It is the best knock of my career: Umar Akmal

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 1px; padding: 3px; text-align: justify;"> Umar Akmal struck a career-best 94 Sunday as Pakistan defeated Australia by 16 runs in a high-scoring game at the World Twenty20.</div> <div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 1px; padding: 3px; text-align: justify;"> Put in to bat by Australia, Pakistan scored an intimidating 191-5 and then dismissed Australia for 175 in 20 overs.</div> <div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 1px; padding: 3px; text-align: justify;"> Umar Akmal struck nine fours and four sixes during his sixth half-century. He shared a 96-run third-wicket stand with older brother Kamran Akmal, who scored a run-a-ball 31.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMkeR8NfBu-B2j1abHo20SSOKSpFkYSCzGVC7QHik4dpUoRAuI2yFGwYQuTjfP8TiwbrRk3kWjNRtILMdpYO9jBrMKZZC8-wQqwyCINN1_UdDP2GOzvItB_TobwlEiHTaKbYVG1KN-gzJd/s1600/It+is+the+best+knock+of+my+career+Umar+Akmal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMkeR8NfBu-B2j1abHo20SSOKSpFkYSCzGVC7QHik4dpUoRAuI2yFGwYQuTjfP8TiwbrRk3kWjNRtILMdpYO9jBrMKZZC8-wQqwyCINN1_UdDP2GOzvItB_TobwlEiHTaKbYVG1KN-gzJd/s1600/It+is+the+best+knock+of+my+career+Umar+Akmal.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 1px; padding: 3px; text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 1px; padding: 3px; text-align: justify;"> The 23-year-old batting star termed the knock as his "best" yet.</div> <div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 1px; padding: 3px; text-align: justify;"> “It is the best knock of my career because the kind of stress our team was under after losing the first match, for us it was important to win this match,” Umar said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 1px; padding: 3px; text-align: justify;"> “The kind of free hand the management gave me to go out and express my abilities, I am thankful to them for that. I played my natural game and I was rewarded with a good score. We are taking it match to match. Our aim is to win every match we play. We lost the first match but our morale was kept high by the management.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 1px; padding: 3px; text-align: justify;"> Umar also credited Pakistan's bowlers for the rousing win.</div> <div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 1px; padding: 3px; text-align: justify;"> “As a batting unit, we deserve a little bit of praise but it is the bowlers who did the job.”</div> </div>

ICC T20 Pakistan T20 World Cup T20 World Cup 2014 Twenty20 internationals Umar Akmal It is the best knock of my career: Umar Akmal

Umar Akmal struck a career-best 94 Sunday as Pakistan defeated Australia by 16 runs in a high-scoring game at the World Twenty20. Put in...

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England prepare for life without Kevin Pietersen

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">England will play their first major match since the controversial decision to call time on Kevin Pietersen's international career when they face West Indies in the first of three one-day internationals in Antigua on Friday.</span><br /> <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">English cricket is still coming to terms with the decision to dispense with the services of the national side's all-time leading run scorer across all formats.</span><br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFbvSqxDzN0NhmFjSomwwsNGJuhxJwhBjWkuW_GmHE3VnUZR2mZzh5tIj1uuYZEmk66iJdW_kPrZD5Ef2k4hKQzALjc_6zKtnRMHxki8Gxvb7QFV8-DQzTq-6_FOYTHEgxUEFbL57ps2n3/s1600/England+prepare+for+life+without+Kevin+Pietersen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFbvSqxDzN0NhmFjSomwwsNGJuhxJwhBjWkuW_GmHE3VnUZR2mZzh5tIj1uuYZEmk66iJdW_kPrZD5Ef2k4hKQzALjc_6zKtnRMHxki8Gxvb7QFV8-DQzTq-6_FOYTHEgxUEFbL57ps2n3/s1600/England+prepare+for+life+without+Kevin+Pietersen.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">There is a sense that former England wicket-keeper Paul Downton, now the England and Wales Cricket Board's managing director and Test captain Alastair Cook, rested from the Caribbean series, know they will be judged on the team's results and so would not be as perverse to 'cut off their nose to spite their face' by prematurely ditching a world-class player.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">It is significant that England have not cited form or fitness as a reason for axing Pietersen but rather a harder to pin down need to "rebuild the team ethic" following a 5-0 Ashes thrashing in Australia.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">England will also play three Twenty20 internationals against the West Indies, the reigning global champions in cricket's shortest international format, in Barbados on this trip ahead of next month's World Twenty20 in Bangladesh.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">It was in the Caribbean four years ago that England won their lone global limited overs title when, with Pietersen man of the tournament, they took the World Twenty20 title.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Their captain back then was Paul Collingwood, still the skipper of county champions Durham and also a temporary member of England's coaching staff this trip.</span></div>

England Kevin Pietersen Twenty20 internationals England prepare for life without Kevin Pietersen

England will play their first major match since the controversial decision to call time on Kevin Pietersen's international career when ...

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