Lacklustre Pakistan need to rethink, regroup

JOHANNESBURG-Disappointing in the extreme as it was, the defeat against India at Centurion on Saturday is just the latest of setbacks for Pakistan. Having lost all three of their important games, they flew off to Bulawayo with long faces Sunday morning, hoping to muster a huge win against Zimbabwe to somehow grab the last Super Sixes slot from Group A.

Leaving it to the last, and then qualifying through the net-run rate was what captain Waqar Younis eschewed. He did want to make it to the Super Sixes fair and square, all wrapped in glory by beating India after lacklustre displays against Australia and England. But making it through the `back door' (as Waqar had described it before the Indian encounter), howsoever less palatable, is the only option left open to him now.

And that too, if Australia retains its exalted status as the only team unbeaten so far in this World Cup against England on Sunday. When one wrote these lines, the match was on, and England after a bright start had faltered to 170-odd for six with seven overs remaining.

So Australia was on course to full 24 points, and India was right behind them at 20 - both having made it to the next round. The scramble was now between England, Zimbabwe and Pakistan - the first two with 12 points, with Pakistan at eight.

But victory against Zimbabwe, and four points emanating from it, would make it likely for Pakistan to edge the other contestants out. More so as Pakistan's last game of the pool, would allow them to know exactly what was required while batting and bowling. But whether this Pakistan outfit is capable of achieving precise results is a point of conjecture.

The ability surely is there - it is the execution and the mindset to perform against the odds which is in question.

Only about four months ago, Pakistan had blanked Zimbabwe in all five games there, scoring above 300 runs in three matches. Though they would hope to put up a similarly emphatic performance in their last league game, who knows what is in store for them now. That series in any case seems to have taken place ages ago.

Since then Pakistan has under-performed like never before, losing seven of their 10 matches. What is worse, their performance against minnows Namibia and Canada too has been at best scrappy, in one department or another. For instance, even Zimbabwe managed well over 300 runs against Namibia and Netherlands, while Pakistan could only make 250-odd apiece against both. Then the bowling has allowed the opposition off the hook on all occasions except India - when it received a spanking from the word go, allowing India to more or less finish the game by the 12th over by conceding 100 runs. Waqar had a two-wicket burst, and Afridi and Akhtar got a wicket apiece, but by then the horses had already bolted.

The defeat against India has made one thing quite evident: Pakistan badly requires rethinking and regrouping. That is if they want to salvage a measure of pride, and go any further than the Super Sixes, if they reach there at all, that too with points in the bank against other qualifiers showing a blob.

Coming back to the match against India, there is no denying that Sachin Tendulkar was in sublime form. But the fact of the matter is that the Pakistani bowlers bowled to his strengths, feeding him short and wide ball on both sides of the stumps and a string of half volleys. The Shoaib Akhtar delivery that bowled Tendulkar was the only one that ripped into his body, and the bowler was instantly rewarded with the wicket. Virender Sehwag has a known weakness against deliveries rearing off a length and aiming towards his rib cage. He didn't get any until Waqar got lucky with him as he slashed on yet another wide one.

That Waqar and Akhtar bowled poorly was understandable, but Akram, though he was more economical than the above mentioned duo, bowling with such singular lack of discipline was mind-boggling.

Not that his admission is any consolation, but Waqar later admitted that the bowlers didn't bowl according to the plan. For one over or two, that is understandable, but for the entire first half of the match? And what good is a plan that is forgotten the moment your key bowlers, the so-called match-winners, step on to the field.

So far, there seemed to be little method in what Pakistan has done in this World Cup. There have been some individual performances that have stood out, none more than Saeed Anwar's remarkable ton against India. But Pakistan has filed to fire as a team, in every department of the game.

They need to get their act together to sustain them from now on. But would they?