Disastrous, disappointing and disgraceful. This describes the start of Pakistan’s quest for the coveted ICC World Cup. The Green Shirts were thumped by a relatively lowly-rated West Indies, heightening the concerns of the team management and worries of the fans about how they are going to fare against the hot favourites — England, Australia and New Zealand.
More worrying is whether the Sarfaraz Eleven will manage to spare their blushes against archrival India, let alone creating history by clinching their maiden World Cup victory against them. Even the game against Afghanistan, the baby of cricket, is highly unlikely to be an easy one, given our loss to them in the warm-up game.
While the opening match loss to the West Indies was a ‘team effort’, batsmen are mainly to blame for the embarrassment. Pakistani wickets were literally falling within the blinks of an eye, and 21.4 overs were enough to account for the whole team which slumped to its second-lowest World Cup total — 105 runs — with 74 being their lowest recorded in the 1992 edition. That the whole match finished even before the lunch interval is enough to narrate our plight.
The loss of the toss amid overcast conditions was critical though, Pakistani batsmen were not out to play a friendly, and should have readied a game plan on how to negotiate the pace and bounce that the Trent Bridge strip was threatening to offer.
But that half a dozen Pakistani batsmen were undone by the bounce shows there was nothing called a game plan for a match as big as their World Cup opener. In reply, the West Indies raced to the paltry target in just 13.4 overs.
They only takeaway from the game was Amir’s comeback with three wickets. But for those who read too much into coincidences, in the 1992 event too, Pakistan had lost their opening game to the West Indies, but went on to lift the crystal trophy.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 2nd, 2019.
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