The nation of Pakistan received a welcome surprise today after their team overcame Zimbabwe in a tight contest that may as well have been dubbed the battle of the minnows – going by Pakistan’s woeful recent batting performances.

In fact, considering Zimbabwe’s stellar World Cup scores of 277, 286, and 289, one could argue that Pakistan’s win was a bit of an upset.

After losing to India and then capitulating against the West Indies, captain Misbah-ul-Haq urged his team to seek example from the heroics of Imran Khan’s 1992 efforts. Unfortunately, it seems Misbah’s players took his words literally, and time traveled back to 1992 where scores of over 225 in 50 overs were considered to be commanding totals.

So desperate was Pakistan to emulate the triumphant team’s heroics from the 23-year-old World Cup final that Pakistan lost both its openers cheaply, before smashing the anchor deep into the ocean seabed; refusing to let their prehistoric vessel budge.

Full tosses were pushed back to the bowlers while few attempts were made to rotate the strike. At the end of 15 overs, Pakistan stood at 33 for 2, which was the lowest 15 over score in the World Cup; worse than UAE’s 41 runs against India.

The thrilling recovery continued as Pakistan finally crossed the rate of 3 runs per over at the end of the 24th over.

The situation was dire enough for the stadium DJ to begin playing patriotic Pakistani pop songs to lift the Asian minnows’ spirits.

So outdated was Pakistan’s recovery strategy that one wonders if Misbah-ul-Haq and Haris Sohail thought that Ghulam Ishaq Khan was Pakistan’s President, and that Michael Jackson was still reigning at the top of the music charts.

Missing Fawad ...

 

Before the World Cup had begun, the untested Haris Sohail had taken Fawad Alam’s place in the squad after the prolific player had been criticised for being too slow a batsman.

Today, the similarly styled left-handed batsman cum bowler showed just how much faster he was than Fawad Alam, with a dazzling 27 runs at a breakneck strike rate of 61.36, against an opposition like Zimbabwe.

Fact is, Pakistan desperately missed Fawad today – a player who sustained a batting average of 45 runs over 35 matches. Arguments against the left-hander’s strike rate aren’t holding much merit, considering that his replacements Haris Sohail and Younis Khan are barely troubling the scorers. In fact, the ODI strike rate of all three of these hovers around 75.

At the very least, Fawad, who loves to keep the numbers ticking with singles and doubles, would have scored a 50 or perhaps even a 100 against Zimbabwe. Fawad isn’t perfect, but he surely has displayed more skill at finding the gaps than the current Pakistan top order.