ICC T20 World Cup in UAE: Gulf News experts analyse victories for South Africa and Pakistan

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Transcript

00:00Hi guys, and welcome to our Golf News T20 World Cup coverage.

00:14We've had two thrilling games today as South Africa overcame West Indies in the early match

00:19before we had a thriller between Pakistan and New Zealand.

00:24First of all, I'll say hello to Mr Cricket UE himself, Anas Sajjan, and we'll go around

00:29the table.

00:30Thank you Matt, hello Mr Shyam, hello Ashfaq Bhai.

00:35Well, the first match in Dubai, to be very honest, when I saw the start of West Indies

00:41I felt that Evan Lewis is playing on a different wicket, but I'm afraid when I saw Lyndon Simmons,

00:47I thought he's playing on the Sharjah wicket because he scored 16 of 35 balls, and it really

00:53dearly cost the impetus West Indies required, but having said that you have to give credit

00:58to South African bowlers, they bowled beautifully, especially Keshav Maharaj who picked up two

01:02wickets for 24 in his four overs and restricted the strong West Indian team to 143, with South

01:09Africa chased down with ease.

01:13And it's kind of funny now because when we've looked back at a few of the IPLs that have

01:19been here now and a few of the other test matches, Sharjah has been the high scoring

01:24stadium and the other guys have been low scoring, but it looks to be a little bit different

01:28this time around.

01:29What do you think, Shyam?

01:30Yes, part of the problem is the newly laid wicket, see, when you relay a strip, it takes

01:38a while for it to settle down, several matches have to be played so that it gets worn out

01:42and again rolled over to get a certain level of, what do you call it, bounce.

01:47Now yesterday's match where Afghanistan played Scotland, there was enough bounce, you could

01:53see the Afghanistan batsman playing with abandon.

01:57But today, I clearly remember Imad Wasim saying that the ball is keeping low and you could

02:04see that the ball was keeping low.

02:06So which makes it difficult actually.

02:10It's difficult to get the ball off the square and especially to get under the ball, it's

02:13difficult if the ball is keeping low, that is precisely the problem with Sharjah.

02:17Having said that, not all the strips in that square is behaving the same manner.

02:23But this particular one, it's keeping low.

02:25Okay.

02:26That is way out of my comfort zone in terms of technology, I'm sorry.

02:33You guys will know a lot better about that than I would.

02:35Now the thing that we'll quickly discuss, we'll go back to Anas before we get to a smiling

02:42Ashfaq and we talk about the second game, where does this leave the West Indies?

02:46Well, West Indies have to do a lot of catch up with just three matches to go and mind

02:52you out of which they have to play Australia.

02:56All the big boys are playing in that team, all the big teams are in that group.

03:00So it's not going to be easy.

03:01They lost the first match where they were bowled out for 55 today.

03:04Again, as I said about the way the innings has been going around, Russell looks totally

03:08out of sorts.

03:10And now they have to play Australia.

03:13Who else are the team other than this team, Shyam, I'm not able to recollect.

03:16It's Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

03:18These are not easy teams.

03:20They need to win all three games if they need to go to the knockout.

03:25And especially in these pitches, even Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, it could be a handful.

03:30Very much.

03:31Very much.

03:32Very much.

03:33And I mean, sometimes I think that maybe there's a little bit of an advantage with these guys

03:36coming through the qualifiers in Oman and Abu Dhabi.

03:40They've got their eye in a little bit more than some of the other teams because they

03:44were playing these warm up games that didn't mean quite as much.

03:47But Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, they knew it was a must win situation.

03:52And so maybe they are, you know, they may come into these games with a little bit more

03:56of a bounce, shall we say.

04:01Not just that, actually, they could even, you know, sell the other team's fortunes in

04:06the sense like they could, in a crucial match, they could upset them and that there goes

04:10the chance they could bounce these teams out of the tournament.

04:13Exactly.

04:14Exactly.

04:15Okey dokey.

04:16We'll move on to our, like I say, our smiling friend in the corner here.

04:21Pakistan have won their second on the bounce as well.

04:24They beat New Zealand this evening.

04:26It was a little bit tight, but they got over the line in the 19th over.

04:30Ashfaq, take us through what was it like for you?

04:34Thank you, Matt.

04:35Thank you, Nisbhai.

04:36Thank you, Shyam.

04:37It was a tough match today.

04:40Pakistan has a record of, bad record of scoring low total.

04:43I was scared today, a bit today, and it was a pitch, new pitch, the ball was keeping low

04:49and the ball was not coming into the bat and it was very difficult to hit.

04:53And the blow came and Babar Azam was bowled out and suddenly the score started drying

05:00out.

05:01But credit goes to Rizwan who kept one end safe for some time.

05:05Fakhar played well, but Hafeez was caught brilliantly.

05:09He was in good nick.

05:12But the trophy went to Asif Ali, who just took it deep and hit three sixes and suddenly

05:19changed the complexion of the match.

05:21And of course, experienced Shoaib Malik, which is the best change, last minute change in

05:26Pakistan's court.

05:27Nothing.

05:28It was his dream in inks.

05:30It looked like a moment of genius bringing him in now, because Malik and Ali were the

05:37guys that got you over the line when it got a bit nervy.

05:40It was very comfortable.

05:41Another thing is the bowling attack was superb.

05:44Haris Rauf was brilliant and but Hafeez, he is a part-time bowler, he picked two wickets.

05:51As Shyam said, the ball was keeping low.

05:54So Hafeez took advantage of that and the batsman went up to him, he gave him the bat and got

06:01trapped.

06:02So he got one of them out.

06:05Shaheen Afridi couldn't take in the first over, but he did so well.

06:1021 runs in four overs and also picked wicket at the end.

06:14I think overall, it was a good match.

06:17Pakistan, I would say there's a bit of scare in the middle.

06:21But as I said in the beginning, Pakistan has a very deep batting lineup.

06:24They still had to go.

06:27There were two other players, Shahdaab and Hassan Ali, who could bat, they were also

06:30there still.

06:31There was no dearth of batting lineup.

06:34And they did it at the right moment.

06:37And do you think that, you know, like you say, that's four points in the bag now.

06:41Are you looking good for the semifinals?

06:43Yeah, I think so.

06:45There's only Pakistan there.

06:48As I said, Scotland and other teams, I don't think Pakistan will have any problem.

06:55So I can see them in the semis, in the next round.

07:01And Anis, where does this put New Zealand, in your opinion?

07:05Obviously, they were regarded as one of the dark horses, but this is a little bit of a

07:10setback for them?

07:13To be very honest, they probably scored 15 runs short on this wicket.

07:16But you have to give credit to Pakistan bowlers, they are very tight, very disciplined.

07:20I was lucky to see the game in this historic, iconic Sharjah Stadium.

07:25As Ashfaq and Shyam mentioned that it was a newly laid strip, so the ball was not coming

07:30onto the bat.

07:31It was not easy to get the big shots running.

07:34And you have to give credit to Pakistan bowlers.

07:37But mind you, they were in a precarious position.

07:40But the calmness of Shoaib Malik, and I'm very proud to say about this boy Asif Ali,

07:44who was a part of the Danube squad for five years.

07:48Not because he was a part of the squad, he scored that runs, but I knew his potential,

07:52he's got the big shots.

07:54And that one over from Saudi and the second one of Santana, which Shoaib Malik took, changed

07:59the whole complexion of the game.

08:01And in the end, to be very honest, Pakistan won with more than one over to spare.

08:05Full credit, and I think they put their one foot into the semi-final.

08:08Okay.

08:09And Shyam, just from your point of view, just looking ahead, we've now got a couple of games

08:17under the belt for most teams.

08:19How do you see things panning out for Group A and Group B?

08:25For Group A, Pakistan definitely is going through the other one.

08:30But none of the other teams have two wins already, only Pakistan seems to have that.

08:36And so it's too early to make a call on that, because South Africa lost one and won one.

08:42Australia has played only just one match.

08:44So has England.

08:45England is playing their second match tomorrow.

08:47So it's too early to make a prediction on how it will pan out.

08:52The only thing we can say for sure is from Pakistan, Pakistan has won two games.

08:57Okay.

08:58That's why he's smiling away in the corner right now.

09:02He's delighted.

09:03Actually, the only other team to play two games was West Indies, and they lost both

09:09of them.

09:10And like Anish said earlier, I mean, they're in a pickle there and they need to win all

09:15the games to stay alive.

09:17Even then, they are not assured of going through.

09:19I think it's already out of their hands.

09:22Yeah.

09:23It is.

09:24They'll have to depend on other favourable results from the others in the same group.

09:29Okay.

09:30Now, we'll be back again tomorrow.

09:33We've got another action-packed day again tomorrow.

09:38We'll be here again.

09:39In the meantime, all our previews and our reviews will be up along with our analysis

09:45Before we get into the live action tomorrow at gulfnews.com, I'm sure you can always follow

09:52the action there.

09:53And thank you to Anish, to Sham and to Ashfaq once again.

09:58And we shall join you again tomorrow evening and we'll go over the latest developments

10:03and we'll just see where we are by that time.

10:05And I think it will just get more intriguing as we go on.

10:10So thanks, everybody.

10:13Bye.

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