by Abdul Habib
10th April 2010

At the training camp in Lahore, the players have had two more days of practise matches after the first game where Pakistan A beat Pakistan.

However these haven't been typical practise games. Cricistan.com has learnt that the Pakistan coaching team are trialling something a bit different. They're selecting two batsmen and two bowlers and setting them a target.

For example the batsmen must score 60 runs in 6 overs and the bowlers have to stop them from doing that. Every time a wicket falls it adds 10 runs to the total required. The first set of target scenarios took place on Wednesday 7th April and only involved the players selected for the T20 World Cup.

However today (Saturday 10th April), all the players took part and Mohammad Irfan ended up in the unenviable position of being picked to tame Afridi and Razzaq.

That's right, Razzaq and Afridi were given free license to take apart Irfan's bowling and to plunder 60 runs from 6 overs. Bowling from the other end for the first over was Mohammad Sami who went for around 15 runs, the other two overs at the opposite end to Irfan were bowled by Hafeez who also went for a few runs with a few boundaries off his bowling.

But what happened at Irfan's end? Did the twin cannons of Afridi and Razzaq send him flying into the stratosphere?

Luckily for Irfan he had a secret weapon in his corner, a little somebody called Waqar Younis who was there to advise Irfan on what to bowl. Irfan told Cricistan.com that Waqar asked him to aim to make the ball rear up at the throats of Razzaq and Afridi.

In the end, Irfan only went for 9 runs off his 3 overs taking the wicket of Razzaq and only getting hit for 1 four by Afridi. So the bowlers won the day against two of the biggest hitters in the history of the game.

Another interesting encounter was when Hafeez and Kamran had to score 60 runs off 6 overs against Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Asif. They lost two wickets but managed to reach the revised total of 80 runs therefore winning their encounter.

These target matches are probably being used to try and help the Pakistan team focus on an objective and prepare for chasing/defending a target. Cricistan.com thinks that these target scenarios are a great idea and hopefully we'll see more new initiatives being implemented in the future too.