Pakistan, New Zealand gear up for pace battle

Ground Reality: The second semi-final of the Champions Trophy will be played in seamer friendly conditions, and rather fortuitously both sides taking part have good pace-bowling attacks. However, the toss might be vital, which is something the groundsman and the ground authorities should strive to eliminate. After all, a place in the finals of the Champions Trophy shouldn't be dependent on the flip of a coin. Even if the pitch produced is more evenly suited to both the team batting first as well as the team batting second, the bowlers will still find something to smile about at the Wanderers, because the forecast is for showers - which means cloudy skies and help for the seamers.

Team News:

Pakistan: Pakistan have proved once again, that anybody who makes any prediction about them is guaranteed to end up with egg on his face. They had a below-par tour of Sri Lanka, then came out all guns blazing in the Champions Trophy. They looked off-the-boil against Australia for 75% of the match, but came alive in such spectacular fashion in the last quarter that they almost snatched a victory from certain defeat. Now they have an embarrassment of riches in the seam-bowling department - a happy dilemma for coach Intikhab Alam and captain Younis Khan. From amongst Mohammad Aamer, Umar Gul, Rana Naved and Mohammad Asif, they will most likely have to drop one pacer, and on recent form, none of the four deserve to be benched. The tussle is likely to be between Aamer and Asif, and if Aamer is not fully fit Asif should get the nod. However, if Aamer is fit, then Asif might well be benched soon after playing his first match after his international ban. The spin department is well manned by Ajmal and Afridi, so Pakistan have a full hand in their bowling attack. The batting, however, has blown hot and cold in the tournament. The extra fire that came from playing India, focussed the batsmen into producing a good total, but even then it was mostly built on the innings of just two men. In both the other matches so far, the batting has not looked very inspired, and if they are inserted first on a fresh pitch against Shane Bond and co., they will need to tighten their loose batting ends.

New Zealand: New Zealand have won both their matches at this venue, beating England and Sri Lanka - one while chasing, and one while defending. They will thus be buoyant heading into this match. As they often are in the international arena, New Zealand will be the underdogs in this match, but it is a sobriquet that sits well on them. They rely on team performance and not individual brilliance - in stark contrast to Pakistan - to pull through, and nothing has illustrated this better than the fact that they have topped their group and qualified for the semi-finals in spite of injuries to Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder and Daryl Tuffey. Each of the three was likely to be in the starting eleven, but where India have faltered badly without Sehwag, Yuvraj and Zaheer, New Zealand have found their team resources were good enough to pull them through. In Shane Bond and Kyle Mills, they have a capable opening pair, and with Vettori consistently guaranteeing 10 tough overs, they have a good frontline attack. The main bowlers will be backed by either James Franklin or Iain O'Brien. Their batting has started to click, with McCullum and Guptill finding form against England, but their middle order is suspect, and they will have to be watchful of Pakistan's lethal bowling attack. Ross Taylor will likely need to play a major hand if his side is to break its semi-finals jinx and progress to the finals of the Champions Trophy.

Trivia:

The two highest wicket-takers in ODIs in the current Pakistan side are both batsmen - Shahid Afridi leads the pack followed, rather surprisingly, by Shoaib Malik. Afridi has 261 wickets, while Malik has 129. The next on the list is Umar Gul with 94.

Numbers Game:

1 - Shane Bond's position amongst New Zealand bowlers in ODIs by averages. Bond averages an amazing 20.02 in ODIs, considerably ahead of the second placed, all-time great Sir Richard Hadlee who has an average of 21.56. Bond is in fifth position for bowling averages on the all-time list for all countries.

8.93 - The drop in Mohammad Yousuf's ODI batting average since his comeback into the side after more than a year. Before he joined the ICL, Yousuf was averaging 43.59, however in the six matches since he's come back that has dropped to 34.66.

Soundbytes:

"It's nothing because sometimes you win all the games in the first stage and then suddenly you lose a big game. So it's good for us, not like some other teams, like South Africa and Sri Lanka in the last World T20, who won all their games and then lost the big games." - Younis Khan speaking in his usual straight no-nonsense way after the defeat to Australia.

"To be honest, 99% of the wickets we play on are featherbeds, so it is not a problem once in a while to have wickets which challenge the batsmen. I don't have a problem with it at all." - Daniel Vettori on the Wanderers wicket.

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