At the moment, Pakistan has collected 134 runs in 26 overs with the loss of 4 wickets. Pakistan must win the next four matches including today's match to qualify for the semi-finals. It is doubtful whether Pakistan will win against South Africa today. If Pakistan loses today against South Africa then Pakistan's dreams of the next round will be shattered. They are under a lot of pressure now with Pakistan losing four wickets. I think it will not be possible for them to overcome this pressure and score 300 runs. Pakistan will not be able to win today's match if South Africa cannot throw a big target of 350+ runs. Do you think Pakistan can beat South Africa and win today?
They have lost one more wicket now. Babar Azam is gone and now both the settled batsmen are back in pavilion. I am not sure for how long these lower order batsmen like Saud Shakeel and Shadab Khan can survive out there. I will be really surprised if Pakistan gets to even 250. And nothing less than 300 is going to be enough at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Tabraiz Shamsi is bowling exceptionally well. He has so far picked up two crucial wickets - that of Iftikhar Ahmed and Babar Azam. And he still has 5 overs remaining. |
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Al-Ittihad was held to a draw by Al-Hazm and failed to get full points at home. This is a poor result for Al-Ittihad because they need 3 points to be able to return to their place currently occupied by Al-Nassr. In this match, Al-Ittihad opened the scoring in the 26th minute through a goal scored by Karim Benzema and the lead lasted until halftime. In the second half, Al-Hazm didn't take long to equalize and this time the goal was scored by Al Thani.
The two teams exchanged attacks and finally Al-Ittihad scored the second goal again and this time it was Kadesh's turn to score thanks to an assist from Karim Benzema. However, in the crucial minutes before the end, Al-Ittihad actually conceded and with this the victory in sight finally disappeared. Al-Ittihad have to accept the fact that they are stuck in 5th place in the standings and Al-Hazm is certainly quite happy even though they got 1 point because they need points to escape the relegation zone.
The team balance is not good within Al Ittihad. When Karim Benzema joined the club, the coach (Nuno Espírito Santo) was not too happy about it because he wanted Abderrazak Hamdallah to lead the attack instead of Benzema. It took a lot of convincing from the club owners to get the coach accept Benzema. And during yesterday's match the attack was led by Benzema and Haroune Camara, with Hamdallah not in the starting XI. Hamdallah was called in only during the second half to substitute Haroune Camara (67th minute). |
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What a great performance by United Arab Emirates. That was the final between UAE and Nepal. Nepal set a target of 163 runs for UAE and UAE chased the target in 19.2 overs with the lost of 5 wickets. What great match no one able to beat Nepal in this Tri-Nation T20I series but in final UAE do its job and beat the Napalm team. Hahah. What great match by the way.  This is going to be a big disappointment for the Nepal team. After strong performance against India in the Asia Cup, no one actually expected them to lose to the United Arab Emirates. Their batting failed today, with Kushal Bhurtel getting zero support from the other players. There was not enough runs on the board and the wayward Nepal seamers leaked too many runs during the initial overs. Sandeep Lamichhane was absent, and that didn't helped them either. Now they need to focus on the T20 qualifiers. If they can't qualify for the world cup, then it will be a big blow for them. |
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You are probably right. Pakistan elected to bat after winning the toss. I thought maybe Pakistan's top order would bat responsibly today. But even in today's match Pakistan batsmen could not start well. Pakistan team lost 2 wickets for 38 runs and third wicket for 86 runs. Pakistan team is not playing well. Babar Azam and Iftikhar are batting now. At the end of 20 overs, Pakistan collected 102 runs with the loss of 3 wickets. Pakistan's run rate is good enough but their top order is not playing well. 300 will be much more difficult for Pakistan now. I don't think it is possible for South Africa team to win if they target below 300. Because South African batsmen are in very good form now. They have batted well in every match. Pakistan is likely to lose in today's match as well. Too early to say anything. Pakistan got the initial advantage, when they won the toss and then decided to bat first. A lot will depend on how long Babar Azam stays out there. After these two, it is the allrounders and then the bowlers. Both the top-runs corers for Pakistan are out now (Mohammad Rizwan and Abdullah Shafique). Babar was in poor form until now, and it needs to be seen whether he will be able to rescue Pakistan today. So far both of them are looking somewhat comfortable against the spinners. But what will happen once Jansen and Coetzee are re-introduced? |
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That's one shitty tweet that tells you more about the average Pakistani fan.
Both teams have more or less the same kind of spin attack. SA's spin department went under the radar because of seamers/batters success, let's see how they perform in the middle phase of the inning when they are bowling first and don't have the luxury of a mammoth total.
Once again the South African seamers gave them a good start, with Marco Jansen picking up Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq. Then Mohammad Rizwan was nabbed by the South African find for this tournament, Gerald Coetzee. Now it is up to the two spinners - Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi to build on their success, with Aiden Markram as the backup. Babar Azam is looking comfortable so far, but Iftikhar Ahmed seems struggling. Now it is going OK for Pakistan, but if they lose one more wicket before they reach 150-160, then it will get difficult for them. |
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So far, Pakistan are playing bad cricket, and South Africa are almost on the moon and looks like a completely different side. Still, this very same Proteas outfit choked against the Dutch and in the last T-20 WC managed to lose the semis seat to the Pakistani team so anything is possible with these 2 teams.
Pakistan's only hope would be some assistance with the deck to their bowlers where they can trap one of SENA countries. I don't see them winning if their bowlers fail again. They don't have a quality spinner and despite repeated failures, they are not going to drop Shadab Khan and Usama Mir. Shaheen Shah Afridi has completely lost his rhythm and there is no one to back him up as Haris Rauf and Hasan Ali are also out of form. They may experiment with Mohammad Wasim today, but I am not sure whether he will make a difference. Their batting isn't much better either. Babar Azam has scored a grand total of 157 runs, at an average of 31.40. Mohammad Rizwan and Abdullah Shafique have runs to their name, but the strike rate is low. BTW, this tweet sums up the frustration of Pakistani fans: https://twitter.com/ShortCover_/status/1711690825401250084 |
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Pakistan Domestic Cricket - Quaid E Azam Trophy.
Sarfraz Ahmed is likely to make come back atleast in red ball format as under his captaincy Karachi Whites have won the biggest domestic tournament i.e. Quaid e Azam Trophy. In final Karachi whites beat faislabad Region by a huge margin of 457 runs.
PCB also has moved Sarfraz from Central Contact D category to B. Seeing the performance of Pakistan team in ODI its very much likely that after world cup there will be changes in team. Players like Saim Ayub and Abrar are also likely to be part of playing 11 in coming series.
The PCB has been changing the format of Quaid-e-Azam Trophy so often that it has become really confusing now. Now there are 7 city-based teams (with 2 from Lahore), and one regional team (FATA) participating in the 2023 edition. Last year's tournament was contested by regional teams (Balochistan, Central Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Northern, Sindh and Southern Punjab). IMO, moving from a regional system to a city-based system was quiet regressive. It will cause death of cricket in rural areas and give more preference to the urban areas. |
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The pitch of MA Chidambaram Stadium is not batting friendly. The average score of the first innings of this pitch is 227 runs. However, in the previous match on this pitch, Pakistan team lost to Afghanistan even after giving a target of 283 runs. Opponent of today's match South Africa team is stronger. I would say the outcome of today's match will depend on the performance of the bowlers. Pakistan bowlers could not do well against Afghanistan. If Pakistan's bowlers don't perform well against South Africa as well then Pakistan will definitely lose and lose by a big margin. Pakistani bowlers must do well if they want to win today's match. However, today's match is likely to be competitive.
I don't think that today's match will be competitive. Unfortunately for Pakistan, both the batsmen and bowlers are in great form for South Africa. Despite their pace-heavy bowling attack, South Africa has hardly given any room for their opponents to make runs. Kagiso Rabada, Gerald Coetzee and Marco Jansen are among the top-10 wicket takers so far, with 10 wickets apiece. The absence of Anrich Nortje is not being felt. And among the spinners, Keshav Maharaj have been quite economical and he has picked up wickets at crucial intervals. |
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Pakistan can make a comeback and that is why they are called an unpredictable side. Another factor would be South Africa getting beaten earlier by the Netherlands. Pakistan was able to chase a big target in the match with Sri Lanka. These might be the factors why the odds are only giving a little edge to the South African team today.
The defeat against Netherlands was a one-off incident. South Africa won all of the other matches by huge margins. On the other hand, Pakistan won just two matches so far, against two of the weakest teams. Against strong teams they have performed poorly. Neither their batsmen, nor their bowlers are in good form. On top of that they have been embroiled in unwanted controversies, which seems to have impacted their performance further. I would say that today's match is going to be quite one-sided. I can't see a possibility of Pakistan winning this one. |
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Prices spiked when I was expecting it the least. Previous bull-runs occurred every 4 years: first one in 2013, then in 2017 and the last one in 2021. The reason is that the prices peaked around 12 to 18 months after block reward halving. But the next block reward halving is still 6 months away and therefore I was not expecting the prices to peak at least until end of 2024. And this is also one of the reasons why I believe that the current bull run may not last long. We may go back to sub-20K levels within the next few months.
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Betting Odds
South Africa - 1.56
Pakistan - 2.496
Do you guys think Pakistan can win today?
Surprising. Most of the sportsbooks still believe that this match will be competitive, with only a slight edge to South Africa. I am not sure. But then, South Africa went down heavily to Netherlands in their only defeat in this tournament so far. And they have a reputation as the eternal chokers (something that is shared with Pakistan as well). The only negative that I could say about South Africa is that they are overdependent on a few players. Some of the batsmen, including Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen are not contributing at all. |
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I remember even during the Qatar World Cup when Argentine won the title and Messi was performing well for his team, Lionel Sebastián Scaloni said he wants to use Messi for the next world cup in 2026, which is a good reason to say there's a high chance for Messi to play in 2026 world cup while this is wrong because like this many younger players will lose a chance to have good performance for their national team.
Next world cup is three years away and Lionel Scaloni can't give assurances such as this one. How can he be sure that he will remain as the coach till 2026? And getting included in the squad is one thing, and finding a place in the playing XI is another. This is what happened with Cristiano Ronaldo. He was included in the squad for the 2022 Qatar World Cup. But then the coach (Fernando Santos) refused to include him in the starting XI for a few matches in the knockout phase and instead opted for some of the younger players. |
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If Pakistan can field well today, they can win the match  On a note, we might see Mohammad Wasim Jr. playing today as Hasan Ali won't be playing due to fever. Pakistan has minimal chance of a win against South Africa. Apart from that surprise loss to the Netherlands, South Africa has been in terrific form. And Pakistani bowlers are leaking runs whenever they play against quality opposition. Naseem Shah's absence is being felt, while Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Hasan Ali are not in great form. Their spinners have also failed to make breakthroughs. But the problem here is that this is a must win match for Pakistan. If they lose, then they can't qualify for the semi-final stage. |
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I wouldn't say England's lack of quality spinners is the only problem. England's main problem is their poor batting. None of the batsmen in the squad is in good form. Every batsman's performance is good. As every pitch is quite batting friendly. So if the batsmen do not perform well on such a pitch, it is impossible to get a good result. We have seen England's poor batting in every match except the match against Bangladesh. And England have no chance of qualifying for the semi-finals after a humiliating defeat against Sri Lanka. England is the most unsuccessful team in this World Cup.
That may be due to the lack of preparations. England warmed up for the world cup with an ODI series against Ireland back home. And one of their world cup warmup matches got washed out. On the other hand, Australia prepared really well and managed an ODI series against India just before the world cup. And the results are out there for everyone to see. Australian batsmen are handling the spinners quite well, and the England batsman are struggling against the spinners. And now the remaining matches doesn't matter because they are already out of contention for the semi-finals. |
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The final of the tri-series between Nepal and the United Arab Emirates will be interesting to watch. The last time UAE faced Nepal, it was a close match and Nepal won with just 4 balls to spare. A win today will be a huge morale booster for the UAE, going forward to the Asian T20 World Cup qualifiers. BTW, let's not forget that this series was more like a warmup ahead of the world cup qualifiers. The Asian leg will be played from 30th October to 5th November, and a total of 8 teams are taking part. Top two teams will secure qualification for the 2024 T20 World Cup.
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Can anyone ask England what the hell they are doing in this tournament? I can't imagine the last champion doing the worst performance this time. This is a very shameful point for them to lose the match from Sri Lanka, there is no comparison of England with Sri Lanka but they only made 156 runs in 33 overs and Sri Lanka finished the match in just 26 overs. England needs to reconstruct itself and get out of the useless players. They will be the first ones who will get out of the tournament. Their openers, and middle order all are useless they need quick players, far from the start of this tourney I was very excited about who would come as the opponent next in the final to the England team but unfortunately they failed and I feel very bad for them
There is not much England can do, as some of their players are not yet fully recovered from injuries. Jofra Archer has been out of action for more than a year now. Mark Wood picked up an injury during the IPL and his form went down ever since that. Joe Root and Sam Curran are simply not in good form, although they are free from injury. Ben Stokes has picked up a hip injury apparently. And then they have this long standing problem of having no quality spinners in their squad. While playing in SENA conditions, they could still manage to put up a decent performance. But in India, under hostile conditions it was not possible. |
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Another crucial match today, between South Africa and Pakistan. If South Africa can win this one, then they are almost through to the semi-finals. On the other hand, for Pakistan this is more like a do or die battle. South Africa are at the moment second placed in the points table (they have a better net run rate when compared to New Zealand) and their NRR is even better than the first placed India. And momentum is not with Pakistan. They have lost their last three matches by heavy margins (against India, Australia and Afghanistan). On the other hand, South Africa has won their last two.
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PS: Srilanka won today and as of now they are ranking fifth on the point table. Another big win and they might replace Australia on the point table.
Even if they win their next match (vs Afghanistan) and Australia lose theirs (vs New Zealand), Australia may remain at the top. At this point, Australia has a NRR of +1.142 (received a considerable boost after their massive win against Netherlands). On the other hand, Sri Lanka is having a NRR of -0.205 (this is after their big win against England today). I am not saying that it is impossible for Sri Lanka to overtake Australia, but that is going to take some more time. And that alone may not give them a ticket to the semi-finals. |
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With his incredible ambition, it's not impossible to see Ronaldo back in the next World Cup, even though he's already 41. If you look at it now, I think he still deserves to be part of the Portugal squad, the only problem is that the next World Cup is still a long time away and I don't know for sure whether he will experience a significant decline or not. Decreasing speed is a given, but if he can maintain his fitness until the 2026 World Cup then it's not impossible that he'll be part of the Portugal squad that goes to the World Cup. The impact of ageing can't be prevented. But the big question is whether that will prevent him from getting selected to the playing XI. In case he is not up to the mark, then it can create a lot of complicated scenarios. For almost two decades, Ronaldo has been like an one man army for the Portuguese team. So if he wants to participate in the 2026 tournament, can the coach deny his ambition even if he is not in good shape? But then another question will arise. If Ronaldo is not in good form, then can the coach overlook the younger players in his favor? |
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A very economical and brilliant bowling display by the Sri Lankan bowlers. I am surprised with England's batting performance; apart from Stoks, no other batsman has shown any resistance. Mathews bowled exceptionally well and took a wicket on his third bowl (he was bowling in ODIs after a gap of almost 3 years). This should be a comfortable win for Sri Lanka, but we have to wait for the result, as England will try to defend this total. Early departure for Kusal Perera, who was not in the best of form. The pitch seems slow, and the ball is taking time to reach the batter. The Sri Lankan team will get into trouble if England bowlers bowled the right length.
Well... they dropped Pathirana. That was a bold move and in the end it worked for them. Pathirana is too young and he can't handle pressure situations. Today, their pace combination of Kasun Rajitha-Angelo Mathews-Lahiru Kumara-Dilshan Madushanka worked pretty well. And they were backed up by the two spinners (Maheesh Theekshana and Dhananjaya de Silva). That said, I am not sure what happened to the England batsmen. Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler have a lot of experience of playing in the IPL, but they are not scoring runs this time. |
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