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REUTERS
LAHORE, NOV 19: Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell vowed to give Pakistan ``a good fight'' as his side opens their 35-day tour of Pakistan tomorrow with a One-Day International in Gujranwala.
``We are quite optimistic about our chances. We've come to Pakistan after a reasonable performance in Sharjah where we reached the final,'' said Campbell.
``We beat Sri Lanka twice and India once and therefore our morale is high,'' he said as his team worked out in the nets.
``We feel we've a good chance. We've been playing good cricket of late but we realise we are up against a very good side and we have to play very good cricket to compete, let alone win,'' he added.
Campbell acknowledged Pakistan had a very experienced side that would be out for revenge after being beaten 1-0 by Australia in their three-Test series and 3-0 in the One-Day Internationals that followed.
``We know Pakistan is an experienced side with some world class players and although we cannot say we will win the series we hope we'll givethem a tough fight,'' said the 26-year-old captain, a veteran of 89 one-day games.
He said that wickets for the Australian tour were flat, slow-turning tracks. ``We have been here in the past and we've played on the green wickets. So we really don't know what kind of wickets we can expect to be playing on,'' he said.
But he said his squad contained enough variety for any kind of wicket. ``Pace bowlers Mbangawa, Heath Streak and Craig Evans have gained much in experience while spinners Paul Strang and Andrew Whittal have also shown improvement since the 1989 Zimabwe tour of Pakistan,'' he said.
The tourists play the other One-Day Internationals at Sheikhupura and Rawalpindi before the three-Test series starts in Peshawar on November 27.
Pakistan captain Aamir Sohail said the return after injury of opening batsman Saeed Anwar and middle-order bat Inzamam-ul Haq had strengthened his side.
``There is definitely going to be much improvement in our batting compared to our performance againstAustralia.''
Pakistan lead 14-1 in One-Day clashes with Zimbabwe with one match tied. In 10 Tests Pakistan leads 6-1 with three drawn.
Teams (from)
Pakistan: Aamir Sohail (captain), Saeed Anwar, Inzamam-ul Haq, Ijaz Ahmed, Yousaf Yohanna, Moin Khan, Azhar Mahmood, Wasim Akram, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmad, Hasan Raza, Muhammad Akram.
Zimbabwe: Alistair Campbell (captain), Andy Flower, Grant Flower, Murray Goodwin, Neil Johnson, Craig Wishart, Craig Evans, Gavin Rennie, Heath Streak, Paul Strang, Mpumelelo Mbangawa, Eddo Brandes, Andrew Whittal, Adam Huckle.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
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