For the 5th ranker Pakistan team in the Champions Trophy the season will starting with the first match with the West Indies which is placed at number 8. For the team Pakistan, Champion Trophy experience has never led to a winning moment. If we go by the stats team had played in to their best in the years 2000, 2004 and 2009 making it to the semi finals in the last 6 Champions Trophy tournaments. On the other side the competitor West Indies went for a win in the 2004 led by Brain Lara in England but at present is ranked lowest in the competition.
Match Venue and Date
The 2nd 2013 ICC Champions Trophy match will be played between Pakistan and West Indies at The Oval, London. The match will be played on 7th June, 2013 starting at 3:00 pm.
Pakistan
Pakistan has a lead this time in the series as the team has played ODIs here in UK before the warm up matches facing Ireland and Scotland. This time the Pakistan team has an impressive fielding line up with the combination of young talent and experience players, under the captaincy of Misbah -ul- Haq. In the warm up matches Pakistan was no able to take on to the Sri Lankan team due to rain while in the second match team made an impressive lead over South Africa. This will boost the confidence of the team for sure.
In the bowling order the youngsters Asad Ali and Junaid Khan opened fire with their pace deliveries against the South African team picking the first 5 wickets. Also Wahab Riaz was able to clinch 3 wickets in his share as well. Chasing the 202 score put by SA , Pakistan’s batting order marked the win with still five overs left to spare. Imran Farhat and Mohammad Hafeez are the major contributors who added runs with their half centuries. Overall Pakistan looks like a cohesive and well balanced team that will give a tough fight to West Indies.
West Indies
West Indies is no in rhythm as the team has not played any matches in the recent days. Their last international play was against Zimbabwe in March and since then there is no tournament faced by the team. But never the less the team has the IPL might performers Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo still the team has not much international exposure. Others like Ramnaresh Sarwan, Darren Bravo, Sunil Narine, Darren Sammy and Kieron Pollard will be important for the team.
Although West Indies lost its first battle against Australia as a warm up match it is not a weak spot for the team. Darren Bravo and Johnson Charles were the players who raise hope for the team before the collapse of the middle order players. Team scored 256 runs in total out of which 82 runs were contributed by Bravo and 55 runs by Charles. In the bowling West Indies was making a mark until they were faced by Shane Watson who smashed them all scoring 135. Sunil Narine, Darren Sammy and Jason Holder need to pull up their play for win.
Probable Team Squad
Pakistan: Misbah- Ul- Haq (c), Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez, Asad Shafiq, Nasir Jamshed, Kamran Akmal (wk), Shoaib Malik, Wahab Ria, Saeed Ajmal, Junaid Khan, Asad Ali
West Indies: Dwayne Bravo (c), Darren Bravo, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Kieron Pollard, Darren Sammy, Jason Holder, Johnson Charles, Sunil Narine, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach
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