After picking up the prized wicket of batting legend Sachin Tendulkar, Pakistan's teenage pacer Mohammad Aamer is living a dream but he is still looking to have more fun.
The lanky left-armer made an impressive international debut at the World Twenty20 in England last June and is making waves at the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa.
After Tendulkar, Aamer has now set his sight on another batting great - Australia captain Ricky Ponting.
"I was ecstatic after getting Tendulkar out. Now I want to realise another one of my dreams and that is to get the wicket of Ricky Ponting, who is another great batsman," said Aamer on Monday.
Pakistan are in a good position to reach the semi-finals of the ICC Champions Trophy after winning its first two matches against West Indies and India and will top the group with a win against the Australians.
Aamer said that Pakistani bowlers were ready to take on the Aussie batting, saying that his team is looking forward to ending the pool stage with another win ahead of the last-four stage.
"We are all very spirited and I'm confident that the team will also do well against Australia," he said.
The result means that India needs to enjoy a big win against the West Indies and hope that Pakistan beats Australia if it is to progress to the semi-finals.
Australia was 234-4 in 42.3 overs when the rain came with Mike Hussey (67), Ricky Ponting (65) and Tim Paine (56) all making half centuries.
The final matches in Group A will be played on Wednesday.
he ECB today announced that Yorkshire all-rounder Tim Bresnan and Middlesex batsman Eoin Morgan have been awarded Increment Contracts for the current contractual period (2008-2009).
The two players have reached the 20 appearance point threshold for the award of these contracts (5 appearance points are awarded for a Test appearance and 2 points for an ODI or International T20 appearance).
Tim Bresnan has played two Test Matches and nine One Day Internationals in the past 12 months and achieved the 20 point mark during the recent NatWest Series against Australia. Eoin Morgan, who has appeared in ten One Day Internationals and one T20 International in the same 12-month period, reached his 20 point total by playing against Sri Lanka in the ICC Champions Trophy on Friday.
The pair are the third and fourth players to earn Increment Contracts through England appearances during the contract period following on from the earlier award of contracts to Dimitri Mascarenhas and Graham Onions.
After losing Shane Watson to the opening delivery of the game, Australia’s captain Ricky Ponting made a brilliant 79 in difficult conditions.
But the West Indies stuck to its task and spinner Nikita Miller was particularly impressive, taking 2-24 in 10 overs, as it reduced Australia to 171-7.
Mitchell Johnson, who had survived a close appeal for caught behind, then transformed the match as he smashed 73 not out from just 47 balls to help it reach 275-8 off 50 overs.
In reply, Andre Fletcher (54) and Travis Dowlin (55) gave the West Indies an excellent base to build on, but it lost regular wickets and in the end fell 50 runs short of its target.
Pakistan beat rivals India by 54 runs in their ICC Champions Trophy Group A game at Centurion on Saturday.
The key to Pakistan's victory was an incredible 206-run fourth wicket partnership between Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Yousuf which provided the platform for an imposing total of 302 for 9.
India kept up with the required run rate until the final 15 overs but couldn?t find a match-winning partnership and ran out of wickets with just over five overs remaining.
The victory puts Pakistan top of Group A with two wins from two matches.
australian captain Ricky Ponting has said that he is worried about left-arm fast bowler Nathan Bracken's international prospects, who has been ruled out of the ICC Champions Trophy following a knee injury that has hampered him for some time.
Bracken was sent home as his degenerative condition had flared, and a knee specialist at home would be diagnosing his case to determine his immediate future.
"None of us know the extent of it just yet, we won't know until he has it looked at properly and maybe has surgery. He's no spring chicken, he's had it operated on before and I believe it's a degenerative type of condition," Ponting said.
Bracken, who is the highest ranked ODI bowler in the Australian team and has the ability to swing the ball both ways and change speed, has been an essential part of the squad over the last few seasons.
Bracken's absence will be a major blow to Ponting who relied on his steady bowling at the top of the order as a counter-balance to the attack of Brett Lee. Ponting further said that despite Bracken and Lee in their twilight years, Australia would be looking forward to continue with them till the 2011 World Cup.
"Brett by that stage will be 34 and Bracken 33, and you can have one of those guys as long as you don't have two or three," Ponting said.
"With Brett, if he actually makes it through we've got to make sure we look after him well because we've seen in England he can be a leading wicket-taker for us, especially in the conditions that we'll have in the next World Cup with his reverse swing bowling," he added.
Gibbs suffered a minor rib and intercostals injury during the warm-up match against the West Indies 10 days' ago and missed the first two Pool B matches against Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
On Saturday he batted and ran without any discomfort and was also put through a testing programme of reflex catches and diving saves by physiotherapist Brandon Jackson.
"It went very well," commented Jackson, "and he will definitely be available for selection."
AB de Villiers, who played the key innings in their victory over New Zealand, said the Proteas would not be getting ahead of themselves against England and would concentrate on their basics and game plan rather than worrying about side issues such as the net run rate.
"The most important thing for us tomorrow is to win, to focus on our basics and to carry out our game plan well," commented De Villiers.
"We can't be worrying about run rates. The important thing for us is to win and to get to four points on the log. If we get to 40 overs and we are close to winning the game, then we will definitely up the tempo a bit.
"It is a massive game for us. We normally come off when the pressure is there and we need to win. The same thing happened at the 2007 World Cup when we had a ‘must win' game against England and we managed to do it then and pull through.
"Hopefully we will pitch up tomorrow with the same kind of mindset. Everybody is keen to get into the semis, so we are going to give it our best shot.
"We have had a good record against England in the past apart from last year's series in England but we will be treating them just like we would any other side in the tournament."
De Villiers added that England had played good cricket in their last few matches, particularly Friday's match against Sri Lanka, and that they were well suited to South African conditions.
"The Wanderers wicket suited them. In addition they have just come out of a tough series at home and managed to win the last one there where they had similar conditions. But they played extremely well against a very strong Sri Lankan side and deserved their win.
"It is going to be a tough group for us and I think it is going to come down to net run rate. "
