England defeat Pakistan in T20 world cup super 8 stage
England outclassed Pakistan by a long way in all departments of the game, in the first match of the super 8s as they beat Pakistan by 6 wickets, at Bridgetown Barbados. Pakistan’s performance can in short be called utterly unprofessional, New Captain Shahid Afridi just does not seem to be in control of his young team, and lack of planning and commitment were evident on the pitch. As England simply blew Pakistan away, 6 dropped catches did not help Pakistan’s cause either, the huge gap in their fielding standards and the top teams in world cricket is there for everyone to see.
England captain Paul Collingwood won the toss and decided to put Pakistan in on a pitch which was expected to offer some bounce and assistance to pacers, the first ball of the match pitched in short by Sidebottom to Kamran Akmal was hooked out of the park, which must have given heart to Pakistan supporters, and after a brief and brisk opening stand of 31 Kamran AKmal edged one high trying to play one shot too many, after scoring 15 back in the side after a long absence Muhammad Hafeez walked in at number 3. Showed some signs of the good form that won him his place back in the side, but fell prey to once again a rash shot, just 6 runs after Salman Butt Was caught by Collingwood for 34 off the bowling of Graeme Swan, the young sensation Umar Akmal was in next joined by Shahid Afridi who is believed to be Pakistans best t20 player, but has just not looked himself in this tournament despite a 33 against Australia.
Afridi has been short of confidence overall in the field, and in this match on his first delivery after pushing the ball few feet away on the covers, for some reason decided to take off on a suicidal run, sent back by Umar AKmal and was found short of his crease, which left Pakistan 77 for the loss of 4 wickets in the 11thb over, Misbah ul Haq with 13and Abdul Razzaq did try to resuract the innings but both followed the pattern and irresponsible strokes lead to the downfall of Razzaq, Misbah and Umar Akmal, as Pakistan ended at 147 for the loss of 9 wickets, that too thanks to 13 runs from the last over by Saeed Ajmal.
Sidebottom, Broad and Yardy all claimed 2 wickets each for England.
Pakistan team when came back on the field to defend the mediocre score, had less than impressive body language and seemed to have conceded the match before England started the chase, Believe it or not , Saeed Ajmal while standing at Mid-on dropped not one not two but 3 relatively simple catches, which summed up Pakistan’s performance, Ajmal later made something of a manse by getting Lumbs wicket in his first over, on 25, Kieswetter was caught in the deep by Umar Akmal off the bowling of Abul Razzaq for 25, but Kevin Pietersen at number 3 simply took the match away from Pakistan, he also was dropped by Razzaq early in his innings off his own bowling, and he made them pay big time, scoring 73 unbeaten runs off just 52 balls, which included 8 boundaries and 2 sixes. Muhammad Asif who was brought in the side to replace the underperforming Muhammad Sami, conceded 43 runs in his quota of 4 overs. As England won the match by 6 wickets and 3 balls to spare.
Pakistan need to improve their game immensely, if they are to have any sort of a chance of making it through to the semi finals of the world championship, Shahid Afridi and coach Waqar Younis really need to go back to the drawing board and derive some new plans and set up a strategy for the next 2 super 8 matches against New Zealand and South Africa, and given Pakistan’s last years triumph which started pretty much in the similar fashion, despite the dismal performances in the last 2 games, one can still not rule the unpredictable green machine out.
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