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Thursday, 26 May 2011

Pakistan Face Ireland Without Afridi

Shahid Afridi

Pakistan arrive in Ireland this week having beaten the West Indies by 196 runs in the second Test match at St Kitts to draw the two-match series 1-1.

Resuming their innings on 130 for five on the final day -- requiring an improbable 427 runs for victory -- the West Indies added just five runs before they lost their sixth wicket as Brendan Nash fell to Saeed Amjal in the third over.

Wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh was next to fall for 18, trapped LBW by Abdur Rehman, who finished the match with career-best figures of four for 65 from 24.3 overs.

Captain Darren Sammy offered some resistance and entertained the home crowd for a time with a quick-fire 41 before he was eighth man out with just 193 runs on the board.

"I think one thing is good about this side, especially this bunch of guys, is that they have a real true fighting spirit"

West Indies added a further 37 runs before finally succumbing to the inevitable.

After going down to a 40-run defeat in the first Test, Pakistan's captain Misbah-ul-Haq was delighted with how his players responded to the setback in Guyana.

"I think one thing is good about this side, especially this bunch of guys, is that they have a real true fighting spirit. I think that helped us to get back into this game, and win to tie the series," he said.

His counterpart, Sammy was understandably less upbeat about the result.

"We just did not score enough runs in this game. We are not happy with this, or the way we have batted throughout the series," according to Sammy.

"Cricket is about runs and wickets, and in order to win, we have to score more runs, and we have not been able to do this for a while now."

For the Ireland fixture Pakistnan will be without Shahid Afridi, for the two one-day internationals against Ireland at Stormont.

Afridi, who played six times for Ireland in 2006 as an overseas player, has said he wants to spend time with his ailing father, who is receiving treatment in America. It is not a response to him losing the captaincy, it is reported.

The absence of the mercurial Afridi could have been a blow to the Pakistanis as he was in tremendous form, especially with the ball, in the recent series in the West Indies.

But Pakistan have more than enough slow bowling cover to make up for the loss of their former captain. Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman and Mohamad Hafeez took 32 of the 40 wickets in the two games.

The Ireland squad have an official training session at Stormont on Thirsday  morning.

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