Sri Lanka’s unceremonious exit from the World Cup yesterday in the lop-sided quarter-final against South Africa at Sydney is proof enough that the ‘real’ tournament has now begun and it will be a different ball game from hereon.

All quarter-finals are, of course, do-or-die games and every team will strive harder to take their game to a new level to prove their supremacy in cricket’s showpiece event that determines the world champion for the next four years.

Pakistan, too, will be playing their toughest game to date in this World Cup when they take on the formidable Aussies in the quarter-final at the Adelaide Oval on Friday.

The Australians, as we all know, are true professionals and fiercely competitors who fight till the last ball to often achieve a favourable result. Their league game against New Zealand at Auckland a few weeks back was testament to that when they almost pulled off a great win while defending a meager total of 151.

But while Michael Clarke’s men, indeed, look superior to Pakistan in all departments , I strongly feel that if our players play to their full potential and play fearlessly, they are definitely in with a chance to surprise the Aussies.

The Australian batting boasts impressive names such as skipper Michael Clarke, David Warner, Aaron Finch, Shane Watson, George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell who are all fine exponents of the game alongwith wicketkeeper Brad Haddin who can use the long handle quite well.

Pakistan batting on the other hand revolves around dashing Sarfraz Ahmed who is in the form of his life, Ahmed Shehzad, Younis Khan, Haris Sohail, Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Akmal who are all capable of winning the game for their team, as displayed by them against South Africa in the league clash early this month.

As for the bowling, the presence of so many talented left-arm pacers on either side makes this quarter-final contest really unique. The left-arm fast bowlers create problems for the right handed batsmen, especially when they bowl over the wicket. However, they are not as effective against the left-handed batsmen as we have observed over the years.

In Pakistan line-up, barring Haris, all are right-handed players and so they need to tackle the Aussie trio of Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc and James Faulkner with sound defense cum aggression to survive at the crease.

Aussies on the other hand have a number of left-handed batsmen who can blunt our left-arm pacers Wahab Riaz and Rahat Ali. However, since both are intelligent bowlers and pretty much in the groove, it will not be easy for Clarke’s men to cope with them at Adelaide.

The two left-arm bowlers are very well complemented by right-arm pacer Sohail Khan who is bowling really well and have a brilliant slow ball to stun the best of batsmen. His slower ball is bowled with a wrist-twist that is hard to detect and so he can be very deceptive with his change of pace.

Earlier, I wrote about the Aussies being superior to us in all departments of the game, but in hindsight, I feel Pakistan does have an edge when it comes to spin bowling. In Shahid Afrid, Yasir Shah and Haris Sohail, we have three good slow bowlers who may well prove to be the scourge of the Australian batsmen on Friday.

This World Cup has seen very few spinners really making their mark. Only Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravinder Jadeja of India and Kiwi veteran Daniel Vettori have shone with the leather. Who knows if the Friday quarter-final becomes Australia’s Waterloo, courtesy Afridi and Yasir? Well, we can only wait and watch.

For Pakistan to post a fighting score on the board, a decent opening stand is vital which should provide a strong base for the middle-order to fire on all cylinders in the remaining overs. In order to do that, we must bat out Starc’s early overs since he is the top wicket-taker in the event and is very accurate and lethal.

Pakistan, after having beaten Ireland at Adelaide in their last game, should take heart from the fact that it a kind of wicket that suits their kind of cricket. It is not too bouncy and does not pose too many tricks for the batsmen.

Gone are the days when the Australian pitches used to be green tops and bouncy as they used to be in the 1970s and ‘80s. Most of the pitches, including the pacers’ paradise at WACA Perth, have changed their character and over half a dozen scores of 300-plus — two in excess of 400 — in this World Cup is evidence to it.

In the end, I would like to endorse the words of PCB Chairman Shaharyar M Khan that we need to back our team no matter what, simply because it is Pakistan’s team. The scathing criticism by a section of the press earlier games was indeed, a big pull down factor for our players and the team’s morale.

Logical analysis is required at such moments and a balance should be maintained at all cost by weighing the pros and cons before every match rather than resorting to the sort of vilification that was witnessed earlier.

The Father of the Nation, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in his famous speech said, and I quote: ‘To win or lose is nothing, its the spirit behind the effort that counts.’

Pakistan need to believe in themselves on Friday that ‘yes we can’ and I am sure they will emerge as the winners.

The writer is a former Test cricketer and chief selector.

Published in Dawn March 19th , 2015

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