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| February 24, 2003 | Monday | Zul Hijjah 22, 1423 |
Pakistan try to make sense of defeat
JOHANNESBURG, Feb 23: Pakistan began Sunday behind closed doors as they tried to make sense of their shock World Cup capitulation to England.
Captain Waqar Younis and coach Richard Pybus faced the challenge of reviving a team which had once again failed to do justice to their multi-faceted talents.
“Everyone is extremely disappointed,” Waqar said from the team’s Cape Town hotel after Saturday’s 112-run Group ‘A’ defeat. “We were confident of doing well against England, given our record against them.”
A team meeting will be called later on Sunday.
“We will just sit down and work things out, find out where things have gone wrong and why the batting is not clicking,” Waqar said.
“Yes, you could say it is one of my worst defeats as captain.”
Saturday’s match was one Pakistan expected to win well, having beaten Nasser Hussain’s side in their previous five meetings. Pakistan had also not lost to England in a World Cup since 1983.
A lost toss did not help — “the ball swung amazingly during our innings,” said Waqar — and neither did the hugely impressive form of England’s baby-faced seamer James Anderson.
But, pound for pound, this should have been a no-contest.
Pakistan went into the game with the fastest bowler in the world, Shoaib Akhtar underlining that with a 100.2mph (161.3kmh) delivery on Saturday, and Wasim Akram, on the brink of becoming the first man in history to take 500 one-day wickets.
There was Waqar himself, second in that one-day list of wicket-takers, off spinner Saqlain Mushtaq and highly rated all rounder Abdul Razzaq.
All knew their opponents inside out after stints in English county cricket.
The batting, however, crumbled again, just as it did against Australia earlier in the tournament.
Inzamam-ul-Haq — the third highest limited-overs run-scorer in history — fell for a four-minute golden duck, while Yousuf Youhana was walking back next ball as Anderson dismissed him with a perfect, swinging yorker. That made it 17 for three and there was not way back as Pakistan were dismissed for 134.
“It is not over for us,” Waqar said. “This is a very open World Cup. Everyone is down but we just have to pick ourselves up.
“We came back from three straight defeats in the 1992 World Cup. I don’t see why we can’t do it here.”
Pakistan now have to beat India at Centurion next Saturday to keep their tournament alive. Waqar’s side have one win in three games and are fifth in Group ‘A’, with only Holland and Namibia below them.
Their next match is against the Dutch in Paarl on Tuesday.—Reuters
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