England 'A' lose and put Lanka 'A' in final

by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

DESPITE the absence of five key players Pakistan 'A' proved far too strong for England 'A' whom they swept under the carpet without much ado to coast home by an impressive margin of 114 runs and win their one-day triangular match at the De Soysa Stadium, Moratuwa yesterday.

The defeat for England 'A' meant that they are out of Tuesday's final to be played at the SSC grounds where it will be contested between Pakistan 'A' and Sri Lanka 'A'. Sri Lanka 'A' and England 'A' ended the qualifying round with one win apiece, but where the two sides differed was that the home country picked up vital bonus points in all their four matches to knock England 'A' out of the competition. Sri Lanka 'A' finished on nine points while England 'A' had only five points. Pakistan 'A' maintained a 100 percent record winning all four qualifying matches to top the final standings with 22 points.

After their loss to Sri Lanka 'A' on Saturday, the pressure was on England 'A' to win yesterday. But a total of 239-3 off 50 overs posted by Pakistan 'A' proved too big a task for them and they crumbled for 125 all out inside 35 overs.

Pakistan 'A's total revolved around their fourth wicket pair of Faisal Athar and Aamir Bashir who shared a superb unbroken stand of 168 off 179 balls.

After slow starts both batsmen went after the bowling in the slog overs with Athar completing his century off the last ball of the innings with a boundary. He scored 102 not out off 133 balls with 14 fours. His partner Bashir remained unbeaten on 65 scored off 79 balls with seven fours.

The pair came together when Pakistan 'A' put into bat by England 'A' had slipped to 71-3 in the 21st over. Pakistan 'A' also benefited greatly from poor bowling by England 'A' who conceded 41 extras - 25 of which were wides.

England was never in the hunt after losing their first wicket at 16 and then slipping to 53-6 in the 12th over. Pakistan 'A's second pair of new ball bowlers Mohammed Asif and Abdul Rauf made batting a nightmare on a pitch that was beginning to assist them getting balls to rise off a good length much to the discomfort of the batsmen. Then spinners Imran Thahir and Tahir Khan and Asher Zaidi got into the act to clean off the tail taking six wickets.

England 'A' coach Rod Marsh admitted that his side was not fit enough to play cricket under these hot and humid conditions. "I thought we played pretty well in those two 4-day games. When we got the first win up against Sri Lanka 'A' we were fine for a while. We'll beat Sri Lanka 'A' anywhere else in the world because we are far too strong for them. But here I still thought we were a better side than Sri Lanka 'A' but it ended up at one-all in both forms of the game," said Marsh.

"I don't think the England 'A' team are used to playing this type of cricket. I don't think they were fit enough and I'll take the rap for that. Anyone who comes and plays cricket in Sri Lanka has got be a lot fitter than our team. There is a little bit of stress happening and your performances drop off. That's probably what happened," he said.

Marsh said more than yesterday's game what should have counted was Saturday's match against Sri Lanka 'A' which England 'A' lost by 59 runs. "I think we should have won that game easily. It's disappointing but these things happen," he said.

Marsh was of the opinion that England teams should spend more time in this part of the world. "If you can play cricket here, you can play cricket anywhere. It is a great training ground. I think counties should take a serious look at sending players over here to gain experience. It's different and it's tough hard cricket. For very skilful players it is a good place to learn how to play cricket," said Marsh.

Pakistan 'A' rested skipper Mishbah-ul-Haq, Faisal Iqbal, Yasir Arafat and Riaz Afridi for yesterday's game while fast bowler Shahid Nazir was called up for duties with the national side in India for the one-day series.

PAKISTAN 'A' Asher Zaidi c Powell b Dawson 17 Wajahatullah Wasti c Prior b Lewis 5 Bazid Khan run out 9 Faisal Athar not out 102 Aamir Bashir not out 65 Extras (b-1, lb-9, nb-6, w-25) 41 TOTAL (3 wkts inns closed, 50 overs, 207 mins) 239 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-9, 2-31, 3-71. BOWLING: Lewis 10-0-54-1 (3w, 2nb), Mahmood 10-0-22-0 (6w, 1nb), Franks 4-0-27-0 (5w, 2nb), Dawson 10-0-51-1 (3w, 1nb), Swann 10-0-42-0 (2w), Bell 4-0-19-0, Shah 2-0-14-0 (5w).

ENGLAND 'A' V.S. Solanki c Zulqarnain b Rauff 14 A.N. Cook lbw b Asif 1 M.J. Powell c Zaidi b Rauf 4 I.R. Bell c Wasti b Asif 5 A. Shah c Bashir b Imran 11 G.P. Swann c and b Imran 16 M.J. Prior c Asif b Imran 0 P.J. Franks c and b Zaidi 23 R.K.J. Dawson not out 28 S.I. Mahmood st Zulqarnain b Tahir 1 J. Lewis st Zulqarnain b Zaidi 5 Extras (b-1, lb-5, nb-6, w-5) 17 TOTAL (all out, 34.3 overs, 147 mins) 125 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-16, 2-20, 3-25, 4-25, 5-52, 6-53, 7-71, 8-109, 9-114, 10-125. BOWLING: Asif 7-0-27-2 (3w, 2nb), Rauf 6-0-34-2 (1w, 3nb), Imran 8-0-32-3 (1w, 1nb), Tahir 10-3-20-1, Zaidi 3.3-1-6-2.

FINAL STANDINGS P W L BP Pts Pakistan 'A' 4 4 0 2 22 Sri Lanka 'A' 4 1 3 4 9 England 'A' 4 1 3 0 5