YES, TENDULKAR WAS SCARED OF SHOAIB'S PACE: AFRIDI

yES, TENDULKAR WAS SCARED OF SHOAIB'S PACE: AFRIDI

Shoaib Akhtar

KARACHI: Controvesry-prone former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi on Saturday backed his ex-teammate Shoaib Akhtar's claim that Sachin Tendulkar was uncomfortable against his pace, saying that he had once witnessed the Indian batsman "trembling" while facing the pacer.

Afridi, who retired after revolting against his own board and has a history of making controversial remarks, said Tendulkar was uneasy against Akhtar, a claim which the pacer made in his recently-launched autobiography 'Controversially Yours'.

"He (Tendulkar) was scared of Shoaib. I have seen it myself. I was fielding at square leg and saw his legs trembling when Shoaib came on to bowl," Afridi told reporters without elaborating on which match he was referring to.

Afridi went on to state that Tendulkar was also uncomfortable facing young Pakistani spinner Saeed Ajmal during their World Cup match.

"During the World Cup, he also looked scared of Saeed Ajmal. It's not a big deal, players do feel the pressure at times and it becomes difficult," he said.

Afridi's comments in support of Akhtar come barely within days of the launch of the autobiography, which created a furore in India with several former players and BCCI officials slamming the speedster for making tall claims in the book.

Akhtar, who had a history of disciplinary violations and had also been banned during his career, had made disparaging comments about Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.

This is not the first time that Afridi has made provocative comments which may not go down too well with Indian fans.

After the World Cup semifinal loss to India earlier this year, Afridi had slammed the Indian media for its "very negative approach" and said the Pakistani media was a "hundred times better".

"In my opinion, if I have to tell the truth, they (Indians) will never have hearts like Muslims and Pakistanis. I don't think they have the large and clean hearts that Allah has given us," Afridi had said when he was asked about relations between the two countries.

Tribute To SHOAIB AKHTAR

Tribute To SHOAIB AKHTAR

Pakistan v West Indies, World Cup 2011, quarter-final, Mirpur

Form book no guide in crunch contest

The Preview by Andrew Miller

March 22, 2011

Match Facts

March 23, Mirpur
Start time 1430 hours (0830 GMT)

Shoaib Akhtar

The Big Picture

The last time West Indies were in Dhaka, they couldn't have been in more of a rush to get away - in every sense. First there was their on-field performance, as clinical as anything ever witnessed in a World Cup encounter, as a potentially awkward tussle with Bangladesh was done and dusted in barely 30 overs of one-sided action.

Then, however, came the darker aspect of the day's events. As the West Indies team bus pulled out of the Shere Bangla stadium, it was pelted with rocks by an irate section of the Bangladeshi support - in the mistaken belief, it was later reported, that their own defeated countrymen were on board. Chris Gayle's alarmed tweet buzzed around the world in minutes, and though the team was later garlanded with flowers by an apologetic supporters' group, the lack of amusement was tangible. "Is it ok for me to say thank god I left bangladesh???!!!" added Sulieman Benn once the team had departed for India.

But now they are back, amid drum-tight security, and while the venue may not be to their liking, the opportunity could hardly be more alluring. Of all the teams in a tricky Group B, arguably no-one had a smoother on-field run to the quarter-finals than West Indies. Unlike England, whose struggles against the lesser teams turned every one of their subsequent games into nailbiters, the Windies took the polar opposite approach. They won the games in which they were favourites with such ease - with only the Irish coming close to giving them a scare in a 44-run defeat - that back-to-back defeats against England and India couldn't rattle their rock-solid Net Run Rate.

As a consequence they may start as underdogs in the knock-outs, but West Indies have landed the opponents that most suit their hot-and-cold style. Pakistan surpassed expectations to finish top of Group A, and in doing so they bookended the single most remarkable statistic in World Cup history - Australia's 34-match unbeaten run that began in the wake of a Moin Khan-inspired 10-run defeat at Headingley in 1999, and came to an end at the hands of Umar Akmal in Colombo on Saturday. But as their remarkable defeat against the apparent weaklings of New Zealand demonstrated, there's never any point in predicting predictability from Pakistan.

The other three quarter-finals involve clear favourites, and it would be a shock if any of India, South Africa and Sri Lanka failed to advance to the semis. This one, however, is anyone's game. On form, Pakistan should shade it, and a potential semi-final date with India in Mohali will ensure their resolve is at its sharpest. But as West Indies showed on their last trip to Mirpur, when they get on a roll they have players who can prove unstoppable.

Form guide

(completed matches, most recent first)

Pakistan WWLWW 
West Indies LLWWW

Watch out for...

In their Chennai defeat against England, West Indies threw punch after punch to leave their opponents weak at the knees, but they lacked the subtlety in between whiles to make their position count. Nevertheless, the star of their show was undoubtedly the 22-year-old Andre Russell, whose performance with bat and ball could and should have been the decisive factor. His energetic seamers claimed career-best figures of 4 for 49, and he followed that up with a rough-diamond 49 from 46 balls. In a contest that could be decided by individual brilliance, he has two strings with which to make his bow.

Pakistan have long cultivated a reputation as mercurial performers, but scarcely a match goes by these days without a command performance from Umar Gul. He's picked off 13 wickets in his six outings in this World Cup, including nine in the past three games, in which time he has been promoted to new-ball status as well. His effortless variations provide a threat at any stage of an innings, but never more so than at the death when his pinpoint yorkers can prove unhittable. With Chris Gayle at the top of West Indies' order, and Kieron Pollard lurking at the bottom, his ten overs could prove instrumental in deciding the course of the match.

Team news

Chris Gayle and Kemar Roach are expected to slot straight back into the team after missing the India fixture, in place of Kirk Edwards and Ravi Rampaul, who will count himself unlucky to miss out after picking up figures of 5 for 51 in that match. There could also be a recall for the veteran Shiv Chanderpaul, who was dropped after a tally of 70 runs in four matches at the start of the tournament, but whose experience in such a crunch fixture could be invaluable. Ramnaresh Sarwan is the likeliest man to miss out, although Devon Thomas could conceivably hand the keeping duties to Darren Bravo.

West Indies (possible) 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Devon Smith, 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Darren Sammy (capt.), 7 Devon Thomas (wk), 8 Andre Russell, 9 Sulieman Benn, 10 Kemar Roach, 11 Devendra Bishoo.

Chanderpaul's return would mean four left-handers in West Indies' top five, and so the offspin of Saeed Ajmal is being seriously considered in place of the effective but unassuming left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman. Shoaib Akhtar, with his retirement imminent, will hope to earn a recall in place of Wahab Riaz, who was expensive against Australia, but the variation offered by his left-arm line is not an asset that Shahid Afridi would wish to dispense with in a hurry.

Pakistan (possible) 1 Kamran Akmal (wk), 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Asad Shafiq, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Shahid Afridi (capt), 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Saeed Ajmal, 10 Umar Gul, 11 Wahab Riaz.

Pitch and conditions

Darren Sammy reckons the Dhaka wicket looks like "a cricket pitch", which is just as well really. Still, Bangladesh managed to make it look like a minefield on West Indies' last visit to the venue, as Sammy, Roach and Benn routed their opponents for 58 in 18.5 overs. There is some grass on the surface, but it ought to be full of runs, as Virender Sehwag demonstrated during his 175 in the opening match of the tournament. The weather is set to be humid, with some prospect of dew in the second innings.

Stats and trivia

• West Indies have won 64 of their 114 ODIs against Pakistan, but just two of the past 13 completed matches, dating back to January 2005.
• Shahid Afridi's highest score in four World Cup campaigns is 37 against Zimbabwe in June 1999. However, he has claimed 17 of his 24 wickets in the current tournament.
• West Indies are bidding to reach their fourth World Cup semi-final, and their first since 1996. Pakistan reached the semis in five of the first seven tournaments, but haven't got that far since losing the final in 1999.
• For a full statistical preview, click here

Quotes

"This is a ground where we executed our plans perfectly so it's good to be back here. We feel loved by the people and we are ready for tomorrow."
Darren Sammy dispels the notion that the stone-throwing incident has affected West Indies' attitude to Bangladesh

"It was a great win. We really worked hard before this tournament and I don't think in my 14-year career we've ever worked as hard. Definitely, the expectation is greater now. We are feeling more confident."
Shahid Afridi reflects on the achievement of beating Australia in Colombo.

Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo

giant billboard of Shoaib Akhtar

Labourers in Islamabad erect a giant billboard of Shoaib Akhtar
 who will retire from the game following the World Cup 
posted by
M.Usman Arshademail me at
Rose_Mana@yahoo.com

Labourers in Islamabad erect a giant billboard of Shoaib Akhtar who will retire from the game following the World Cup © AFP

Shoaib Akhtar's career of hits and misses

A career of hits and misses

Shoaib Akhtar's career stats are impressive in both forms of the game, but what's not so great is how frequently he wasn't available for Pakistan

S Rajesh

March 18, 2011

When he was good he was outstanding,
 but Shoaib Akhtar missed more than
50% of the Tests and ODIs that Pakistan played in his 13-year career

A tally of 178 wickets in 46 Test matches is a good reason to say that Shoaib Akhtar's impact on his team cannot be measured by statistics alone. It's true that the numbers aren't bad at all - he also took 241 ODI wickets, and his averages in both forms are the fourth-best for any Pakistan bowler who took more than 150 wickets, while his Test strike rate of 45.7 is second only to Waqar Younis' 43.4. Yet there remains a feeling that Shoaib could have been much more than he eventually was, and that he should have taken many more wickets, and impacted a lot more matches, than he did.

Shoaib's international career stretched more than 13 years, which means he averaged 3.54 Tests and 12.54 ODIs per year. Allowing five days per Test, he played, on an average, about 30 days of international cricket per year. (And if you feel extremely generous, add a day per year for the 15 Twenty20 internationals.) Wasim Akram, on the other hand, averaged about 49 days of international cricket a year over 18 years.

From the beginning of his career Shoaib's ability was never in doubt, but he seldom strung together a set of top-class performances. His first five-for came in only his third Test: against South Africa in Durban, Shoaib took 5 for 43 in an exciting win, with none of the fielders contributing in any of his wickets - four, including Jacques Kallis, were bowled, and one was lbw. That trend was to continue through most of his career, with 99 out of 178 victims either bowled or lbw, but in his next five Tests he took only 10 wickets, before stunning Eden Gardens and the whole of India with incredible swinging yorkers at high speed that Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar couldn't keep out. His match haul of 8 for 118 was instrumental in Pakistan's 46-run win, but again, it failed to spark a sustained run of brilliance, as he managed only 20 wickets in his next seven Tests. In his first four years in Test cricket, Shoaib averaged less than three wickets per Test, and more than 36 runs per wicket.

The change came in 2002, and the next two years turned out to be the greatest of his Test career. In only 13 Tests he took 72 wickets, striking once every 30 deliveries. He blew away West Indies in Sharjah but saved his best for Australia and New Zealand. In Colombo against Australia, he was more than a handful for some of the best batsmen of the time, blowing away Ricky Ponting, the Waugh brothers and Adam Gilchrist in a spell that remains one of the best ever seen in Test cricket. A few months before that Colombo blitz, he had destroyed New Zealand's line-up in Lahore, taking 6 for 11 in 8.2 overs, which remain his best figures in Test cricket, and he finished 2003 with match figures of 11 for 78 in the Boxing Day Test in Wellington. Thankfully for New Zealand's batsmen, those were the only two Tests he played against them - his career averageversus New Zealand is 5.23. All three of his Man-of-the-Match displays came during this two-year period, as did his longest stretch of consecutive Tests, when he played seven in a row between January and October 2002 (which is only 146 short of the world record).

From 2004 onwards Shoaib played only 17 Tests, missing matches for reasons too varied to be listed here. He had a few memorable performances but never reached the heights he did in 2002 and 2003. (Click here for Shoaib's career summary in Tests.)

Shoaib Akhtar's Test career

Period	Tests	Wickets	Average	Strike rate	5WI/ 10WM
Till Dec 2001	16	46	36.45	64.1	2/ 0
Jan 2002 to Dec 2003	13	72	15.08	30.4	6/ 2
Jan 2004 onwards	17	60	30.18	50.0	4/ 0
Career	46	178	25.69	45.7	12/ 2

Shoaib's tally of 178 Test wickets is the eighth-highest for Pakistan, and only three of those bowlers have a better average.

Best Pakistan bowlers in Tests (Qual: 150 wickets)

Bowler	Tests	Wickets	Average	Strike rate	5WI/ 10WM
Imran Khan	88	362	22.81	53.7	23/ 6
Waqar Younis	87	373	23.56	43.4	22/ 5
Wasim Akram	104	414	23.62	54.6	25/ 5
Shoaib Akhtar	46	178	25.69	45.7	12/ 2
Iqbal Qasim	50	171	28.11	76.1	8/ 2
Saqlain Mushtaq	49	208	29.83	67.6	13/ 3

Shoaib's stats are admittedly excellent, but the problem with him was Pakistan could never be sure when he was fit and available to play. Since the beginning of his Test career on November 29, 1997, Pakistan have played 115 Tests, of which Shoaib played only 46. Pakistan's results in the Tests he played in were significantly better than when he didn't - the win-loss ratio was 1.25 when he played, and 0.71 when he was out of the team.

Pakistan with and without Shoaib in Tests since Nov 29, 1997

	Tests	Won/ lost	Wickets	Average	Strike rate
With Shoaib	46	20/ 16	702	33.63	62.1
Without Shoaib	69	20/ 28	1038	34.70	67.4

However, the number of Tests he missed meant he could never form a meaningful combination with another fast bowler. Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis played 61 Tests together, which is more than the total number of matches Shoaib played. The most Tests another fast bowler played with him was 20, by Mohammad Sami (though it's arguable what kind of support Shoaib got from him). Waqar played 19, while Abdul Razzaq, who was hardly a strike bowler, played 17.

The two other fast bowlers with whom Shoaib could have formed a lethal on-field combination are Umar Gul and Mohammad Asif, but Asif ended up playing only four Tests with Shoaib, and Gul managed just three.

Other Pakistan bowlers in the 46 Tests that Shoaib played

Bowler	Tests	Wickets	Average	Strike rate	5WI/ 10WM
Danish Kaneria	25	93	37.11	71.2	4/ 0
Saqlain Mushtaq	16	71	25.60	53.9	4/ 1
Waqar Younis	19	69	25.46	44.0	2/ 1
Mohammad Sami	20	44	54.63	92.4	0/ 0
Abdul Razzaq	17	34	36.29	64.9	0/ 0

Even in the matches that Shoaib played, there wasn't always a guarantee that he would last the duration: in the 46 Tests he played, Shoaib bowled only 8143 deliveries, sometimes because of his fitness worries mid-match, and sometimes because captains didn't want to risk too many overs from him. Only three times in his career did he bowl more than 30 overs in an innings, while the only instance he bowled more than 50 in a match was against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in 1998.

Over his career, Shoaib averaged 177 balls per match, which is the second-lowest among fast bowlers with at least 150 Test wickets. The only one lower than him is Kallis, who obviously does a lot more in the South African team than just bowl.

Least balls per match by fast bowlers in Tests (Qual: 150 wickets)

Bowler	Tests	Balls bowled	Wickets	Average	Balls per match
Jacques Kallis	145	18,337	270	32.01	126.46
Shoaib Akhtar	46	8143	178	25.69	177.02
Waqar Younis	87	16,224	373	23.56	186.48
Chris Cairns	62	11,698	218	29.40	188.68
Andrew Flintoff	79	14,951	226	32.78	189.25
Keith Miller	55	10,461	170	22.97	190.20
Bob Willis	90	17,357	325	25.20	192.86
Ian Bishop	43	8407	161	24.27	195.51

As an ODI bowler, Shoaib's biggest asset was his strike rate. In a format which places a premium on economy, he pegged teams back with his ability to take wickets. Like in Tests, he played less than 50% of Pakistan's ODIs since his debut, but unlike the Test stats, his absence didn't impact the team's results adversely in ODIs. Of the 158 games he played for Pakistan, the team won 84 and lost 72; in the 188 matcheshe didn't play, Pakistan won 110 and lost 73.

Another difference between his Test and ODI numbers is the way he began his ODI career. He struggled for consistency in Tests, but in ODIs he was among the wickets straightaway, getting two or more in nine of his first 15 ODIs. He'd played only 16 ODIs going into the 1999 World Cup, but he handled the pressure well, taking 16 wickets in 10 games, including his first Man-of-the-Match award in the semi-finals against his favourite opponents, New Zealand, for a haul of 3 for 55.

Like in Tests, his best ODI phase too was till the end of 2003. He was positively devastating in some matches during this period, especially against New Zealand: over a 15-month period he took 5 for 19 and 6 for 16 against them, which remained two of his best ODI performances.

Shoaib in ODIs

Period	ODIs	Wickets	Average	Econ rate	Strike rate
Till Dec 2003	95	155	21.41	4.51	28.4
Jan 2004 onwards	68	92	30.97	5.09	36.4
Career	163	247	24.97	4.76	31.4

Despite the number of games he missed, Shoaib still finishes as Pakistan's sixth-highest wicket-taker in ODIs, and fourth in terms of averages among Pakistan bowlers who've taken at least 150 wickets.

Top Pakistan bowlers in ODIs (Qual: 150 wickets)

Bowler	ODIs	Wickets	Average	Economy rate	Strike rate
Saqlain Mushtaq	169	288	21.78	4.29	30.4
Wasim Akram	356	502	23.52	3.89	36.2
Waqar Younis	262	416	23.84	4.68	30.5
Shoaib Akhtar	158	241	24.70	4.75	31.1
Imran Khan	175	182	26.61	3.89	40.9

During his pomp Shoaib was one of the best ODI bowlers going around, especially in terms of his wicket-taking ability. Till the end of 2003 he'd taken 155 wickets in 95 games, with an average and strike rate that were among the best. Only Muttiah Muralitharan and McGrath had a better average than Shoaib's 21.41, while Brett Lee was the only one with a better strike rate.

Best averages in ODIs between Mar 28, 1998 and Dec 31, 2003 (Qual: 100 wickets)

Bowler	ODIs	Wickets	Average	Econ rate	Strike rate
Muttiah Muralitharan	139	234	18.82	3.50	32.1
Glenn McGrath	114	195	19.59	3.85	30.5
Shoaib Akhtar	95	155	21.41	4.51	28.4
Brett Lee	73	137	21.43	4.69	27.4
Allan Donald	65	103	22.49	4.30	31.3
Shaun Pollock	155	217	22.55	3.67	36.8
Makhaya Ntini	84	132	22.71	4.23	32.1
Saqlain Mushtaq	90	133	24.89	4.28	34.8

When Shoaib took wickets, Pakistan usually won. Of his 247 wickets, 154 came in victories, and in those 85 games Shoaib struck every 25.7 deliveries, which is the second-best among those with 150 wickets, next only to Saqlain. In fact, Shoaib is one of only five bowlers in the history of ODI cricket to take more than 150 wickets at an average of less than 25 and a strike rate of below 32 balls per wicket. All these are excellent stats, but with more commitment and a better attitude, his numbers would have been even more impressive.

S Rajesh is stats editor of Cricinfo