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Taufel, Gould to umpire Pakistan-India clash

NEW DELHI: Australia's Simon Taufel and Ian Gould of England were on Sunday named as the umpires for Wednesday's highly-charged World Cup semi-final between India Pakistan.

Sri Lanka's Ranjan Madugalle will be match referee with New Zealand's Billy Bowden and Australian Rod Tucker acting as the third and fourth umpires respectively.

For Tuesday's first semi-final between Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Colombo, Steve Davis of Australia and Aleem Dar of Pakistan will be the on-field umpires.

Chris Broad is the match referee with South Africa's Marais Erasmus and Billy Doctrove of West Indies, the third and fourth umpires respectively.

The International Cricket Council said that officials for the final will be made later in the week. (AFP)

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Misbah backs Akhtar factor against India

MOHALI: Pakistan batsman Misbah-ul-Haq believes fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has a key role to play in the World Cup semi-final against India -- even if the paceman doesn't take the field.

The 35-year-old Akhtar has said he will retire after the World Cup and has only featured in three matches at the tournament to date.

But he remains capable of working up fearsome speed and may have one last shot at India when Pakistan face their arch-rivals on Wednesday.

"Shoaib Akhtar is a class bowler," said Misbah on Sunday.

"He has performed for Pakistan on a number of occasions including the 1999 
World Cup (when the team lost to Australia in the final)."

And Misbah said that, at the very least, he would help Pakistan's batsmen get ready for the challenge of facing India's seamers.

"Batsmen get to prepare well against pace bowling when they face him at the nets. If he does play in the coming matches, I feel it will give us a psychological advantage."

When it comes to India-Pakistan matches, Misbah is currently associated with the 2007 World Twenty20 final in Johannesburg.

The now 36-year-old Misbah rescued Pakistan from the depths of 77 for six and his 43 almost guided Pakistan to victory in the first World Twenty20 final.

With three balls left, and six runs needed to win, he was last man out when he tried to lap Joginder Sharma over short fine leg and was caught by Shanthakumaran Sreesanth.

Asked if he wanted to put that right, Misbah said: "Every game is a new game and it's not because of that, that this is a special game. 

"This is a World Cup semi-final, I really want to play well."

Misbah, one of two former captains in the side along with Younis Khan, praised skipper Shahid Afridi for the way he'd led the side to the semi-finals.

Leg-spinner Afridi is the tournament's leading bowler with 21 wickets and Misbah said: "I think the important thing is his aggression and the other thing is that he has led the team by example. 

"He is performing really well, just taking wickets at the right time, so that really helps the team when the captain is performing like that. Everybody is standing behind him at the World Cup."

There were concerns that having two ex-captains in a Pakistan team traditionally renowned for its volatility could prove divisive but Misbah insisted: "I think there are always differences in opinion but we always talk to the captain about what he thinks. He's really good at that. 

"He listens to the players, especially the senior players and the coaches, we just decide everything with a good co-ordination, and that's why everything is going well and the team is performing well."

Misbah added it was also good to have veteran manager Intikhab Alam, the former Pakistan captain, on board given his experience in helping the team win the 1992 World Cup in Australia and the 2009 World Twenty20 in England.

"That's a positive thing we have, the last two World Cups, 50 overs and 20 overs, we've won when he was with the team so he has a good experience of how to perform in pressure situations."

No Pakistan batsman has yet made a hundred this tournament with Misbah's unbeaten 83 in the 11-run win over Sri Lanka, who face New Zealand in the other semi-final, their highest individual score.

"Our batsmen not making big scores is not a concern because we are winning. We will be happy if we win the World Cup without a single individual hundred," Misbah insisted. (AFP)

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Afridi on a roll would be India's bogeyman

Dhaka, March 26 (IANS): One man who can turn the scales for Pakistan against arch rivals India is none other than their captain Shahid Khan Afridi who, with a haul of 21 wickets, is his team's most successful bowler at any World Cup, overtaking the legendary Imran Khan's tally of 17.

With 21 wickets from seven matches, the 31-year-old Afridi is now on a roll as the tournament's highest wicket-taker, only five short of Australia's legendary fast bowler Glenn McGrath's record of 26 wickets in the 2007 World Cup.

Afridi would get at least one game to overhaul McGrath's feat. It could even be a maximum of two, but it all depends on whether his team manages to pull it off against India before a capacity crowd of 30,000 in the semi-final at Mohali.

In the quarter-final here earlier this week, Afridi had a 4-34 effort as West Indies were shot out for 112 and Pakistan cantered to victory inside 21 overs with all wickets intact.

Starting his international career as a swashbuckling batsman Afridi has evolved into a magical ODI leg-spinner, bamboozling the best in the business with his turns of the ball.

The Pakistan skipper has proved to be well-nigh unplayable on the slow and turning wickets of the subcontinent. And howsoever good the Indian batsmen play the spin, they need to be careful in negotiating his deliveries and reading his mind when they clash at Mohali.

Afridi has played a big part in Pakistan's amazing show on spin-friendly tracks. He has not only choked the batsmen in the middle overs, but also plotted the downfall of the middle-order in four of the seven games his team has played.

Twice he has claimed five wickets, and four on two other occasions.

Against world No.3 ODI team Sri Lanka, Afridi took 4-34, but more importantly, he saw the back of his well-set counterpart Kumar Sangakkara at a time the islanders seemed to be well on the victory charge.

The only time Afridi went for over five runs an over was in the game against New Zealand when their stand-in captain Ross Taylor went berserk, and Pakistanstumbled to their only defeat in the tournament.

Ask him about his success with the ball, and Afridi says he is trying to bowl wicket-to-wicket utilising the spin-friendly conditions.

"As a captain, I try to perform to my best and set an example for the rest of the team," he says.

As a 16-year-old, Afridi made the cricketing world sit up and take note of him after a whirlwind hundred off only 37 balls, the fastest ODI century in his only second international match, but in his first innings as a batsman. He has scored three of the top six fastest centuries in the 50-over format, and at the same time grabbed 300 plus ODI wickets.

The man born in the Khyber Pakhtunwa - a federally administered tribal area in Pakistan - and now a resident of Karachi, Afridi is the main bowling weapon of a nation seeking their second World Cup, having won it the first time in 1992.

Team Points

Group A Team P W L T NR PTS NRR CI*      PAK 6 5 1 0 0 10 +0.758 188      SL 6 4 1 0 1 9 +2.582 185      AUS 6 4 1 0 1 9 +1.123 201      NZ 6 4 2 0 0 8 +1.135 169      ZIM 6 2 4 0 0 4 +0.030 122      CAN 6 1 5 0 0 2 -1.987 57      KEN 6 0 6 0 0 0 -3.042 60

Group B Team P W L T NR PTS NRR CI*      SA 6 5 1 0 0 10 +2.026 183      IND 6 4 1 1 0 9 +0.900 173      ENG 6 3 2 1 0 7 +0.072 181      WI 6 3 3 0 0 6 +1.066 112      BAN 6 3 3 0 0 6 -1.361 146      IRE 6 2 4 0 0 4 -0.696 42      NED 6 0 6 0 0 0 -2.045 55

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SL vs ENG

SL vs ENG, 4th Quarter-Final
SL won by 10 wkts
SL 231/0 (39.3) U Tharanga 102 (122) T Dilshan 108 (115)	ENG 229/6 C Tremlett 7.3-0-38-0 G Swann 9-0-61-0

Ireland to face Pakistan in one-dayers

BELFAST: Irish cricket has received another boost with the announcement Ireland will host World Cup semi-finalists Pakistan in a two-match one-day international series in May.

Both matches, on May 27 and May 29, will take place at Stormont, Belfast.

The latest addition to Ireland's fixture list comes after officials previously revealed the national side would be facing Sri Lanka in a triangular series also featuring Scotland in July.

Up until the Sri Lanka announcement, Ireland's only major post World Cup fixture was a one-day international against England in Dublin on August 25.

However, Ireland were the outstanding non-Test nation at the World Cup, beating England by three wickets and coming close to also defeating Bangladesh as well as competing strongly against India and the West Indies before failing to make it out of the group phase.

Prior to the win over England, one of Ireland's greatest days as a cricket nation was when they knocked Pakistan out of the 2007 World Cup with a stunning victory on St Patrick's Day, Ireland's national day, in Jamaica.

Ireland coach Phil Simmons, the former West Indies batsman, welcomed the Pakistan series by saying: "This is what we have been crying out for -- fixtures against the top teams in the world. 

"We have shown just how much our cricket has improved, and by playing these type of games, it'll keep growing in the right direction."

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt said: "The fight the Irish team displayed at the World Cup lit up the event and has added a new flavour to international cricket. 

"The Pakistan team's upcoming tour is in line with the ICC (International Cricket Council) and PCB's vision of cricket development and support to associate members." 

Pakistan face arch-rivals India in the World Cup semi-final in Mohali on Wednesday