By Hamad Hussain
KARACHI, Pakistan (TheSportsNEXT) October 4, 2012: The first semi final of the ICC World Twenty20 2012 will be played between 2009 world champions Pakistan and the then finalists Sri Lanka in Colombo on Thursday (today) and it would be cracker of a game as both teams have some of the finest bowling talent in their ranks.
Sri Lanka might have a little edge on fast bowling department with Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Thisara Perera, and Angelo Mathews all are in very good bowling form and are enjoying good record against Pakistan; especially Thisara Perera, who was the star performer during Pakistan’s tour to Sri Lanka earlier this year.
On the other hand, Pakistan are struggling in their fast bowling department as their premier bowler Umar Gul is facing the worst time of his international career and has shown no control whatsoever on his deliveries.
In absence of quality fast bowlers, Pakistan will have to heavily rely on their spin bowlers who bowled 18 overs in their last Super Eights contest against Australia.
The big worry for Pakistan, apart from their vulnerable batting, is the form of their star bowler Shahid Khan Afridi, who has been off-color since last two months and is yet to justify his place in the squad. He is due for his big performance as he had won Pakistan the matches on his own in the past and his record against Sri Lanka is also very impressive. The stage is set for Boom Boom Afridi to fire today as all cricket lovers and fans of Lala are expecting BIG EFFORT from him in this crucial match.
Despite of an in-form pace bowling attack, Sri Lanka still have something to worry about as their spinners have not come up with huge performances consistently. Their premier spinner Ajantha Mendis who, after taking six wickets against minnows Zimbabwe, hardly made an impact in the Super Eights matches. He was thrashed by Samit Patel of England in their last Super Eights match.
The encouraging sign for Sri Lanka is the impressive performances of their back-up spinners Jeewan Mendis and young Akila Dananjaya as both took five and four wickets in the tournament, respectively.
The cricket lovers will be watching a very evenly-contested semi-final today as Sri Lanka will look to take revenge of their defeat in the 2009 final to the hands of Pakistan while on the other hand Pakistan will want to improve their WT20 record by qualifying for the final this year after their horrible defeat in 2010 T20 World Cup semi-final against Australia.
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