T20 World Cup: Mission Impossible for Pakistan after India's win over Tigers

Now in order to reach the semis, Pakistan must beat South Africa and Bangladesh with mammoth margins, and hope that Netherlands beat South Africa and Zimbabwe upset India

By Ayaz Memon

Published: Wed 2 Nov 2022, 7:54 PM

Up against the only unbeaten team in the tournament, Pakistan can only rue the mistakes that cost them two agonising last ball defeats against India and Zimbabwe.

But for those setbacks, Pakistan would have been one of the two qualifiers for the semifinal from this group.

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Had Bangladesh got the better of India on Wednesday, it might have eased some pressure, but not ensured passage into the knockouts.

The mathematical probability of their still making the cut exists, but this comes with near-impossible conditions attached — beat South Africa and Bangladesh with mammoth margins, and hope that Netherlands beat South Africa and Zimbabwe upset India. After all this, they might still lose out on Net Run Rate.

That said, victory over South Africa would mean more than just earning brownie points. It would atone to an extent for the mistakes made earlier as well as possibly improve their ICC ranking in this format.

It will take some effort though to get the better of the Proteas who have been in quite superb form in this tournament, especially in clinching that close match against India.

Pakistan’s batting, weakened by Fakhar Zaman’s absence, will be confronted by a red-hot South African pace attack, and their own bowlers run into in-form batsmen Quinton de Kock, Rilee Rossouw, Aiden Markram and David Miller.

It looks tough, very tough for Babar Azam and his team.

Today’s match: Pakistan v South Africa, Sydney, 12 pm UAE Time

Game Changers

Mohammad Wasim, Babar Azam, Haris Rauf, Rilee Rossouw, Anrich Nortje