Thaindian News

Colombo, Feb 25(ANI): Pakistan are not intimidated by Sri Lanka’s M-factor- Muttiah Muralitharan and Lasith Malinga- as they are “used to facing them” and their batsmen “know how to tackle them,” Pakistan’s World Cup vice-captain Misbah-ul-Haq has said.

Pakistan will play against Sri Lanka at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Saturday, and will endeavour to keep intact their unblemished World Cup record against the co-hosts.

Although the wily Muralitharan and Malinga, with his slinging arm-action, form a formidable spin-pace partnership that can unsettle even the best batsmen in the world, Misbah said that the Pakistan team know Sri Lanka’s game too well to fear them.

“We know Sri Lanka’s game, just like they know ours,” The News quoted Misbah, as saying.

“We have played a lot against each other, especially in the last few years which is why we know what to expect from them,” he added.

Pakistan manager Intikhab Alam said that Misbah would be his team’s key man against Muralitharan.

“Misbah reads him (Muralitharan) really well,” said former Pakistan captain Intikhab. “He plays him solidly, perhaps even better than how Inzamam-ul-Haq used to tackle Murali.”

However, Misbah played down Intikhab’s comments, saying that most of his team’s batsmen could tackle Murali, even on his home turf.”Both Murali and Malinga are world-class bowlers. But the thing is that we are used to facing them. Many of our batters know how to tackle them. Younis Khan does it really well,” he said.Misbah stressed that the Pakistani batsmen tackle Murali better than most of the other teams because they regularly spar with good spinners back home, adding, “Some of them bowl like Murali.”The Test captain said that Pakistan would follow a simple plan to win tomorrow’s vital match.”It’s certainly a vital match for both the teams. The team that wins it will have a great chance to finish among the top two from the group. We have a simple plan for tomorrow’s match. Just play according to merit,” he said. (ANI)