Pakistan relax against Zimbabwe

History in cricket has been evident as to what would happen in case a strong team underestimates or relaxes against a so called weak team. However, Pakistan yesterday got back into the game when they saw Tantenda Taibu and Chigumbura advancing towards the target of 142. In the beginning, Pakistan had a slow start which remained to be slow by scoring runs at just over 7.00 runs an over. After Mohammed Hafeez scored 51 runs at the top of the innings, the next score worth mentioning was that of Umar Akmal who scored 28 runs that too under 6.00 runs an over which might be justified only in ODIs.

Looking at the scorecard, it is evident that the Pakistan was also touring Zimbabwe with an inexperienced team with only Shoaib Malik, having played more than 100 one day internationals. But, that would be more than enough against team like Zimbabwe. Had the same score been put up against some other team like India or England, the result would have been otherwise. On the otherhand, Zimbabwe had 2 batsmen in Tatenda Taibu and Chigumbura who have played more than 100 one dayers. That was just for the sake of trivia which has hardly got anything to do with the match result.

The Zimbabwean captain - Brendan Taylor stuck to the famous five formula when he had just five of his bowlers bowling at the Pakistani batsmen. Though Taylor had experimented with his bowlers, that would have hardly changed the match result. Out of those five bowlers, there was a pick of the bowlers when Kyle Jarvis returned with figures of 4-0-15-3 which was a bowling performance one of its kind. Another feat to be relished was Mohammed Hafeez' efforts of 3-0-11-3 which made him both the top scorer of the match and the most economical bowler as well at the same time.

All that mattered for Zimbabwe which was responsible in them losing to Pakistan was because their top order didn't just cope up with their middle order losing wickets at regular intervals. It is just understandable that Charles Coventry got bowled by Junad Khan with his experience not justifying that. Looking at the scorecard, I wish Mohammed Hafeez should have been given another over when he was the most economical bowler in terms of runs given as well when he gave away runs at a rate of 3.66 an over. If Yasir was to be tried, Misbah-Ul-Haq could have done it replacing Sohail Tanvir.

An obvious result for Pakistan

Well as all would have predicted, Pakistan beat Zimbabwe by a whopping 85 runs at Harare yesterday with contributions pouring in from all the batsmen who took it to the crease. There is little to be argued about keeping in mind the caliber of the Zimbabwe team who have made news only for the bad reasons when in 2005 they were stripped off their test status and had a series of losses to Bangladesh, by now who have become Bangladesh's best friend in cricket. Zimbabwe more often play Bangladesh and most of the time it is Bangladesh who walk away with all the honor.

Every year there would be a tour consisting of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh where either of them tour the other country for a full fledged series. This would be a delight for Bangladesh who can boast of a win. Had there been no Zimbabwe, Bangladesh would have lost all the test matches they would have played and may be their test status as well. One can see the scorecard to find the 15 wide deliveries bowled by the Zimbabwean bowlers out of the total of 198. If not for those wides also, Pakistan would have emerged victorious. It was a wrong idea to have Pakistan play Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe are best suited to play lesser known teams like Holland, Scotland, Ireland, Bermuda etc and not some Pakistan. Even against those teams, there are greater chances of Zimbabwe losing with Ireland and Kenya playing better cricket compared to what is expected out from them. There would be no point in looking for mistakes in the Pakistani batting which included contributions from Mohammed Hafeez, Asad Shafiq, Rameez Raja and Umar Akmal. Had Pakistan used its brains, they would have rested their key players and tried in some lesser known names. But, who can convince the PCB to try that out?

The Zimbabwean batsmen failed to even play their full 20 overs when their innings ended in the 98^th ball of the innings after scoring 113 runs. Though that would be something harsh to expect from Zimbabwe, teams like Ireland are found to do wonders. The highest individual score from Zimbabwe happened to be from the blades of Charles Coventry who scored 30 from 13 balls that included four boundaries and one six. Coventry came in at number 7 and Zimbabwe had to wait until the sixth wicket fell. Though a victory over Pakistan is not expected from Zimbabwe, a decent performance is definitely looked forward from them.

Was this a T20 or an ODI?

Well I just cannot say anything about the first quarter-finals between West Indies and Pakistan. I was totally confused whether the game was a T20 or an ODI. Scorecard suggests that West Indies played a 50 over cricket with Pakistan playing a T20 game if the overs played are considered. To be exact, West Indies played 43.3 overs and Pakistan played 20.5 overs meaning, the West Indies' innings lasted just short of 50 overs while Pakistan's batting innings lasted just above 20 overs. This would no doubt go down as the worst contest of the tournament no matter who says what.

Needless to be said, Pakistan effortlessly surpassed the total with no bowlers able to stop them from winning. The West Indies' bowlers could not even get a single Pakistani batsman out. Had Shahid Afridi been to the crease, the West Indian bowlers might have just walked out with a consolation of having gone with a wicket in hand. One can go and check out the scorecards of all the games played in his tournament so far to see where the West Indies stand after this encounter with Pakistan. As a matter of fact, Canada were able to bowl out the Pakistanis out for 184.

Bangladesh, defending 58 runs were able to scalp the wicket of Devon Smith and Holland were bowled out for a score that was 8 runs more than what West Indies could score against Pakistan yesterday. The list goes on and on. The only performances worse than this was Kenya's loss to the Kiwis and Bangladesh losing to South Africa to mention a few. Was this the game that most of the cricket fans over the world were looking forward to? A hint regarding the performance of the West Indies team was observed in the earlier games the West Indies played.

They did well to get both England and India all out but failed miserable in the chase which was not so tough given the likes of Chris Gayle, Devon Smith and Ramnaresh Sarwan. A total of 245 against England and 269 against was not an unachievable one for any decent outfit. Had West Indies beaten India the other day, they would not have been playing Australia today which happens to be a different issue. But, quarter-finals of a world cup should be a different game compared to what happened in the league stages isn't it? One has to just wait and watch what happens after this.