No room for complacency

By virtue of their thrilling 11-run win against Sri Lanka in Colombo, Pakistan are top of Group A and virtually guaranteed a place in the quarter-finals. All they need to do now is to win two of their remaining four first-round matches. Now for the not-so-good-news: In their last match on February 26 against Sri Lanka, Pakistan almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Surprisingly, Pakistan again decided not to play the quicker left-arm pace of Wahab Riaz to open the bowling with Akhtar. Consequently, Razzaq, who had looked ineffective against Kenya, posed no problems for the Lankan openers. As we’ve seen in the early World Cup games already, matches are being won by teams who have specialist wicket-takers. Timely wickets by India’s Zaheer Khan and England’s Tim Bresnan resulted in a memorable tied game on a batting paradise in Bangalore.

At one stage it seemed as if the Pakistani Qawwali party seemed to be morphing into a self-destructive punk band. It again needed an inspired piece of captaincy by Afridi to bring his side back from the brink. In tandem with an in-form Akhtar, he ripped out the heart of the Sri Lankan batting to save Pakistan from defeat and embarrassment. It’s a testimony to the talent of this team that they can give batsmen like Kumar Sangakkara multiple chances and still end up winning. Pakistan desperately needs a specialist wicket-keeper as Akmal is unreliable and very erratic. Also, the team fielded indifferently and missed a series of close run-out chances.

The score of 277 was mainly due to Pakistan’s men-of-the-moment, Misbah and Younis, who resurrected the innings from 102 for three by playing traditional stay-at-the-crease cricket. Both men are very strong mentally and they blunted and deflated the Sri Lankan attack. Despite these positives, we need to keep Pakistan’s batting strength in perspective. These are mostly batting wickets or slow turners and even Bangladesh and Holland were able to score 290 against India and England. I must confess that I’m puzzled by all the people who have been responsible for keeping Younis and Misbah out of this team because of their ‘age’. Anyone who thinks that time is not on Misbah and Younis’s side, they better think again. Age and fitness is not everything, one also has to consider courage, determination, perseverance and consistency.

If Pakistan hopes to progress into the semi-finals and finals, they need to do some serious soul-searching and find their unity of purpose before the quarter-finals begin on March 23, which, incidentally, is also Pakistan Day. They have four matches, including today’s against Canada, to iron out their faults and exorcise the demons that came to haunt them in Colombo.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2011.