The very promising Pakistan campaign at the World T20 has been put under a lot of uncertainty today after a humiliating loss at the hands of India by 61 runs in a big fight between the two glorified nations under Group A. The defeat means a similar fate for their qualification, and they will possibly have to go into the final game-of-group matches.
With all results that would cause even a draw or just a single point against Australia and Zimbabwe respectively after having held Namibia to a 6-run loss, the United States have a rather dashingly superior net-run-rate than Pakistan.
Following the draw between the United States of America and Namibia, the lowest seed stands between two winners and India. However, if the US and Namibia manage to accomplish a draw, context will still be taken into account to achieve a point.
If Pakistan were to lose against Namibia in the decider in the group matches, they will be out of the tournament.
Pakistan’s qualification depends in large part on others, especially Namibia dutifully beat the US and the Netherlands.
Rain games could spurt out a semifinal berth with three wins for Pakistan.
All three matches do have the potential to stage the results for the bangtail teams.
India Continue Their Dominance
Faced with a target of 175, India showed resolve and batted solidly. Ishan Kishan’s brazen 77 proved the highest score; he found support from Suryakumar Yadav and Shivam Dube.
Pakistan’s chase never got going, were in dire straits at 13/3 for the best part of it, and were bowled out for 114. The top score was struck by Usman Khan’s 44, and the early collapse was just too difficult to recover from.
Hesson keen to bounce back
Pakistan coach Mike Hesson today expressed disappointment at the dressing room inquirer after the cricket game defeat.
“The dressing room is obviously quite devastated at the moment because everyone understands what it means for Pakistan,” said Hesson, clearly referring to the emotional weight tethering an India-Singapore match.
“We feel like we underperformed compared to India, despite our being quite ahead in momentum after the last five games,” he further added.
“We know it’s a big game, Pakistan against India. We obviously won five on the bounce before today so we were confident, but today we got outplayed,” Michael added.
Hesson also defended the fact that they opted to bowl first, as the initial conditions looked good for the bowlers. “The ball was spinning quite a lot early on, and we started well. But the way Kishan played, he took the game away from us,” he said.
Must-Win Game
In a final match before the knockout match against Namibia, Hesson urged his side to recover fast.
‘Pick the pieces and come back solid thereto in a day or two,’ he decided.
‘I have to move forward with the confidence of the cricket that we’ve been playing leading up to the World Cup,’ he retained.
Now, alternatively, Pakistan’s T20 World Cup journey is all about performance and equations when the competitiveness is becoming tough and the net run rate comes to play.
