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12th September 2017 will be marked as a historical day in Pakistan
cricket, as international cricket returns to homeland after a long wait
of 9 years. The hard struggle of PCB is finally rewarded in the shape of
Independence Cup 2017, a T20 International cricket tournament taking
place in Lahore, Pakistan. The contest is named in commemoration of
Pakistan’s 70 years of Independence.
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Pakistan and World XI are the teams competing in the Independence Day
series. The series comprise of 3 T20 internationals which will be played
in Lahore. Pakistan team is lead by Sarfaraz Ahmed and World XI is
captained by South Africa’s Faf du Plessis. The World XI side arrived in
Lahore a day before the first match under high security. Pakistan XI
squad comprise of young players out of which 10 players have not played
previously in an international match at home.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has appointed Richie Richardson
as the match referee for the tournament. Another significant feature of
this series is that ICC for the first time has sent an official to
supervise cricket matches in Pakistan since 2009.The panel of on-field
umpires appointed includes Aleem Dar, Ahsan Raza, Ahmed Shahab and
Shozab Raza. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) introduced the #CricketKiHalalalahash
tag for the series, which soon became a popular trend on social media
among Pakistani fans.
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Team Squads - T20 Internationals
Pakistan XI:
Sarfraz Ahmed (c, wk), Fakhar Zaman, Ahmed Shehzad, Babar Azam, Shoaib
Malik, Umar Amin, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Fahim Ashraf,
Hasan Ali, Aamer Yamin, Mohammad Amir, Rumman Raees, Usman Khan, Sohail
Khan
World XI:
Faf du Plessis (c), Hashim Amla, Samuel Badree, George Bailey, Paul
Collingwood, Ben Cutting, Grant Elliott, Tamim Iqbal, David Miller,
Morné Morkel, Tim Paine (wk), Thisara Perera, Imran Tahir, Darren Sammy
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First T20
The opening match of the series was held on 12th September in Qadaffi
Stadium Lahore. As promised to be a nail biting classic contest, which
it actually turned out to be in the end. The thrilling battle is won by
Pakistan team beating World XI by 20 runs. The win has given Pakistan
team a lead in the three matches’ series. Babar Azam is the star of the
opening match as he played his T20 career best 86 runs knock that
enabled Pakistan to post a defendable total of 197 runs. Not just the
batting was superb from Pakistan side, but they also managed to bowl
well. All bowlers played their part well, Shadab Khan, Sohail Khan and
Rumman Raees took two wickets each to give the World XI batting line-up
a tough time. In response, World XI was able to finish at 177/7 from the
20 overs. On his blistering batting performance, Babar Azam is declared
as Man of the Match.
Next Fixtures
The 2nd match of the series will be played on 13th September 2017, and
third match will be played on 15th September 2017 at the same venue.
Excitement doubles after the victory of the first match. Will World XI
bounce back and come hard on Pakistan? Well, you have to wait to find
out!
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