Pakistan coach Waqar Younis was delighted with the morale boost his side gained ahead of their Test series against Australia by sealing a 2-0 Twenty20 series win at Edgbaston.
Tuesday’s 11-run victory meant Pakistan had beaten Australia twice in two days after Monday’s 23-run success in Birmingham
It was a remarkable turnaround for Pakistan, now fielding a largely youthful side, after they’d lost all 12 of their previous matches against Australia across all formats.
Pakistan’s preceding winless tour of Australia led to several players being either banned or fined. But in their absence the likes of 20-year-old Umar Akmal, who made a match-winning 64 against Australia on Monday, and teenage left-arm pace bowler Mohammad Aamer, whose returns of three wickets for 27 runs in both Edgbaston Twenty20s were crucial to the outcome, have grabbed a chance to shine.
Pakistan face Australia in the first of a two Test series at Lord’s next week and, while former fast bowler Waqar knows the five-day format is a different game, the coach believes the team can take justifiable confidence from their back-to-back victories.
“I think these two wins are really going to help us to get into the momentum,” he told reporters.
“Test matches are a different ball game fair enough, but with victory behind you it always helps,” he said. “Umar Akmal is extraordinary then we also have Mohammad Aamer.”
Pakistan have been forced to play their home games abroad ever since an armed attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore in March last year turned the country into a no-go zone for international cricket.
But, with Birmingham boasting a large Asian populations, they were roared on to victory in both games by an overwhelmingly pro-Pakistan crowd.
Australia, as in the first match, appeared to hold their opponents to a gettable total (162 for nine) only for their batsmen to be undone by a well-balanced Pakistan attack.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but