South Africa exit yet again

For the third consecutive time, South Africa have given a grand exit from the world cup after losing to Pakistan at Gros Islet by 11 runs. The margin of victory for Pakistan might not seem to be that good but, the match against the Proteas was worth wining for both teams one, for South Africa to make it to the semis and second for Pakistan to keep their hopes alive in making it to the semis. Pakistan has lost both their earlier games to England and New Zealand while South Africa have a win against New Zealand and a loss to England.

With all gates being close for South Africa, Pakistan has a chance of making it to the semi-finals in case England happen to win over New Zealand. In case New Zealand win, the semi-finalists would be the two teams which beat Pakistan in the super eight stage. Coming to the match, the pitch never seemed to favor the batsmen when both Pakistan and South Africa had a bowler in their team who could scalp 4 wickets. Or else, a total of 147 is hard to defend. This is for the 2^nd time that Pakistan have ousted South Africa from T20 world cup.

Last time year, Pakistan had knocked off South Africa (who were until then unbeaten) in the semi-finals of the tournament en route to their successful campaign in England. Looking at the scorecard, After Kamran Akmal's stint at the top, Pakistan had to wait until the entry of Umar Akmal to see their scoreboard ticking once again. It was Umar Akmal's 51 runs along with a 61 run partnership with Shahid Afridi which laid the platform for a decent score on a bowler friendly pitch which went on to become a winning total for them. Shahid Afridi's 30 runs from 16 balls should also not go unnoticed.

Coming to the batting of the South Africans, initial blows from Asif and Abdul Razzaq was more than enough for viewers to come to conclusion of the match. If not for AB deVilliars, no other batsmen really had something to talk about. In the end, South Africa lost equal number of wickets as Pakistan but fell 11 runs short of what Pakistan could put up on the scoreboard. Now, all that Pakistan would want to happen is that England win thrashes the Kiwis which will see Pakistan making to the semis of a T20 world cup for the third consecutive time.

Sensational victory for England

One would have hardly expected England to win against Pakistan at Bridgetown yesterday when they couldn't win even a single encounter in the league stages of the tournament. Whatever, there is no reason why England should not win against any team. But, looking at the way they played against Ireland, speaks of their caliber to take on Pakistan. Of course, one should not forget they way bad fortune stuck them in the match against West Indies when they scored 191 and still lost with rain interfering and forcing the second innings to just 5 overs. Had the match progressed, England would have definitely won.

However, in the match against Ireland, England could manage only 120 on the board which cannot be a winning total even in today's one dayers. In yesterday's game, Pakistani batsmen are themselves to blame for having put a low total with most of them scoring more or less the same number of runs. Batsmen who comparatively stood apart were Salman Butt and Umar Akmal who scored in thirties. But, that could have been a score only in cases where rain interrupts and a D-L method gets enforced and the match gets reduced to five overs. A strike rate of less than 150 by top batsmen is useless in T20 cricket.

It is confusing to read the mindset of the Pakistani batsmen who took such a different approach. Otherwise, the Pakistani batsmen are known for their blind slogging needless to be said. That was the main reason why the Pakistani batsmen got flattered here yesterday. There were four bowlers from England who bowled their complete quota while Paul Collingwood unnecessarily got one over which went for ten runs.With a total of just 147 on the board, there was nothing much that the Pakistani bowlers could do. There was not even a single bowler who stood apart and tried to control the flow of runs.

Keeping in mind England's problem against spin bowling, Saeed Ajmal had a say when he scalped 2 wickets and gave away runs at a rate of just over 5.00 runs an over and was given to bowl 4 overs which made him the most economical bowler of the lot. So was the case with Shahid Afridi who got the wicket of Collingwood. There didn't seem to be any pressure on the English batsmen though they took the game until the last over to secure a win. Mistake lied in allowing Mohammad Asif to bowl 4 overs despite going in for 10.00 runs an over.

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.