« »

Saturday 19 September 2009

Younus confident for second major title of year


Having already won the Twenty20 World Cup, Pakistan is targeting a second major 2009 title at the upcoming Champions Trophy despite a less-than-impressive history in the competition.
"Our past performance in Champions Trophy is not that much encouraging, but the way we have trained for this year's tournament, I'm sure we can perform well," coach Intikhab Alam told reporters on Thursday.
Pakistan has not reached the final in any of the five previous editions of the Champions Trophy - the biggest 50-over tournament behind the World Cup.
"It's a tough tournament, but we are going to South Africa with a target to win it," Alam said as the team prepared to leave for Johannesburg.
Pakistan will play two warm-up matches before taking on the West Indies in its first group game on Sept. 23.
Pakistan, which has never beaten India in a major ICC tournament, takes on its neighbour and archrival on Sept. 26 before rounding off its group matches against defending champion Australia on Sept. 29.
South Africa, New Zealand, England and Sri Lanka form the other group, with the top two teams from each qualifying for the semifinals.
India and Australia both have hit peak form ahead of the Champions Trophy. India won a triangular series over Sri Lanka and New Zealand, while Australia is on verge of whitewashing England in their seven-match one-day series.
However, Alam is not worried about the form of his group opponents.
"The team which handles the pressure on the given day wins in a 50-over game," Alam said.

No comments:

Post a Comment