Pakistan are in the zone they’ve thrived in the past. And they’ve also seen a result fallen in their favour.

South Africa’s 190-run thrashing of New Zealand on Wednesday has brought Pakistan right back in the mix for the race to the semi-finals of the World Cup.

Pakistan are two points off fourth-placed Black Caps, with the top four advancing to the semis, and although New Zealand have a greatly superior net run rate, Babar Azam’s men feel they have a lifeline when the two sides meet at the M. Chinaswamy Stadium on Saturday.

After their agonisingly close defeat to Australia, New Zealand were bulldozed by South Africa, putting question marks over their favourites’ tag that they had assumed after a blistering start to their campaign.

Pakistan not only need to win against New Zealand to keep themselves alive heading into the last round of matches, but calculators will be out to see whether Babar’s men can surpass their opponents’ net run rate.

For now, the margins of victory that are being talked about are 83 runs if they bat first or reaching their target with over 15 overs to spare while batting second.

Pakistan are used to those scenarios and luckily for them, after having lost four matches on the trot following wins in their first two matches, they found their momentum against a struggling Bangladesh side in their last game with their top guns firing.

Opener Fakhar Zaman put behind himself a run of bad form and a knee strain to score big, quick runs at the top after Pakistan pacers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Wasim Junior breathed fire with the ball — things falling into place for the team just ahead of their most crucial fixture, or may be that in the context of the whole tournament.

“Fakhar’s return from the injury and that too with that innings [of 81 against Bangladesh] has been a major positive for us because scoring quick runs from the very start is important especially on the Indian wickets, just like all the top teams do,” Pakistan all-rounder Iftikhar Ahmed told reporters here at the team’s hotel on Thursday.

“The win has obviously lifted all of us and now all we need is prayers so that we win the match against New Zealand and qualify for the semi-finals,” added the 32-year-old.

Pakistan will still need other results going in their favour even if they win against New Zealand but Iftikhar was adamant that Pakistan were in India to win the World Cup.

“All we have in our hands is effort and we have come here to win the World Cup,” he said, while pressing on the importance of maintaining a good enough run-rate.

“We will play the type of cricket which is required from us, especially considering the net run-rate. We’ll go in the ground having that in our minds and perform accordingly.”

Just as Pakistan’s opening combination has been changed from Fakhar and Imam-ul-Haq, to Imam and Abdullah Shafique to Fakhar and Abdullah, the team’s bowling strategy has also take a slight change in course.

Against Bangladesh, Pakistan went with Shaheen and Iftikhar with the new ball, a role handed over to the latter apart from his regular responsibility as a power-hitter down the batting order.

Iftikhar said he was satisfied by his performance in both roles so far, while shedding light on his role as an opening bowler.

“The rationale behind it is of bothering the left-hander and trying to stop the flow of runs in the powerplay and I think the experiment is going well so far,” he observed.

Explaining Pakistan’s four consecutive defeats, starting from a seven-wicket humbling by arch-rivals and hosts India in front of an intimidating Ahmedabad crowd, Iftikhar argued all teams in the world can be affected mentally by high-performing opponents.

“I can assure that all boys give their best,” he said. “But when the team loses it looks like they aren’t. A good partnership by opponent batters can bog any team. Once again, the batters, fielders and bowlers are putting in their best efforts and I also think we’ve struck the right combination.”

The Pakistan squad is now in the pleasantly cool embrace of Bangalore, of which the climate and the playing conditions the team has grown familiar with.

It was here only that they scored over 300 in a chase by the end of which they lost by 63 runs against Australia. In that match only Shaheen had taken by five wickets.

Iftikhar was confident that Pakistan’s experience playing in the capital of the Karnataka state will benefit them in the all-important clash against New Zealand.“[Apart from the Australia match] we have practiced a lot on these pitches and the boys are familiar with the conditions,“ he said.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2023