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T20 World Cup | Pakistan look to fine tune machine against glory searching Namibia

Pakistan will be up against Namibia in the 31st match of the ICC T20 World Cup in the Sheikh Zayed Stadium of Abu Dhabi. A night game scheduled to start at 6 PM local time, this will be Pakistan's chance to seal their place in the semi-finals of the competition. Namibia on the other hand come into the game having lost their last one terribly against Afghanistan. The Gerhard Erasmus-led team came into the Super 12 after a strong show in the preliminary stage. Their famed left handed pace bowling attack has impressed many - and without a shadow of the doubt, they have punched above their weight. However, the Super 12s have been a different gravy all together and Namibia’s 62-run loss against Afghanistan speaks a lot about the level of competition they are playing in. They will be up against Pakistan in the same venue they lost to Afghanistan, however, they thankfully would not be playing a day game. Namibia’s pace bowling quadrant of Ruben Trumpelmann, JJ Smit, Jan Frylinck and David Wiese have been in song in the last two games and have picked up a total of 10 wickets in the last two matches. Trumpelmann has been the pick among them and with a little hint of swing he can do the damage early on. This game will be Namibia’s litmus test in this World Cup given they face New Zealand and India in their remaining three matches. But this game means to them much more than that. Captain Gerhard Erasmus has gone on record several times explaining how important this tournament is for the cricketing culture of their country. They would be looking to set an example on 2nd November and play fearless cricket to make a name for themselves in the tournament. While there isn’t a lot of hope for them to emerge victorious, on the off chance they can, they will be able to make the group standings a little more interesting. Match Details Pakistan vs Namibia Match 31, Super 12, Group 2 Date & Time - 2 November, 7:30 PM IST (6 PM Local) Venue - Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi Pitch Report With lots of dew starting to fall in the UAE, Abu Dhabi should play a good batting wicket. It is very possible that the ground will not assist much movement off the air, but bowling into the pitch might help the bowlers extract uneven bounce. Dew has played a big part in the last few games, so the toss might be a big factor once again. If you win the toss - bowl first. Team News Pakistan Pakistan have had a near perfect tournament till now. Well, near perfect. The form of Hasan Ali has been a concern for the team, given the bowler has gone for 10 RPO on two occasions already. His deficiencies have not come forth in a drastic manner due to the exceptional execution from Haris Rauf and Shaheen Shah Afridi, but on a bad day, Hasan Ali could cost Pakistan. Things aren’t just limited to Hasan Ali, Mohammad Hafeez has been found fielders on two straight occasions on the boundary line. One could argue that Devon Conway’s catch against New Zealand was out of the world but the fact remains that Hafeez has not found his range in the tournament. Apart from these, Pakistan have pretty much found their rhythm and would look to make use of the game to fine tune their batting approach. Probable XI Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Babar Azam (c), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf Namibia Namibia’s hope would be pinned on David Wiese who has been quite a well known commodity in the Pakistan cricketing circles over the past few years. He has made a name for himself playing in the Pakistan Super League and Namibia would be relying on his experience against Pakistan. Probable XI Stephan Baard, Zane Green (wk), Craig Williams, Gerhard Erasmus (c), David Wiese, JJ Smit, Michael van Lingen, Jan Frylinck, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz

T20 World Cup | Incredible Jos Buttler century storms England into semi finals

England maintained their winning ways with a clinical bowling performance in the second half of the game-winning their fourth straight match of the Super 12 stage of the competition. Playing in a low and skiddy wicket at Sharjah, England were put on backfoot after losing the toss. They lost their top order inside the powerplay, but a scintillating partnership between Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler saw them through to 163 runs in 20 overs. But more on that later. Chasing 164 runs in dew was not an exceptionally difficult task for Sri Lanka but they faltered from the word go. Pathum Nissanka was run out by Eoin Morgan in the third ball over the over trying to sneak in a single. The runout did not dip the run rate though with #3 Charith Asalanka attacking the English bowling line up. While Woakes and Moeen Ali got hit early on, the introduction of the ever dependable Adil Rashid changed the game. Asalanka, trying to be aggressive against the leg spinner, sliced up a googly in the air and had to depart off a catch by Moeen Ali at extra cover. After Asalanka’s wicket in the 5th over, Sri Lanka lost two more in quick intervals, with Avishka Fernando (13 off 14) and Bhanuka Rajapaksa (26 off 18) returning to the pavilion inside 11 overs. With SL tattering at 76/5, the reigns were held by captain Dasun Shanaka and Wanindu Hasaranga who counterattacked the English bowling line-up. Just when the tide started to turn for the Lankans, things got worse for the English side with Tymal Mills, England’s premier death bowler walking off the pitch with a limp in the 14th over. Mills was in his second over at that time. With England needing to get more overs out of their part time spinner Liam Livingstone now, SL looked in with a shout. And that is where two moments of magic changed the game. First, it was was a brilliant parry effort from Jason Roy at deep extra cover who ran, caught the ball with a diving effort and threw the ball back to Sam Billings to dismiss the aggressive Wanindu Hasaranga in the 17th over. And then it was Jos Buttler in the 18th over, who anticipated a dab behind the wicket from Shanaka and reacted quickly to grab the ball and throw it back into the striker’s end to finish the SL captain's innings. The double blow late in the game absolutely finished the Lankan innings and there was absolutely no way that they could essentially recover from there. England won the game within the next seven balls, bundling Sri Lanka for 137 runs. Earlier in the innings, put into bat first by Sri Lanka, England took time to adjust against their normal flow of the game. Being used to bat second after winning the toss, England were put out of their comfort zone straight away by the mix of Lankan bowlers. Captain Dasun Shanaka tried four of his bowlers in the first six overs, and being aided by a wicket that skid on low really worked in their favour. England lost three wickets early with Jason Roy, Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow walking back to the hut. They had put up 36 runs at that point. The struggling continued till the halfway point of the innings with England not scoring a single boundary between overs 6-10. Good thing was that England had not lost any of the wickets but they had not scored either. Opener Jos Buttler was batting at 24 off 30 balls, with his out of form captain Eoin Morgan, once again struggling at 6 off 15 balls. And here’s where it changed. Mickey Arthur came into the pitch and had a chat with his captain and the Lankan fast bowlers for some very odd reason started bowling full-length on a pitch that had been keeping low all this time. This allowed the English players to go gung-ho against the troika of pacers, Dushmantha Chameera, Lahiru Kumara and Chamika Karunaratne who bowled alongside their captain and Shanaka and dispatched them all over the park. Buttler started the attack and scored his half century in 45 balls - his slowest in the format of the game. Morgan, at a point batting 9 off 20 balls, increased his rate to 100 SR, scoring 34 runs. He was the first one to depart after scoring 40 off 36 balls in the second ball of the 19th over. The pair had added 112 runs off 78 balls. Buttler looked in with a shout for his century but faced some tremendous deliveries from Chameera in the final over. Needing 5 for his century from the final ball of the innings, he received a gift of a thigh high full toss on the leg stump and dispatched it over square leg for a big six, in the process becoming the fourth centurion for his country in the T20I format. In a tremendous bout of acceleration, he scored his last 50 runs in just 22 balls. With their fourth win in a row, England are now the first team to qualify for the semi final stage of the tournament with one game remaining. They would be monitoring the condition of Tymal Mills over the next few days with the first semi-final scheduled to be played on 10 November. To nobody’s surprise, Jos Buttler was named the man of the match for his incredible T20I hundred. England next play South Africa on 6 November.

ENG vs SL | Jos Buttler hits first century of T20 World Cup 2021

Establishing his supremacy with the bat in this format and the ongoing T20 World Cup, Jos Buttler put the Sri Lankan bowling attack to the sword and scored his first century in T20 internationals. Interestingly, his hundred is the only three-figure score scored by a batsman in the tournament so far. England were in trouble early on when the trio of Jason Roy, Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow got out quickly, but Buttler took the game away from Sri Lanka, first with patience and then with brutal power hitting. He was looking in ominous touch with the bat in the last game against Australia as well but chasing a low total did not help his case to reach the three-figure mark. With this century, Jos Buttler became the only England batsman to have scored a hundred in all formats of the game. He was circumspect against Sri Lankan spinners and did not take any chance against them while coming at them with his full might against the pacers. England finished their innings at 163/4—way above the par score in the tournament so far and a lot of those runs came from Buttler's bat tonight.

Coach Russell Domingo urges Bangladesh to focus on 'process' and get rid of 'obsession' of winning

After making an on and off start to their T20 World Cup campaign, Bangladesh finally got on to a good run of form to qualify for the Super 12 stage of the tournament. However, their limitations were only masked by the brilliance of Shakib Al Hasan in the qualifying round which could not be hidden in the main stage against top sides. Bangladesh have lost all their Super 12 games and now are on the brink of elimination from the tournament, but their coach Russell Domingo is choosing to see the bright side of it and said that Bangladesh were ahead in most part of their games against Sri Lanka and West Indies before losing the plot. He said that the team needs to see positives out of the close games they played and only that will enable them to find out the mistakes they committed at what he called “crucial stages” of the games. "We have played against past champions Sri Lanka, England and West Indies. They are tough sides. In two of those games, we were on top for almost 80-90% of those games. We have to look at the positives. We had Sri Lanka and West Indies under pressure. We didn't finish well with the bat against West Indies. We didn't finish well with the ball against Sri Lanka. "We have to focus on the positive aspects, and then limit the mistakes. We made mistakes in crucial stages." Domingo also tried to change the outlook of the Bangladesh side and said that the players must not see every game and opportunity with the “obsession” of winning. He lamented that focusing more on results and obsessing about winning the games doesn’t allow players mental space to follow the right “process” needed to produce the results they are after. He said that players need to disconnect from the result and focus on what they need to execute on the field in order to make a difference. "We know there's an obsession with winning and disappointment when you don't win. Our focus is the process and how we are going to achieve that win," Domingo said on the eve of the South Africa game. "Everybody is trying to win every single game but when you are focused only on that, you lose track of the things you need to do to get that win. I think we have to focus on our skills and processes in tomorrow's game. If we do that, hopefully, the result goes our way,” Domingo added. Bangladesh are scheduled to play South Africa in their next game and another loss at the hands of Proteas will end their journey in the tournament. Bangladesh were never on the top of their game with the top order batsmen lacking form and not allowing bowlers cushioning of extra runs to put pressure on opposition batting lineups.