Pakistan gets ready to finalise preparationsM

Pakistan’s women will finalise its preparations for the ICC World Twenty20 2009 when it takes on Ireland in a T20 and ODI series this week.

Under the new captaincy of Sana Mir, Pakistan will be looking to build on an excellent ICC Women’s World Cup where it managed to record victories over Sri Lanka and the West Indies, as it achieved an excellent sixth position.

“It was a great achievement by our team. After making it to Australia, after doing well at the World Cup Qualifier, we were really looking forward to coming to Sydney and proving we belong at this level,” said Mir, whose side plays its first Twenty20 game against Ireland on Monday.

“Beating Sri Lanka and the West Indies was a big thing for us and I hope we can continue to do well in the future.”

Mir is hoping that her side will have been able to learn from some of its experiences at the ICC Women’s World Cup and for her side to improve some of its batting frailties.

“We need some time to get better. We need time to work on our fitness, we need time to work on our skills and we need to get more exposure at a higher level. This will help us get mentally stronger and help us perform better,” said Mir.

“Our batting will get better as times goes on. The way our openers batted at the World Cup proved how skilful we are, but the middle order didn’t score enough runs as it wasn’t that confident.”

In a group with England, India and Sri Lanka at the ICC World Twenty20 2009 it will be a challenge to progress, but she is hopeful her side can do well and make it through to at least the semi-finals.

“We have the same group in the Twenty20 as we did in the World Cup and I hopeful we can get a shock victory,” she said.

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