JOHANNESBURG, Feb 1: Pakistan wicket-keeper Rashid Latif believes the World Cup match against England is the most crucial for the 1992 world champions and his team’s chances of reaching the final depended on that game.
“I know most of the people think the match against Australia or India is crucial. But I believe the game against England at Cape Town on Feb 22 is the most important. It is a match between the games against Australia and India.
“If we beat England, I am sure we will reach the semifinals and if luck favoured us on that day, we will qualify for the final,” the gutsy wicket-keeper said on Saturday.
Pakistan take on Australia here on Feb 11 while the match against India is on March 1 at the Centurion.
Rashid agreed that the repeat of the 1999 World Cup final match between Australia and Pakistan was mouth-watering for the followers of the game.
“But you see it will be the first game of the World Cup for both the teams and none would guarantee a victory. It will be an open game and can be anybody’s game. But as the tournament would progress, there would be self-confidence and the real strength of the teams would be on display” he said.
Rashid said the game against England is vital because it is the only preliminary round game Pakistan is playing under floodlights.
“Everybody knows Cape Town wicket plays tricks. If we win there, we would be on a roll because prior to that game we would have played Namibia and then after the England game we would be playing Holland.
“Naturally, when you are on a winning spree, the confidence level of the team is sky-high and therefore, odds will be heavily in our favour for the game against India,” the former Pakistan skipper remarked.
India, on the contrary, will play Pakistan after having tackled England at Durban under lights on Feb 26.
Rashid tipped Pakistan to appear in the March 23 final but he refused to predict the opponents.
“I can only talk about my team and I know we are training very hard and are having quality nets. I can see that there is enormous team spirit and when there is team spirit, we are probably the most dangerous side.”—APP