http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Canada-c748 ‘good wake-up call’ – ICC World Cup 2011
In a statement made after Pakistan beat Canada in an ICC World Cup 2011 fixture Thursday, a relieved Shahid Afridi stated that the match was a good wake up call before some crucial matches for his team. The green shirts are almost
guaranteed a spot in the quarter-finals after this win.
Heroics from their often maligned captain helped http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 survive a serious scare against minnows Canada in an exciting encounter at the Premadasa stadium in Colombo. The men in green who had done brilliantly to register a win over
one of the favourites http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 in their last game at the same venue were pushed all the way by the amateurs in a gripping contest.
Buoyed by the astounding success of the Irish team against England in Pool B, the Canadian seamers made life extremely difficult for the technically ill-equipped Pakistani batsmen who were caught wanting on a slightly challenging track
for the umpteenth time in their recent history.
They were all out for a meagre 184 run total, and had it not been a magical spell of spin bowling by their mercurial captain they would have endured their third loss to a minnow in the World Cup since 1999. The Canadians had hoped
to catch the men in green on an off day just the way the Bangladeshis had done in 1999, followed by the Irish in 2007 and it almost paid off for them.
Shahid commented on the match, "I told my boys that we must play for a win, to not be negative, we will win this game, work hard and don't worry about the result," he said. "There was poor shot selection and it was a very poor batting
performance. If we want to play good cricket against good teams then we must improve. It's a good wake-up call for us."
On the other hand Afridi added that he was more concerned of the failure of the middle-order than the opening pair that once again was caught off guard and paid for their half-hearted approach.
The game against Canada was the third failure for the openers, Ahmed Shehzad and Mohammad Hafeez, and what compounds their problem more is that two of the three failures have been against lowly ranked teams.
However, for Afridi the major concern was the middle and the lower middle order batting. He felt that seasoned pros like himself and Abdul Razzaq should have cashed in the last ten overs or so and added at least 50 runs to the eventual
score that the men in green mustered.
"We had a very good opportunity for me, for Abdul Razzaq, for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972 and Umar Akmal to carry on batting; we could have scored more runs but we didn't. We need a good start”.
The next challenge for Afridi’s men is a game against the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 at Pallekele. The Pakistanis defeated them in a One Day International (ODI) series on the eve of the World Cup and will be fancying their chances against Daniel
Vettori’s squad that looked ordinary against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 at Nagpur.
After the Kiwi game Pakistan takes on another low ranked opponent, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045, at the same venue. A win against the two teams would give the men in green a real chance of topping the standings in Pool A which would be guaranteed if they
beat the Australians in their last pool match at the Premadasa stadium.
If Pakistan ends its pool at the top position than they are set to play the fourth best team in pool B, the most likely opposition would be the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747, two teams that are much lower in quality than the Indians, South
Africans or even England that has so far failed to contain runs even against the minnows.
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