Pakistan Makes Full Use of The Advantage

Well the match between Ireland and Pakistan played last night was as expected won by Pakistan, who in the process made it to the semi finals of the ongoing T20 world for the second time, after making it in South Africa last time a couple of years back. However, things are not difficult for any test playing nation when there are teams like Ireland around. For a better picture regarding the caliber of the Pakistan team, one has to consider the matches against stronger teams like Sri Lanka, New Zealand and England. Pakistan lost to these teams barring New Zealand. Both Sri Lanka and England came out better than Pakistan on that day.

Anyway, that is a forgotten issue at the moment. And in the match between Pakistan and Ireland, it was a rather decent game played by the Irish there, for they never gave up their chase like the New Zealand did. In the super eight of the ICC T20, the Irish have displayed a comparitively better performance when compared to New Zealand not only in their match against Pakistan but otherwise also. Being a test playing nation, New Zealand were all out for a partly score of 99 and the Irish managed to go up to 120 with a wicket still in their hand. One need not be reminded that Ireland had defeated Pakistan in the ICC world cup 2007.

All that the New Zealand team could manage was a win against minnows Ireland and Scotland. And most of the odds favor Sri Lanka in their last encounter of the world cup this season. I wish New Zealand recall the thrashing given by Sanath Jayasuriya in the inaugural edition of the same. New Zealand were no match for any test playing nation even then. It was shrude luck that landed New Zealand in the semis. New Zealand entered the semis at the cost of South Africa or in other words, South Africa's loss was New Zealand's gain. It was good to see an Irish batsman score 40.

Had it not been for Ireland, things would have surely been tough for Pakistan and may be that in place of India or Australia, Pakistan would have been eliminated. This could be taken from the game played against strong teams. It was the same luck that helped Pakistan win the 1992 world cup in Australia/New Zealand when at one point of time they were not even the favourites to make it to the semis. And in the semis against New Zealand, it was only after Inzamam stepped in that Pakistan could hope of a final berth. And this time as well, Pakistan have defeated only one test playing nation in New Zealand. The real task for Pakistan is in the semis.