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| March 5, 2003 | Wednesday | Muharram 1, 1424 |
Pakistan cricket buried in city of dead kings
BULAWAYO (Zimbabwe), March 4: Pakistan’s ill-planned and ill-fated World Cup campaign took its natural course — an early exit after their do-or-die clash against Zimbabwe was abandoned due to rain here on Tuesday.
Pakistan, needing a mini-miracle to pull off a victory by an impossible margin, batted for 14 overs to score an unconvincing 73 for three wickets. The tie was finally abandoned at 2.45pm local time amid great celebration by the local fans and the parading Zimbabwean players.
Even when Pakistan were batting, it was far from convincing. Only Saeed Anwar batted with any degree of confidence to remain unbeaten with 40. He too had a reprieve when dropped in the 30s.
Inzamam-ul-Haq, involved in a brawl with teammate Younis Khan during a football practice session on Monday, endured another short stay at the crease and was out for three. The burly batsman, mainstay of Pakistan batting, made a paltry 19 in six innings, that sums up why Waqar Younis’s side failed to progress to the second stage.
Both teams earned two points from the outing which helped Zimbabwe to become the second African side to enter into the Super Six at the expense of Pakistan and England. Unheralded Kenya had already assured themselves a berth from Group ‘B’.
Following their unceremonious elimination, Pakistan cricket was effectively dead and buried in Bulawayo, called the ‘city of dead kings’ following their worst ever performance in World Cup history.
Now it will require a Herculean effort on the part of the administrators of the game in the country to repair the damage done and restore Pakistan’s status as one of the top three cricket playing nations of the world.
While hosts South Africa and the West Indies can rue over the weather for missing out from the second stage the same cannot be said about Pakistan who could not blame any other factor but their own shortcomings.
From the first match to the all-important clash against India, Pakistan always seemed to come out as second best whether it was bowling, batting or fielding. Batting, apart from the Indian match, never came to terms while the overrated pace attack appeared pedestrian, especially in the middle and slog overs.
All said and done, the fact of the matter is that the team was neither physically nor mentally tuned to stamp its authority in the competition, Besides the other major reason for the abject surrender has been that the team was overrated.
The present squad is simply not good enough to compete against the likes of Australia and India, who on current form are the two top outfits in the tournament.
And Pakistan’s officials and players must also learn that talking takes one nowhere. Even before the team left for South Africa our officials and players claimed the cup was in their pocket. All their bragging came to nothing and the officials as well as the players particularly the ‘flop’ of the tournament Shoaib Akhtar had eggs on their faces.
Scoreboard
PAKISTAN:
Saeed Anwar not out 40
Saleem Elahi lbw b Hondo 4
Yousuf Youhana c Taibu b Streak 17
Inzamam-ul-Haq c Whittall b Ervine 3
Younis Khan not out 0
EXTRAS (B-1, LB-6, W-2) 9
TOTAL (for three wkts, 14 overs) 73
FALL OF WKTS: 1-4, 2-55, 3-72.
DID NOT BAT: Azhar Mahmood, Rashid Latif, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami.
BOWLING: Streak 7-1-25-1; Hondo 4-0-22-1; Ervine 3-0-19-1.
ZIMBABWE: C.B. Wishart, D.D. Ebrahim, A. Flower, G.W. Flower, G.J. Whittall, T. Taibu, A.M. Blignaut, H.H. Streak, D.A. Marillier, S.M. Ervine, D.T. Hondo.
b RESULT: Match abandoned due to rain.
UMPIRES: .F. Bowden (New Zealand) and E.A.R. de Silva (Sri Lanka).
TV UMPIRE: R.E. Koertzen (South Africa).
MATCH REFEREE: R.S. Madugalle (Sri Lanka).
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