Anwar uncertain for Pakistan opener

JOHANNESBURG: -The glittering opening ceremony is over, and the real battle for the World Cup 2003 was already underway in Cape Town in the first encounter between South Africa and the West Indies on Sunday.

Having travelled back from Cape Town in the morning, both the Pakistan and the Australian squads went almost straight to the nets, with the Aussies enjoying the facility in the morning and the Pakistanis in the evening. Though both sides seemed to be extremely wary of each other and cagey about making any comments, Waqar Younis casually remarked that the Aussies seemed to be "in a sort of panic, they were afraid of our pace attack".

Both teams would officially talk to the press on the eve of the match, and the Younis' brief comment could be categorised as a salvo meant to score psychological points. Since the Aussies are not averse to such tactics themselves, fair game one would say.

But the Pakistani camp genuinely believed that their strength lay in bowling, and was intent on capitalising on it. In the meanwhile, the main bulwarks of Aussie attack - Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Shane Warne - have recently been carrying serious injuries, their form is likely to be tentative.

Pakistan so far has been without injury, save the one to Saeed Anwar's left elbow, which is still recovering from the bone-jarring effect of Shoaib Akhtar's short one that the former tried to pull in the nets. Anwar is on the mend, but he still cannot stretch his arm. For the moment, it seems extremely unlikely he will take the field in Pakistan's opening game.

This however has had no impact on the morale of the Pakistan team, and it seemed to be in high spirits for its opening encounter against the World Champions.