Yousuf and Rana Naveed shine in County Cricket
Mohammad Yousuf, Pakistan’s veteran of 90 Tests, had a spark in his batting in a match against Worcestershire being played at County Ground, New Road, Worcester. MohammadYousuf, who is sidelined from Pakistan selection since November 2010, is currently playing County Cricket for Warwickshire.
In his first match of this season; Yousuf added 81 runs of 166 balls, with help of 11 fours and 1 six, in Warwickshire’s total of 441/3 at the end of day 3. Its a 4-Day First Class Match between Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Yousuf couldn’t bat well in first innings where he was Out after just scoring 7 runs. Currently Warwickshire is leading by 237 runs with 7 wickets remaining and today(23rd April) is last day of match.
Mohammad Yousuf is contracted to play for 6 weeks as replacement of another Pakistan batsman i.e Younis Khan. Younis Khan who is expected to return in Pakistan Team for Test Series against West Indies will join Warwickshire at end of May and till then Yousuf will be his replacement. Mohammad Yousuf has previously represented Lancashire too.
Rana Naveed-ul-Hassan, another sidelined Pakistani from national team, is playing for Sussex in this season of English county. Identical to Yousuf, Rana Naveed also sparked in 2nd innings of 4-day FC Match after failing to impress in first innings, where he took only 1 wicket. Rana Naveed took 4 wickets in 2nd innings due to which Durham were restricted to 210. At end of Day 3 at Chester-le-Street, Sussex require another 72 runs with 6 wickets remaining. Today(23rd April) will be last day of match and Sussex may require services of Rana Naveed again as a batsman.
Azhar Mahmood and Yasir Arafat are other Pakistanis playing in English county for Surrey and Kent respectively. Shahid Afridi will join Hampshire in mid or late summer as Twenty20 specialist.
Report by Mazher Arshad
