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.

Drop catches and the tournament will drop your team

Well one can imagine the drop catch of the Kiwi big-hitting batsman Ross Taylor in the league stages of the tournament in the match between Pakistan and New Zealand at an unimportant venue. Ross Taylor was solely responsible in bringing up a total in excess of 300 when he blasted 92 runs of the last 4 overs at a rate of over 20 runs an over. That was the first defeat that Pakistan had in this tournament but was hard to come to terms with whatsoever. That was Pakistan's first defeat to New Zealand since 1979 world cup in world cups.

And then I can cite the match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka where top batsmen were repeatedly dropped by poor Pakistani fielders which though didn't stop Pakistan from emerging victorious but reduced the margin to victory restricting the same to just ten runs. Many claim that to be a close encounter for Sri Lanka that could have gone anybody's way. But, anybody who would have watched the match ball-by-ball would conclude that it was Pakistan's drop chances that reduced the margin of victory to ten instead of 50. Thse two games never bothered Pakistan for those were league stage games.

There was always a chance for Pakistan to come back into the tournament when all was not lost. They had won the match against Sri Lanka and later on in the world cup tournament beat Australia which saw them top the charts in group A ahead of Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Australia. Then in the quarter-finals, beating West Indies was not a tough task for anyone. But, the real test for Pakistan would be in the match against India where they have been ousted for the third time by their arch-rivals India. I'm not citing their 5-0 loss to India in world cups.

India knocked out Pakistan in the 1996 world cup when they registered a 39 run win despite a 113 run 1^st wicket partnership between Aamir Sohail and Saeed Anwar in 13 overs. Then came the match in 2003 which was famous for a drop catch of Sachin Tendulkar off a Wasim Akram delivery by Abdul Razzaq which spoiled their hopes of entering the super-sixes. Yesterday, another series of drop catches was observed when Sachin Tendulkar himself was dropped four times with Sehwag being given a chance. With all these, chasing 261 should not have been difficult for Pakistan. May be Pakistan wanted to go home early.