Review of Pakistan’s performance in the ICC World Cup 2011 - Part 1
Before the start of the ICC World Cup 2011, no cricket analyst was rating Pakistan as a big force for the mega event, but the Men in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Green-c60723 surprised everybody through some brilliant display of cricket.
The highlight for Pakistan in the showpiece event was the fact that they finished Number one in group A after the pool matches and defeated top teams like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 in their group. Pakistan broke the Aussie run of 34 consecutive matches undefeated
in World Cup cricket and blew away the Kangaroos’ batting through some extra-ordinary bowling display.
The Men in Green dismantled http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Canada-c748. However their bowlers made up for that later on and bowled out the whole Canadian team cheaply and avoided a shameful defeat.
Pakistan was brilliant against the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 in the quarter-final and outplayed the Caribbean team in all the departments of the game.
The Men in Green met hot favourites http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in the second semi-final of the tournament and there was extreme hype in the cricketing world about that fixture. Many cricket pundits rated that match as the ‘Mother of all Games’ and naturally the players were
under immense pressure which reflected in their batting effort as Pakistan failed to chase down a mediocre score in the second innings.
However, there worst game in the World Cup was the one against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 where they dropped catches, leaked easy runs and the batting collapsed miserably.
Bowling has never been the problem area for Pakistan, as they always had great fast bowlers as well as spinners. Same is the case at present as they lost their two best fast bowlers Mohammad Amir and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Asif-c76741 through the spot-fixing controversy but
their bowling attack is still one of the best in the business.
Although Shahid Afridi could not contribute with the bat, but he led his team from the front with the ball and became the highest wicket-taker of the tournament with 21 scalps. India’s http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zaheer-Khan-c98451 also took 21 wickets but he played one more match as compared
to the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Hafeez-c76898 made Pakistan’s spin bowling department extremely efficient, probably the best in the tournament.
Like always, Pakistan’s batting was inconsistent throughout the World Cup, as Afridi and company relied on their bowlers to win them the matches. Such was their performance with the bat that they reached the semi-final stage of the mega event without a single
batsman scoring a century.
The disappointing point for Pakistan was the performance of their senior batsmen like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 as well. On a big stage like the World Cup, the senior players take the responsibility on their
shoulders and guide the youngsters through difficult situations. However, that was not the case in the World Cup for Pakistan in the batting department.
To be continued ...
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