr. Sohail Saleem concurred that he had not recovered sufficiently from the traction injury of the nerve in the posterior right thigh and recommended recuperation at the NCA," the PCB said. "Subsequently the left-arm fast bowler was withdrawn from the New Zealand tour."

Moin said Bhatti was set to play the ODIs in New Zealand, should he be needed to replace Junaid in the World Cup squad. "The chairman [Shaharyar Khan] has considered and approved the request of the skipper Misbah-ul-Haq to include Bilawal Bhatti in the team under the condition that Bilawal Bhatti will play all scheduled matches in New Zealand," Moin said. "The decision for his selection will be considered in accordance with his performance as to whether he may continue or be replaced. It is, however, clarified that if Junaid Khan regains fitness, he will join the World Cup squad as announced on January 7, 2015."

Pakistan play two ODIs in New Zealand on January 31 and February 3. They have two World Cup warm-up games on February 9 and 11, before their tournament opener against India on February 15.

nz clinch series as pak fall on 207

new Zealand capped a hard-fought tour of the UAE with a commanding win in the final match to take the ODI series against Pakistan 3-2. The Tests and T20 internationals had been tied 1-1 each. New Zealand had trailed in both those contests, as they did twice in the one-dayers before resiliently rebounding with victories.

Kane Williamson led with the bat again, along with Ross Taylor, as New Zealand posted a stiff total on a slow pitch and the fast bowler Matt Henry blew away the Pakistan top order on his way to a maiden international five-wicket haul. Pakistan had come within a couple of hits of chasing down 300 in the fourth ODI but they fell well short of the target of 276 as their poor record in series-deciders over the past decade continued.
Pakistan's top order had failed to fire throughout the series barring the third match. The trend continued as the express duo of Henry and Adam Milne troubled the batsmen again. Nasir Jamshed failed to review a poor leg-before decision fifth ball of the chase. Younis Khan was caught behind down the leg side trying to work a short ball fine.
Williamson held back his key fast bowlers and introduced himself and Anton Devcich to share the fifth bowler's quota. Forget putting pressure on the part-timers, Pakistan managed 1 for 40 from the 11 overs they bowled. The first boundary of the innings came in the 11th over, and the second arrived only in the 25th.
After Asad Shafiq went leg-before to Devcich, Shehzad found a stable partner in Haris Sohail and two forged a steady 69-run partnership. Shehzad had been reprieved twice, once on 17 when New Zealand did not review a plumb lbw and then on 43 when the keeper Luke Ronchi dropped him, Devcich the bowler to suffer both times. Shehzad gradually found his touch and was timing the ball well as he moved past his fifty, only to gift his wicket away with 169 needed from 22 overs. Henry returned and bowled it short. Shehzad mis-hit it straight to midwicket.

Kane Williamson was at it again with a 97 © AFP

Umar Akmal too found midwicket soon off Nathan McCullum and though Sohail carried on and made 65, the asking-rate demanded too much of him. Henry settled it with the wickets of Sarfraz Ahmed and Shahid Afridi as Pakistan were dismissed in the 44th over.
Williamson bowled five of those for only 18 runs after winning the toss and making his eighth fifty-plus score in ten ODI innings to finish with 346 runs for the series, the most on either side. Ross Taylor accelerated to hit an unbeaten 88 as New Zealand posted 275. The total was 24 short of what New Zealand had barely defended in the fourth ODI but the pitch also played slower than it had two days ago.
Afridi capped a strong all-round series for a return of 1 for 33 but Pakistan conceded 85 in the last ten overs. New Zealand followed the same policy they had on Wednesday with Williamson leading the build-up through the middle overs.
Williamson first partnered with Dean Brownlie for a 66-run stand after Martin Guptill fell early to Mohammad Irfan's steep bounce. Afridi and Sohail kept Williamson and Taylor in check, carrying on from the initial discipline of Irfan and Anwar Ali. Afridi especially was hard to get away with his quickish deliveries on a tight line mixed up with flighted ones.
New Zealand went without a boundary for ten overs at the start and then for 12 overs in the middle stages. Both times, Williamson broke the drought. The lofted shot over extra cover against the spinners came easily to him again.
Taylor was not comfortable at the start and took his time, his first boundary coming only off his 47th delivery, a tickle to fine leg for four. He did not get stuck, though, and drove Irfan down the ground to reach his fifty off 67 deliveries as New Zealand took 35 off the batting Powerplay.
New Zealand were well placed going into the slog with Williamson and Taylor having added 100-plus. Afridi had a couple of overs left, though, and he removed Williamson in his last, the New Zealand captain top-edging a sweep to the wicketkeeper to depart three short of his hundred. Taylor brought out his slog-sweep and connected a few boundaries off Zulfiqar Babar to make sure New Zealand finished strongly. Henry and his fellow bowlers did the rest

Pakistan Cricket Team To Wear Black Arm Bands To Show Solidarity With The Peshawar Attack Victims

The players from both teams will also observe a minute’s silence before the start of the ODI. 

On Tuesday morning, terrorists stormed an army-run school in the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwan, Pakistan. The gunmen took the school children and teaching staff hostage for almost eight hours until the country’s armed forces killed all the attackers in firefight. The attack left 125 children, 9 teachers, and the school principal dead.

The Pakistan cricket team sorrowfully reacted to the grieve development. Within two hours’ time the team manager and chief selector Moin Khan issued a statement condoling the victims.
The stand-in Captain Shahid Afridi talking to PakPassion.net said, “It’s sad what’s happened in Peshawar. Our prayers are with the families who lost their kids. I hope the situation will get better in Pakistan.” He further added, “Anything that happens in our country deeply saddens us, whether we are in Pakistan or away. Ever since we heard this news, we were saying that it should not have happened. We hope the situation gets better but also hope that all those who have the responsibility will improve the situation.”
The cricket commentators and the cricketers all around the world sympathized with the victims of the Peshawar school attack and urged the citizens of Peshawar to donate blood.

ahmed and afridi made highest total in sharjah

The personality of Pakistan's batting line-up is a gripping study and the chapter that was added in Sharjah could well be a blueprint of how to build an ODI innings. The primary ingredient was a firm century from Ahmed Shehzad and it was supplemented by a stroke-filled fifty from stand-in captain Shahid Afridi as Pakistan rocketed to 364 for 7 - their third-highest total in 50-over cricket and the highest in Sharjah in 218 matches. New Zealand slipped and slid and finally succumbed for 217, beaten with almost 12 overs left.

Pakistan's batsmen were intent on warding off those loose shots that frustrate them and their fans so badly. There was a determined effort to collect singles, which hindered the bowlers' chances of building pressure. Each of the first three partnerships added more than 50 runs to the score with Shehzad being the common denominator. But whatever Pakistan do, there just has to be a see-sawing of fortunes.

Birthday boy Matt Henry took out Shehzad for 113 and Asad Shafiq the very next ball with the score on 210 in the 38th over, but Pakistan managed to circumvent those setbacks thanks to an enterprising partnership between Afridi and Haris Sohail. They added 89 runs in 46 balls and on that steam Pakistan made 125 runs in the last 10 overs. 

The only period of play when New Zealand managed to threaten the target was when Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson were together. Both batsmen seemed highly conscious of not letting scoreboard pressure dictate their strokeplay and they trusted their strength - Taylor his power and Williamson his footwork - to collect their runs. But the end of their union was rather symbolic of how things had been for New Zealand all day.

Taylor, who had showed immense skill cutting from the stumps, was bowled while attempted to do so by an Afridi slider. Tom Latham, too, added to the imagery when his beloved slog sweep found deep square leg to gift Shehzad his first ODI wicket. Pakistan gambled with Sohail's part-time left-arm spin and got three wickets, including Williamson.

No batsman could reach fifty. No partnership could reach fifty. New Zealand had been run over by a stampede in the first innings and just could not recover. Afridi could not hide his smile as it became apparent that victory was only a matter of time. He barely put a foot wrong, right from the toss which he won and watched his batsmen take full advantage.

Having been ruffled by pace previously in the series, Pakistan's strategy was to take on the short ball and an easy-paced pitched helped their endeavor. They also did not need to deal with Adam Milne, the fastest of New Zealand's bowlers and also one of the more injury-prone, rested. Every batsman was keen to pull and Shehzad managed to find the middle of the bat even off the front foot. Midwicket was his most productive area and the pull, his most productive shot.

Shehzad's poise at the crease was striking, so much that at times he was able to hit a selection of his 14 boundaries without much footwork. The four he drilled through point to reach his fifty was set up by shifting his weight onto a rather stationary back foot. He showed off his balance when he ran down the pitch as well, and on one such occasion he heaved a length ball clean out of the stadium in the 20th over. Nathan McCullum, who was brought in place of Daniel Vettori, could only watch.

His constant search for singles - he found 41 of them - facilitated a strike rate just under a-run-a-ball. At times, he wanted a single where there wasn't one and did have a couple of run-out scares. On other occasions he would question his partner when they refused. It almost seemed like he would not accept anything less than a century, judging by how he stole two runs to a dab that barely went past the 30-yard circle at midwicket to move to 99. There are only three Pakistan openers - Saeed Anwar, Salman Butt and Rameez Raja - who have more hundreds than Shehzad's six.

A 63-run opening stand in 47 balls between Shehzad and Mohammad Hafeez had laid the foundation and Afridi fancied himself. Pakistan had listed him down at No. 8 at the toss, but he strode out at No. 5 ahead of the returning Umar Akmal and the red-hot Sarfraz Ahmed. Twenty-five balls of calculated carnage followed. Mis-timed belts sailed over midwicket and square leg, slices pinged to the point and cover boundaries and the straight hits were typically emphatic. By the time he skewed a catch to mid-off, he had made 55 weighty runs to keep a sensational trend alive - he had made 124 of 385 and 102 of 371 in the only two higher totals that Pakistan have made in ODIs.

New Zealand wilted so badly that only one bowler - McCullum - went at under six an over, their over-rate slumped owing to 19 extras and the ball constantly disappearing to the boundary. Their preoccupation with the ticking clock coincided with Sarfraz and Sohail Tanvir caning 22 runs off the final over bowled by Corey Anderson to put the cherry on top.

Ajmal to play against Kenya before biomechanics test: PCB

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has finally decided that suspended off-spinner Saeed Ajmal should play two one-day games against Kenya this month before he goes for his final biomechanics test in Chennai. An official of the board said Thursday that Saeed would feature in one or two matches of the series against Kenya since it was not an international series. “It is a representative series not international so he will play in the last two matches against Kenya and also one or two practice games against them in Lahore,” the official was quoted as saying on a private TV channel.

He confirmed that it had been decided to send both Ajmal and Muhammad Hafeez to the International Cricket Council (ICC) accredited laboratory in Chennai. “But while Hafeez will go this week to Chennai directly from Dubai for his informal test and is waiting for his visa Ajmal will go from Lahore after playing the Kenya matches.” The official said the plan was to send Ajmal in the last week of December for an official biomechanics test which will decide whether Ajmal can be cleared to play in the World Cup or not. “Most probably he will go on December 30th to Chennai,” he added. Another official said that the PCB had also decided to seek special extension period for Ajmal and Hafeez while naming the final World Cup squad of 15. “It can be done. There are regulations which allow participating teams to seek extra time for some players to decide whether they can play in the World Cup or not.