The story of Pakistan's defeat
England outclassed Pakistan in the first match of the super eight stage of the T20 World in West Indies as they beat Pakistan by six wickets, at Bridgetown Barbados. Pakistan’s performance was utterly unprofessional with Captain Shahid Afridi unable to control his young team members. Lack of planning and commitment were evident on the pitch, where Pakistan continued to display their poor form. To add more misery, the six dropped catches by the fielders did not help Pakistan’s cause either. The huge gap in the fielding standard of Pakistan and rest of the top teams in world cricket is there for everyone to see.
England captain Paul Collingwood won the toss and decided to bowl on a pitch that was expected to offer some bounce and assistance to the pacers. Kamran Akmal hooked the first ball of the match for a towering six, which must have given heart to Pakistani fans and supporters. After a brief and brisk opening stand of 31 runs, Kamran Akmal edged one high, trying to play one shot too many. After a long absence from the Pakistani team, Muhammad Hafeez walked in at number 3. Hafeez showed some signs of stability during his stay at the pitch, but fell prey to a rash shot once again. Six runs later, Collingwood caught Salman Butt for 34 off the bowling of Graeme Swan. The young sensation Umar Akmal came in next, who was joined by Shahid Afridi who is believed to be Pakistan's best T20 player. Afridi has not looked like a shadow of himself in this tournament, despite a 33 against Australia. Afridi looked short of confidence as he pushed the ball a few feet away in the covers and decided to take off on a suicidal run.
After being sent back by Umar Akmal, Afridi was found short of his crease, which left Pakistan 77 for the loss of 4 wickets in the 11th over. Misbah ul Haq and Abdul Razzaq did try to resurrect the innings. Eventually, both players followed the same pattern by playing irresponsible strokes, leading to their downfall. Pakistan ended their innings at 147 for the loss of nine wickets, largely thanks to the 13 runs scored by Saeed Ajmal in the last over.
Sidebottom, Broad, and Yardy all claimed two wickets each for England.
The Pakistani team had a less than impressive body language when they came out to the field and seemed to have conceded the match even before England started the chase. In an extraordinary display of fielding, Saeed Ajmal dropped three simple catches, which summed up Pakistan’s performance for the day. Ajmal tried to make up for the dropped catches by getting Lumbs wicket in his first over. Kieswetter was caught in the deep by Umar Akmal off the bowling of Abdul Razzaq for 25. However, Kevin Pietersen came in at number 3 who simply took the match away from Pakistan. He was also given another life when Razzaq dropped his catch early in the innings off his own bowling. Pietersen made the Pakistani bowlers pay for their mistakes by scoring a quick fire 73 off just 52 balls, which included 8 boundaries and 2 sixes. Muhammad Asif, who was brought into the side to replace the underperforming Muhammad Sami, conceded 43 runs in his quota of four overs. England won the match by six wickets with three balls to spare.
Pakistan needs to improve their game, if they want to make it through to the semi finals of the World Championships. Shahid Afridi and Coach Waqar Younis need to go back to the drawing board and come up with some new plans against New Zealand and South Africa. Given Pakistan’s last years triumph in the T20 World Cup in England, which had started in similar fashion, one can still not rule the unpredictable green machine out of the tournament.
Tags: