Lahore (Nut-Desk)

Pakistani athlete Arshad Nadeem has impressed fans at home and abroad after qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 Men’s javelin throw final. In his first attempt, the 24 years old Pakistani athlete could reach the 78.5m mark but in the second attempt, Arshad created history with a throw of 85.16m that also placed him on top of group B.

This was overall the third-best throw in the contest after India’s Neeraj Chopra (86.65m) and Germany’s Johannes Vetter (85.64m).

Arshad Nadeem is the first-ever Pakistani athlete to qualify for the final of any track and field event in the Olympics.

Pakistanis on social media are looking towards Nadeem to make the nation proud by ending its Olympic drought and bagging the first medal of the Tokyo Olympics 2020 when he performs in the final round on August 7.

This is also Arshad’s third-best throw in a competition. Earlier this year, Arshad threw the javelin to a distance of 86.39m for his personal best and a national record during the Imam Reza championship in Iran. Earlier in 2019, he threw 86.29m at South Asian Games in Nepal.

So, one can safely say that Arshad’s best is yet to come and hope that the best comes at the final on 7th August, which is scheduled to commence at 4:00pm Pakistan time.

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

Rain allowed only three overs to be bowled in the fourth – and final T20I – in Guyana, which meant Pakistan, courtesy of their win in the second game, won the four-match rain-marred series 1-0.

 

After winning the toss on Tuesday, Babar Azam put West Indies in on a damp pitch on an overcast morning. With both sides unchanged from the last washout, Andre Fletcher and Chris Gayle once again opened the innings. Fletcher kicked off the innings by hitting two sixes off Mohammad Hafeez in the opening over and Gayle followed it up with two fours off Mohammad Wasim Jr in the next.

West Indies were 30 for no loss after three overs when rain halted play. That was around 11.15am local time. When the rain eventually relented, the umpires had an inspection at 1.25pm and decided to resume at 2.00pm. The match was reduced to nine overs per side but just when play was about to restart, the rain returned to have the final say.

At the toss, West Indies captain Kieron Pollard had said that this would be the last international game for Dwayne Bravo in the Caribbean and that his side wanted to give him a win. The weather though had other plans.

Both teams will now take part in the two-match Test series, starting from August 12 at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica.

Lahore (Nut-Desk)
Pakistani cricket team has reached West Indies for upcoming T20 and Test Series and here is a slight change in the schedule thanks to Covid 19. The T20I series between Pakistan and West Indies have been scrapped to four matches from five by Cricket West Indies after consultation with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
According to details, CWI had to make changes after the second ODI between Australia and the West Indies was postponed due to a positive COVID-19 case in West Indies. The second ODI was played yesterday while the series will conclude tomorrow.
The first T20I between Pakistan and the West Indies will now be played in Barbados on Wednesday instead of Tuesday.
The second T20I will be held on July 31, the third on August 1 and the fourth on August 3 in Guyana.On the other hand, the Test series will start as scheduled from August 12.
Revised Schedule
28 Jul – 1st T20I, Kensington Oval, Barbados
31 Jul – 2nd T20I, Guyana National Stadium, Guyana
1 Aug – 3rd T20I, Guyana National Stadium, Guyana
3 Aug – 54h T20I, Guyana National Stadium, Guyana
6-7 Aug – Two-day practice match, Guyana
12-16 Aug – 1st Test, Sabina Park, Jamaica
20-24 Aug – 2nd Test, Sabina Park, Jamaica

The world’s largest sports festival – the Olympics – is starting in Japan from Friday after a delay of one year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

Pakistani sprinter Najma Parveen and javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem are off to Tokyo to participate in the Olympics.

Nadeem trained on the day of Eid before his departure. He said that Pakistan has to win a medal in javelin throw. He said he is fully prepared and now needs the prayers of the nation.

This will be the second time on the trot when Pakistan’s experienced athlete Parveen will feature in the Olympics on a wild card. She will appear in the 200 metre race in the Tokyo Games on August 2 at the Olympic Stadium.

The Army’s athlete has been phenomenal in her approach and has been winning national titles since 2010 in a number of events, a huge achievement from the Faisalabad runner.

After having featured in the 2016 Rio Olympics on the basis of wild card, Najma’s success graph started rising. She set records in the 2019 National Games in Peshawar and carried the form into the 13th South Asian Games in Nepal in December 2019 where she snared a 400m hurdles gold, two silver medals and a bronze.

Meanwhile, Nadeem has the world’s sixth-best javelin throw of the year — a personal best 86.38 metres achieved in April in Iran, where he was forced to travel in order to seek top-flight competition.

Nadeem already has a taste for gold, having stood atop the podium at last year’s South Asian Games in Nepal. He took bronze at the 2018 Commonwealth Games behind gold-winner Neeraj Chopra of India, the farmer’s son who has thrown the third-longest distance this year.

Since its first Olympics in London in 1948, Pakistan have won three gold, three silver and two bronze medals in field hockey. The bronzes won by wrestler Mohammad Bashir in Rome in 1960 and boxer Hussain Shah in Seoul in 1988 are Pakistan’s only individual Olympic medals.

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

After the conclusion of the three-match ODI and T20I series against England, the Pakistan cricket team has set foot on the Caribbean lands for the upcoming assignment.

Pakistan s tour of the West Indies will begin this month with the first of the five-match T20I series to be held on July 27.

The first two games of the series will be played at Kensington Oval in Barbados before the bandwagon moves to Guyana for the last three T20Is. The two-match Test series will follow the T20I series. Sabina Park in Jamaica will host both these games.

The Pakistan cricket team members have tested negative for coronavirus, after arriving in West Indies to play the series against the hosts. The Pakistani squad members will resume training tomorrow. The training session will focus on batting, bowling, especially fielding and physical fitness.

After testing negative for novel coronavirus, the room isolation of all the members ended. It may be recalled that on arrival in the West Indies yesterday, the National Cricket Squad underwent Covid 19 testing.

Schedule

July 27, 2021 | Pakistan vs West Indies, 1st T20I at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados (Time: 08:30 PM IST, 3:00 PM GMT, 11:00 AM LOCAL)

July 28, 2021 | Pakistan vs West Indies, 2nd T20I at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados (Time: 08:30 PM IST, 3:00 PM GMT, 11:00 AM LOCAL)

July 31, 2021 | Pakistan vs West Indies, 3rd T20I at Providence Stadium, Guyana (Time: 08:30 PM IST, 3:00 PM GMT, 11:00 AM LOCAL)

Aug 1, 2021 |Pakistan vs West Indies, 4th T20I at Providence Stadium, Guyana (Time: 08:30 PM IST, 3:00 PM GMT, 11:00 AM LOCAL)

Aug 3, 2021 | Pakistan vs West Indies, 5th T20I at Providence Stadium, Guyana (Time: 08:30 PM IST, 3:00 PM GMT, 11:00 AM LOCAL)

Aug 12-16, 2021 | Pakistan vs West Indies, 1st Test at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica (Time: 7:30 PM IST, 02:00 PM GMT, 09:00 AM LOCAL)

Aug 20-24, 2021 | Pakistan vs West Indies, 2nd Test at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica (Time: 7:30 PM IST, 02:00 PM GMT, 09:00 AM LOCAL).

 

Mohammad Rizwan makes it to top 10, Babar Azam retains second spot in T20I rankings

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Pakistani skipper Babar Azam on Wednesday retained the second position and wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan bagged the seventh spot in International Cricket Council’s updated T20I rankings.

England’s Dawid Malan, who is the top T20I batsman, according to the latest statistics, has 841 rating points and leads Babar by a mere eight points.

Rizwan was able to jump up the table and secure 709 rating points. The wicketkeeper became the eighth Pakistani player to complete 1,000 T20I runs after a bat carrying inning vs Engand at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

India’s Virat Kohli and Lokesh Rahul are also among the top 10 batsmen, with the skipper having 762 rating points and the latter 743 rating points.

Last week, Azam had taken the lead in the ICC Men’s ODI Batting Rankings, surpassing Kohli, after his outstanding performance against England at Edgbaston.

The 26-year-old Pakistan captain — who struck a fine 158 in the final match of the series — was able to gain eight rating points to reach a career-best 873 rating points, 16 more than Kohli, who is in second place.

England defeats Pakistan in nail-biter, clinches T 20 series by 2-1 

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

England overcame self-created wobble to beat Pakistan in a pulsating final Twenty20 at Emirates Old Trafford and win the series 2-1. Adil Rashid took a career-best haul before England just did enough in a nervous chase to wrap up their white-ball home season with a thrilling three-wicket win over Pakistan in a Twenty20 final. Leg-spinner Rashid took 4-35 as Pakistan were restricted to 154-6 after winning the toss, with Mohammad Rizwan batting through the innings for 76 not out.

England opener Jason Roy, the player of the match, got the chase off to a brisk start with a dashing 64. But the hosts kept losing wickets before returning captain Eoin Morgan made a useful 21.

Liam Livingstone, the player of the series after scoring England´s fastest T20 hundred in the opener at Trent Bridge, struck one six and then holed out before Chris Jordan struck the winning runs in the last over. Roy took four boundaries off Shaheen Shah Afridi´s first over and swept spinner Imad Wasim for six.

Fellow opener Jos Buttler was well caught in the deep by Pakistan captain Babar Azam off leg-spinner Shadab Khan for a scratchy 21. Roy, by contrast completed a 30-ball fifty but on 64 he skied a catch off Usman Qadir, a leg-spinner like his father, the outstanding Abdul Qadir.

Jonny Bairstow holed out cheaply off left-arm spinner Imad Wasim and when Moeen Ali was bowled charging at off-spinner Mohammad Hafeez for just one, England were 112-4 off 15 overs. With four overs left, England needed 39 more runs to win.

But with Morgan hitting a couple of fours off Hafeez, England were 126-4 off 17 overs. Azam, rather than continue with spin, recalled paceman Hasan Ali into the attack. But left-hander Morgan hoisted him for two sixes separated by three dot balls.

But when Hafeez bowled Dawid Malan for 31, England still needed 12 to win off eight balls. Liam Livingstone, however, responded by hoisting his first ball for six only to be caught next ball, with England needing six off the last over. Livingstone and Morgan then got out in quick succession before a pair of hard-run twos from Jordan ended the match.

Notably, Pakistan have so far toured England seven times for the T20I series. They could only win two one-off matches- the first came way back in 2006 while the second came in 2016. In 2020, Pakistan drew the series 1-1 against England. A win in the series-decider will give Pakistan a golden chance to clinch their first-ever T20I series win against England. The hosts, on the other hand, will be hoping to win their second T20I series against Pakistan at home ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup.

Pak team offered Eid Prayer under Sarfraz’s Imamat in England.

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

The Pakistan cricket team on Tuesday offered their Eid ul Adha prayers at a local hotel in Manchester, according to the sources of Newsupdatetimes.

Former skipper and wicket keeper Sarfaraz Ahmed delivered the Eid sermon and led the prayers, which were attended by all the players, as well as coaching staff.

Following the prayers, they embraced one another and exchanged Eid greetings. The national cricket team is currently in England for a T20 series against the English team.

The Pakistan cricket team players were not allowed to take their families with them on the tours to England and West Indies owing to safety concerns due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to sources in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the national team, after the England tour, the team will leave for for West Indies.

Imad Wasim becomes eighth Pak Bowler to reach 50 T20I wickets Landmark.

Lahore (NUT-Desk)

Pakistani all-rounder Imad Wasim has become the eighth Pakistani bowler to claim 50 wickets in the shortest format of the game.

The left-arm spinner took two wickets in the second T20 against England to complete his half century of wickets. Imad had dismissed Jason Roy (10) and Dawid Malan (1) in the first 15 balls of the match to give Pakistan an early breakthrough.

Wasim is just four wickets behind Sohail Tanvir, who took 54 T20 wickets. Wasim’s 50 wickets have come at an average of 23.06 and an economy rate of 6.40 in 51 matches.

He started his career in 2015 and has bowled 180 overs and gave 1153 runs with the best bowling figures of 5/14 against West Indies.

According to a report, his economy rate is the second-lowest among Pakistani bowlers to pick up at least 50 wickets and only former spinner Saeed Ajmal has a better economy rate of 6.36.