Shoaib Malik, the Pakistan all-rounder, has termed the absence of Andrew Flintoff as a ‘psychological advantage’ for his side and urged his team-mates to utilise the opportunity and start the tournament with a win.Malik, speaking after Pakistan’s training session at Southgate on Friday, was confident of Pakistan’s victory when they take on England at The Oval on Sunday despite back-to-back losses against South Africa and India during the warm-up matches.
‘We arrived in England quite late and need some time to adjust ourselves,’ Malik said. ‘We played poor cricket in the two matches that we lost but we’re growing in confidence gradually while getting accustomed to the conditions and I’m sure we can start with a win on Sunday.’
‘Although England have a slight advantage over us due to home conditions, the absence of Flintoff has surely tilted the balance in our favour. He’s a great all-rounder and his absence is a huge psychological advantage for Pakistan, something we’ll utilise and ensure we win the match and carry the points into the next round.’
Refusing to pick his favourites for the tournament, Malik termed India, Australia and South Africa as strong teams but stressed that Pakistan must not be counted out on the basis of their poor show in the warm-ups.
‘It’s near impossible to pick out favourites in this type of cricket. You only need a couple of batsmen to score fifties or a couple of bowlers to take two or three wickets and the balance suddenly shifts in your favour.’
‘Obviously you don’t get as many chances as in ODIs or Test matches, but strong teams cling on to whatever chances they get and that is exactly what makes them strong in Twenty20.’
Mohammad Aamir, meanwhile, was cherishing his wicket of Rohit Sharma at The Oval on Wednesday and was confident he would be able to carry the his good performance upon the team’s return to the same venue on Sunday.
He, too, pointed at Pakistan’s late arrival into England as his side’s sluggish performance but promised a much-improved performance.
‘We were basically short on match practice but have had several training sessions since that loss and we’ll enter the ground [on Sunday] with a positive frame of mind,’ Aamir told Dawn.
‘Although winning or losing doesn’t matter when you give your 100 per cent, we are quite weary of expectations back home and will hope to win the tournament this time round.’
Coming into the tournaments shouldering huge individual expectations after being spoken highly of by Wasim Akram, Aamir shrugged off any notions of nervousness that he might have had prior to taking on the field against India.
‘It has been a great honour being spoken to highly of by Akram but despite it being a Pakistan-India match, I was confident of my abilities, gave it my 100 per cent and was very happy with the fact that I took a wicket in the match. Despite the loss, we remain confident of a good show against England as a lot of our players are used to the conditions and we posses an array of Twenty20 specialists and no wonder we sit on top of the Twenty20 rankings.’
While having high hopes for his side, Aamir has set high standards for himself as well, wanting to be a ‘top-ranking bowler’ in the next five years. ‘Everyone knows the things Wasim has said about me and it is purely because of that I don’t want to disappoint him.
He’s a great bowler, has appreciated me and I feel really lucky not only to have such comments from him, but also being able to spend time working with and learning from him.
He is my sole idol in world cricket and I want to come up to his expectations and, in five year, hope to become a top-ranking bowler.’
Following the match against England, Pakistan will take on Netherlands on Tuesday and are scheduled to play back-to-back Super Eights matches on Thursday and Friday if they qualify for the second round.
© Faras Ghani 2009.
Published in DAWN newspaper June 6, 2009
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