Pakistan have been pitted in the so-called ‘group of death’ in the Super 8 stage of the World Twenty20 currently underway in Sri Lanka.
The 2009 champions play their first match of the Super Eights against a strong South African team before taking on neighbours and 2007 champions India on Sunday and then finally, they play Australia, whom they recently defeated in a T20 series in Dubai.
While Pakistan have been undefeated so far and have managed to win with relative ease, this may change in the lead up to the semi-finals.
In their opening match of the tournament, Pakistan overcame New Zealand by 13 runs despite poor bowling by the pace attack. Saeed Ajmal’s heroics saved Pakistan from losing against a fighting New Zealand side. While against Bangladesh, the Pakistani bowling was taken apart in emphatic manner, only for the batting to respond strongly and take the team through to the next stage.
Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez has said the pace department is a worry but has backed them to come good in the Super Eights.
Pakistan face a tough challenge in order to book a semi-final berth but have been touted as favourites by some experts of the game.
Will they be able to overcome their weakness in the pace bowling and fielding departments to beat the likes of South Africa, India and Australia?
How will Pakistani batsmen fare against the strong pace attack of South Africa and Australia and the Indian spinners?
Will Pakistan win all three of their Super Eight matches?
Do you think Pakistan can qualify for the semi-finals?
Dawn.com invites its readers to share their opinions and predictions….
Pakistan team Rocks…May be Nxt
I said long time back and I say it again, hafeez is not matured enough to be heading this kind of tournament. PCB really messed up in their decision and like so many other bonkers, they will pay for this as well. This is what happens when you alter the winning formula or experiment with it. Bring back misbah to captain next game or today’s game against australia will not be easy, and the form ozzies are in, bring your ‘prayer book’ to the game.
We already know now that even if Pakistan beats Australia, they are not through due to the woeful performance against India. They not only have to beat Australia but by a decent margin as India are likely to beat SA and if they do by more than 10 runs, Pakistanis will be on the losing side. There is no need to have high hopes beating Australia in their current form will be tough.
In my opinion Pakistan’s weakness is not the pace bowlers but batting and fielding. Present team is depending upon their spinners. The four spinners can change the fortune but the fielding should also be perfect. If Akmal brothers are dropping the catches continously and the pakistani commentators particularly Rameez supporting them, there will not be any chance for the right person for the job. This attitude of supporting home boys should be changed for the future success of Pakistan.
Pakistan is a medicore team, may be a notch better than Afganistan and Bangladesh. Hafeez is not a leadership material. Afridi is going through routine being dropped as captain( no incentive anymore). Imran nazir is only good against bad teams and needs luck to survive. Two games and top order failed against spin of Peterson, Botha, Dumany , Ashwin and Yuvraj. So all lack skills to survive. What you can say about a team which needs a tail ender to win the game? Need batsman like Asad and Azhar in who can hold one and at score at 100% strike. Razzaq would have been better against India. Even Misbah looks better bet now. Australia will kick Pakistan out of T20, and they deserve that.
Sorry, No Chance. with this eratic batting and bowling Pakistan will not qualify for Semifinal. My prediction, The Final is going to be between Australia and SriLanka. Lets see……
Why not a chance?
GOOOOD opportunity….to show will and a bit of planning.
Captain is the key
Not a chance but the stroke of luck can push them through to the semis.
Get Akmal out of the side and you may have slight advantage. He drops too many catches and catches win matches.
I agree with Syed’s comments and would like to add that team needs to GET RID OF AFRIDI ASAP, he is one useless fellow and is now a liability to our team.
PCB will wake up when things are totally messed up and team is humiliated. THEN they will think about what we are all saying.
Another batting display by Duck Duck Afraidi. Duck !
SA will win today
What did you say. I didn’t hear, could you repeat.
Inshallah pakistan will reach to final and Pakistan Will Win the T20 worldcup.
Inshallah pakistan will reach to final
which final you are taking about?? next T20?? Zaka Ashraf already confirmed their return ticket tomorrow, hahahhaha
Inshallah
Not only reach the final BUT InshAllah we’ll win the the cup !!
In your dream???
Pakistan Will Win the T20 worldcup, while considering following combination in playing eleven.
1. Imran Nazir.
2. Nasir Jamshaid
3. Mohammad Hafeez
4. Asad Shafiq
5. Kamran Akmal
6. Shahid Afridi
7. Yasir Arafat
8. Sohail Tanveer
9. Umer Gul
10. Raza Hassan
11. Saeed Ajmal
NOT GOOD TEAM.TEAM IS GOOD
IMRAN NAZIR
JAMSHAD
HAFEEZ
KAMRAN
U.AKMAL
GUL
AFREEDI
RAZZAQ
AJMALA
ARAFAT
no place of afridi in t
eam
Afridi has bad time but an show great mental
Few bad play need not be cause to kill….Look at his captainship of past…OR Razzak
Need Razzaq in the team. Please get rid of Afridi.
If we had Junaid the team would have definetly gone upto Finals but as usual the SELECTORS messed up. The fast bowling is a worry, if the Quikies some how avoid Hammering Pak wil win all matches. The batting and spin bowling looks good.
SIR !! I agree with you on the fact that junaid khan should’ve been selected BUT cricket is not a one man show…it’s a team sport…just because junaid khan isn’t there, doesn’t mean we won’t reach the final etc
Honestly speaking, teams with hard work and talent deserve to win. And I think Pakistan is no where near to that, although my sympathies and wishes are with Pakistan. This team is just a mess. Pretty ordinary players are a part of this team except for a few. And this is a result of foolish decisions by the selectors and a total lack of vision.
Yes they will! We can beat SA and Aus easily.
Yes Pakistan will win. As far as Australian and Africans pacers are concern we are not playing them in Johannesburg or Perth. we are playing them in Colombo slow and bating paradise pitches. And as for Indian spinners are concern will they bowled out Pakistan at 140 with there attack then Pakistan will bowled out them at 120 with there attack. i have never seen Pakistan bating as strong as it is in this particular tournament . yes top 7 batsman and all are match winners. good luck to Pakistan team. In sha Allah green shirts are going to rock.
I can guarantee a win against Australia, I can’t say anything about the others.
Yes, pakistan will qualify for the finals. Wishing them good luck.
Love from India.
Won’t you love them enough to qualify for more than that?
First appreciate the gesture. Then more will come. May the team playing better on the day win.
Pakistan would really need to pull their socks up bigtime and make sure they don’t allow any slip-ups…because we might get away with it against teams like bangladesh but against teams like south africa, we’ll get hammered and there won’t be any 2nd chances…they must lift their fielding standards because you drop catches off batsmen such as amla and de villiers at your peril…can’t afford to give them any 2nd chances, because if we do, they’re gonna tear us apart…we must bat sensibly against the likes of steyn and morkel…in steyn and morkel, south africa have the best new-ball attack in the world…it’s going to be tough to beat them but not impossible…south africa certainly aren’t unbeatable…but for pakistan to taste success, umar gul will have to come to the party and deliver big time…he’s our best fast bowler and we need him to be in good form like he was in the 2009 t20 edition in england…his death bowling was absolutely brilliant and he was one of the reasons Pakistan won that edition…so all in all he needs to turn up big time and provide pakistan with those all important break throughs and stem the flow of runs with his deadly yorkers….all the best PAKISTAN !!
Only time will tell. No one can really predict how a team will perform on a given day. Mental strenght to handle pressure will be as important as the cricketing skills. All four teams are strong contenders.
Although every country wants to win but no one needs it more urgently than Pakistan. Pakistan team would want to generate a good news for the country, put weight behind their pleadings for the leading teams to come and play in Pakistan and last but not the least, all Pakistani players want to win the cup to to brighten up their chances to play in IPL to make some money. Pakistan has highest stake.
They can and they have couple of match winners in the team. But it won`t be easy though not impossible.
And yes, weather can be a friend as well as foe. We dont know how many matches will be washed out and how splitting of points are going to affect team`s position in the table.