Sloppy Pakistan rekindle World Cup hope

BRISBANE: The pace and bounce of Gabba helped revive Pakistan’s fledgling World Cup campaign after a familiar capitulation with the bat had put immense pressure on Misbah’s charges against a lowly Zimbabwe.

Mohammad Irfan, perhaps for the first time in his chequered career, bowled with frightening hostility on one of the fastest wickets in the cricketing world. Even in his last over the tallest cricketer-ever made the batsmen hop and prod un-gainfully.

The match was a throwback to the nineties with a middlish Pakistan total defended stoutly by the pace bowlers reviving memories of the heyday when the bowlers regularly bailed out the batsmen.

The topsy-turvy match also brought a welcome relief from the glut of high-scoring games where the batsmen have ruled the roost.

After crawling to 14 for two in 10 overs the beleaguered Pakistan batsmen re-wrote the history books with one of the worst-ever starts after 10 overs in terms of runs scored. Haris Sohail, Umar Akmal and Sohaib Maqsood threw away good starts while Shahid Afridi endured a two-ball duck on his 35th birthday.

Misbahul was the glue that held the innings together and some pyrotechnics from Wahab Riaz, who had a memorable game with the bat and ball, ensured that the green shirts posted a competitive total with the supremacy of their bowling attack giving them an immensely important win.

Pakistan legend Wasim Akram, who visited the media box during the first half of the match, felt that Wahab had to justify his role as an all-rounder and eventually his words turned out to be truly prophetic, reviving a World Cup campaign that has remained full of tumult thus far for the 1992 champions.

So, Pakistan has managed to ‘live another day’ by the proverbial skin of their teeth. After some horrid recent performances the Zimbabwe win has provided relief for Misbah & Co.  But the composition of the playing eleven still remains dicey.

Sarfraz Ahmed termed the ‘oxygen’ of the team only a few days ago has been dispensed with despite his game-changing abilities at different numbers in the batting order.

Umar Akmal despite gathering five chances behind the stumps dropped two sitters off Shahid Afridi which could have taken the game away from Pakistan.

At the post-match presser Misbah was at a loss to explain the pain of keeping Sarfraz away from the eleven claiming that ‘the team was in deep trouble’ and the wicket-keeper had to be benched for playing a balanced eleven.

But one feels that Nasir Jamshed’s torrid run (0 and 1) in two World Cup games has ensured a return for Sarfraz in the playing eleven for the UAE game in Napier on Wednesday.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2015.