Pakistan looking for q-final berth
Pakistan will be looking to book a place in the quarterfinals of the
Cricket World Cup after a lapse of 12 years when they take on the
minnows Canada in their Group ‘A’ fixture under lights at the R.
Premadasa Stadium today.
After defeating Kenya and Sri Lanka respectively Pakistan are almost
assured of qualifying for the last eight if they could win today’s day
night game in the 14 nation tournament. Pakistan’s last two campaigns
had ended in real disaster as the 1992 champions made a first round exit
in the year 2003 in South Africa and four years later in the Caribbean.
Canada lost their first game to Sri Lanka by a huge margin of 210
runs in Hambantota and then they were beaten by Zimbabwe by 175 runs in
Nagpur. However Pakistan coach Waqar Younis said that because of the
importance of the tournament they are not going to take any team easily.
“We played well against Sri Lanka but tomorrow is another game and we
need to carry on the momentum. It’s still early days in the tournament
and bigger teams will come but we are not thinking far ahead,” he added.
Pakistan’s strength has been their bowling attack and surprisingly
skipper Shahid Afridi has been the most successful among the lot with a
total of nine wickets from the two games and is on the verge of entering
the World’s top ten bowlers in the ICC Rankings. Fast bowler Shoaib
Akhtar has also provided vital breakthroughs whenever the team needed
but Umar Gul is yet to fire and his place could be in danger as Pakistan
have the option of playing Wahab Riaz.
In fact Akhtar needs only four more wickets to reach the milestone of
completing 250 wickets in One Day Internationals. CD |