In this article we will analyze of what to expect in the World Cup T20 2009 semi final that will be played between Pakistan and South Africa. The match will be played on the 18th of June 2009 at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. The match is scheduled to begin at 16:30 GMT (10:30 PM). So, I think that is more than enough of the numbers .

Courtesy CricInfo

For me this is going to be Pakistan’s toughest challenge so far in the tournament. They will be up against the un-beaten South Africans, a team firing at all cylinders. A team being led by Smith very well. So far all their plans have worked. They have made plans and stuck to them and modified according to situations. South Africa posses a good batting line up, which one can easily say has not shown its true potential up till now, apart from the warm up game against Pakistan. The surprise is the variety in their bowling. South Africans were known for their fiery and accurate pace attack but as seen so far that pace attack is being complemented very well by spin (slow) bowling. Against major teams their batting may not have been all that great but their has more than just made up for it.

Pakistan on the other hand have shown that their bowling is getting better and better, but is still not up to the quality which is usually expected of them. The honorable mentions are of course in order as follows: Umer Gul (leading wicket taker in the tournament), Saeed Ajmal (among the top 3 wicket takers), Muhammad Aamir (has shown a lot of talent and promise), Shahid Afridi. The Pakistani bowling attack is capable of bringing any opponent to its knees on any given day, whether it is at its best or not. Another positive that can be seen is the Pakistan ground fielding that has been quite exceptional through out the Super 8’s. The fielders have backed up the bowlers quite well making the bowling attack ever more lethal.

With all that said people must be thinking that Pakistan has a great chance of winning, but we have not yet come to the Pakistani batting, which has been below average though out the tournament, the only batsmen that deserve a mention here are Kamran Akmal and Younis Khan, but even these two have not shown the consistency that is required. When it comes to chasing things are worse. Big names like Misbah-ul-Haq and Shoaib Malik has not delivered so far. People might argue on Shoib Mailk’s name being in the previous list, but if you look at things closely you will see that since captaincey has been taken away from him he has steered Pakistan towards defeat more times then victory. This is emminent from the Australia series, the remarks made by Abdul Qadir, the run chases where Shoib Malik should have played a main role. The above is not only limited to his batting you can see the same sort of things during his bowling, not bowling to his field and stuff like that.

The other thing that can serve as a disadvantage is the venue. South Africa have played quite a few matches at Trentbridge where as Pakistan has not played a single game at Trentbridge. So South Africa will feel like they are at home where Pakistan will have to maake new strategies and plan accordingly. One important secret of success will be keeping the plans for the semi-final just to the dressing room and not let it be known before its shown.

So it comes down to this Pakaistan if they bat out of their skins and bowl and field like they did against the Irish team will win the semi-final with comfort and ease. But it is not going to be easy as they have not been able to do it so far and the South African bowling is almost as good as Pakistan, if not better. Big names need to set aside differences and need to fire. The chances of Pakistan are likely to increase if they bat first.