World Cup exit

Letter July 09, 2019
Senior players Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez failed to contribute to the team

HYDERABAD: Despite winning five of the nine games they played, and scoring 11 points — equal to that of New Zealand’s score — the Green Shirts have been knocked out from the ongoing cricket World Cup. The Pakistani team remained unsure throughout the tournament. After a painful defeat against the West Indies on May 31st, they made a strong comeback by thrashing the World Cup favourites England, while their third game against Sri Lanka was abandoned due to rain. Pakistan went on to lose its fifth and sixth game against Australia and India, respectively. Despite the defeats, our team did not lose hope and played excellent cricket, outclassing South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan. At one time, Pakistan was fourth on the points table, followed by England at number five. The whole nation was hopeful that the national team would qualify for the semis. However, the World No 1 ODI side, England, turned the tables by defeating India and New Zealand in their last two must-win games.

The performance of an aggressive batsman, Babar Azam, and fast bowlers Mohammad Amir and Shaheen Shah Afridi was brilliant throughout the tournament. However senior players Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez failed to contribute to the team.

Being a true cricket fan, I can safely say our players should not have depended on other teams. The defeat in the first game against West Indies cost us too much. Due to the low net run-rate, the Green Shirts needed a miracle to hammer Bangladesh by 316 runs in their last game to qualify for the semi-finals, but it was impossible for them to do so. Even though Pakistan won that game by 94 runs, it failed to qualify for the Knockout stage.

Imtiaz Junejo

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9th, 2019.

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