U19 World Cup: Pakistan’s worst campaign ends in defeat
Tail-enders Mohammad Nawaz (82) and Shahid Ilyas (44) helped Pakistan reach a 235-run total before a superb hundred by Bangladesh captain Anamul Haque helped them clinch seventh place. Pakistan’s worst show in the tournament, which saw them lose three successive matches, raised many questions. Coach Sabih Azhar blamed the quarter-final loss to India for the dismal campaign.
“That match disturbed our winning momentum,” Azhar told reporters in Townsville, Australia. “But I’m satisfied since we’ve been able to identify four to five very talented players in our line-up. The result at this event should not judge the team’s potential. A few bad sessions have cost us dearly but we’ll learn from our mistakes.
“These boys have the talent to bounce back.”
The team, which leaves for Pakistan today, remained unbeaten in the group phase of the tournament, beating New Zealand, Afghanistan and Scotland. However, a quarter-final loss to the archrivals and defeats to West Indies and Bangladesh turned the campaign around for the U19 side. Meanwhile, the team management was also unimpressed with the tournament’s format. The officials, in their report, have expressed a desire to have a single-league system before the semi-finals and final.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 25th, 2012.
COMMENTS (6)
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Look at Indian and Australian teams and their captains and players u will how good they were and how bad we were. We had nothing no leadership no batting and no bowling. Not a single player stood out...Barbar, Ihsan, Nawaz and Azizullah were good a few times but never showed killer instinct. India has several players with wining attitude smit, Harmeet, Baba and of course their brilliant captain Unmukat Chand.
last U19 World cup was better; this year slection might have been the problem!!
Whether it is the senior or junior team, initial successes go to their heads and false sense of supremacy creeps in with such end-results.
Batting was shocking throughout this tournament, especially from the top order. Sami Aslam and Imam ul Haq never fired, babar azam never had much momentum in his innings and the line up did not have someone who could really change the course of an innings like hammad azam was able to last time. Hope to see zia ul haq, azizullah and ehsan adil make good progress and hopefully represent us well in the future
Pakistan must learn to gracefully accept defeats which have become the norm in International Sports. Now the coach is trying deflect the brilliance of the Bangladesh team and the cluelessness of the Pakistani team in the contest by bringing in a spurious argument involving some other defeat in a string of defeats! Unbelievable. Face it. Bangladesh was immensely superior and Anamul had absolutely no match. I watched the match and it was a leather hunt. Anamul made the fielders run from pillar to post. Period.
We all make mistakes. The difference is how we look at the mistake. Do we learn from it, do we take action to correct it ? Our attitude towards any mistakes we make will make a big difference in our life. Keep a positive outlook, learn from your mistakes, and don't hesitate to take action to correct them, they are the cornerstone of clarity in "knowing" what works for you and what doesn't.