The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Pakistan cautiously get past Canada to keep their Super 8 hopes alive
DESPERATE SITUATIONS call for desperate measures, even if it means breaking up one of the most prolific opening partnerships for a team. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan have been almost a constant at the top of the order for Pakistan in their recent T20I history – not to great effect of late - but after two demoralising defeats to start their T20 World Cup campaign and the wave of criticism coming in their direction, the skipper made the radical decision to drop himself down the order.
With net run rate also in the picture, conventional logic would suggest that the former champions would have try to get the 107-run target as quickly as possible, but the lack of confidence and vagaries of the unpredictable Nassau County pitch meant that even against a limited opposition like Canada, they seemed content in strolling over the finish line. That the seven-wicket win was achieved with only 15 balls remaining told a tale in itself. Pakistan had to seal victory inside 14 overs to get ahead of the United States' net run rate, but managed just 28/1 in the Powerplay.
As things turned out, it came down to the old firm again after elegant left-hander Saim Ayub perished to a cross-batted swipe, and the modest target allowed Babar and Rizwan to play their usual brand of conservative partnership batting, turning the strike over consistently with the odd boundary thrown in.
The win over Canada, an expected outcome despite Pakistan's recent travails, is only the first step in a possible redemption journey after the ignominy of a Super-over defeat against USA and the failure to overhaul 119 against India, prompting a safetyfirst approach even more than halfway into the chase with as many as nine wickets in hand.
Babar and Rizwan are not the biggest hitters going around, and the New York pitch needed someone with brute power to take the surface out of the equation, but apart from the odd show of belligerence, discretion was considered the better part of valour. The Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman has taken some heat over the last couple of days for his choice of shot against India when Jasprit Bumrah was brought back to get a wicket, and it was a case of once bitten, twice shy. It was only after Babar's dismissal for a sedate 33 -- to an attempted dab that landed in the wicketkeeper's gloves, that incensed him enough to throw his wicket away -- that Rizwan opened up with a handsome lofted six over the off-side, before reverting to the default option and remaining not out with a run-a-ball 53.
In the final analysis, even though Pakistan won the game and stayed alive in the competition for now, they didn't tick any other boxes that could give them and their fans the confidence that the team can go a long way in the tournament. They need to beat Ireland – a team that has given them one of the lowest lows in their World Cup history – by a hefty margin to stay in the game, but that game could be proved redundant if the United States beat the Irish two days prior.
Mixed bag from bowlers
When the first two balls of the match – two full tosses from Shaheen Shah Afridi – went to the boundary, Pakistan's fans would have feared the worst. The pitch in the Big Apple hasn't had much for pacers who try to land the ball up to the batsmen, responding more to deliveries bowled hard into the surface. Canada were into double figures before the first over was done. Mohammad Amir too started with a wide half-volley that was crashed through the covers, but once he got Navneet Dhariwal with a sharp inducker, Pakistan breathed a sigh of relief.
It was far from a perfect bowling performance from Pakistan, their pacers often struggling to find the suitable length for the pitch - and one can argue that they bowled better in the loss to India – but the track had enough in the form of uneven bounce and pace, and even some turn, to make life difficult for batsmen.
That Canada got to double figures was largely due to the efforts of Jamaica-born opener Aaron Johnson, who had the physical strength to get the ball over the fence on a consistent basis. He hit four fours and as many sixes in his 44-ball 52, with all the other Canada batsmen managing three fours and a six among themselves. Johnson's movement seemed to be hampered and he didn't seem inclined to run too much, with the outfield also being much slower than ideal. The next-highest score for Canada was Kaleem Sana's unbeaten 13 towards the end of the innings.
Naseem Shah got the new ball to move away from the right-hander, while Haris Rauf went at over six runs an over despite the conditions being in his favour. But arguably, he tilted the game decisively in Pakistan's favour, getting two wickets in the 10th over to reduce Canada to 54/5.
Canada 106/7 in 20 overs (Aaron Johnson 52; Amir 2/13) lost to Pakistan 107/3 in 17.3 overs (Rizwan 53 not out, Babar 33; Dilon Heyliger 2/18) by 7 wickets