Pakistan find their World Cup rhythm in the nick of time
But the qualification chances of Babar Azam’s side remain alive and well after Saturday’s win over New Zealand.
Match Highlights of the Pakistan-New Zealand clash. The Men in Green won their ICC Men's Cricket World Cup contest against New Zealand by 21 runs (DLS Method).
A win in the team’s final game against England, preferably by a large margin to add NRR, could yet send Pakistan into the semi-finals of a tournament that they seemed destined to exit at the group stage.
But Saturday’s batting hero, Fakhar Zaman, says that this group of players shouldn’t be underestimated and just needed to hit their stride.
“This Pakistani team is very talented,” the opener said, after his match-winning century against New Zealand. “If you see from the beginning till now – it’s just that we need a rhythm, which we tend to lose over time.
“When we get that rhythm then everyone plays well. Like in the last match our bowlers bowled very well. Even in this match at the end the bowlers made a very good comeback. The way the wicket was playing, I think we saved 30-40 runs.”
Fakhar Zaman hit an imperious 126* from 81 balls.
Rain fell to earn Pakistan a win by DLS Method against New Zealand, with the score on 200/1 after just 25 overs of their attempted chase of 402 to win.
Fakhar’s extraordinary 81-ball 126* played the most significant role in getting Pakistan into that winning position before the weather closed in.
And the 33-year-old revealed that it was always in the batters’ minds that DLS could come into play.
“Yes of course – the rain was already playing in our head and of course when you have a target of 400 runs you will think about the calculations if rain stops play," he said.
“After every over or two overs we used to get a message of how at every time we stay ahead of New Zealand.
“When we went ahead and scored 10 runs, we didn't even try to play the other overs. We already knew that it was going to rain and we were already ahead. So, this was in our mind.”
Pakistan reached 200/1 in 25.3 overs. Check the innings highlights of the game which was eventually won by Pakistan by 21 runs (DLS Method).
Four consecutive losses, to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa, left Pakistan facing the prospect of an early exit from the World Cup.
But Fakhar said that the team had always remained upbeat during their campaign, even before this latest outstanding display.
“The good thing about our team and management is that they stay positive. They always stay positive and they never show us that we are out of the tournament," Fakhar noted.
“They back each and every guy and we still believe that we can play the semi-finals and also finals. But let's see because now we are also looking to the Sri Lanka and New Zealand game. We are hopeful that, that will go our way.”
Should Australia beat Afghanistan on Tuesday and Sri Lanka beat the Kiwis on Thursday then it would leave Pakistan firmly in control of the race for qualification, with their game against England coming late in the group stage.