The Pakistani and Sri Lankan governments should just declare Friday a public holiday. Not only are the two nations squaring up against each other in the men’s ICC World Twenty20, their women counterparts will also set off their World Cup campaign 170 miles away in Taunton, hoping to match proceedings at Lord’s.
Both women outfits go into the match having suffered back-to-back losses in the warm-ups against South Africa and West Indies. Sana Mir, Pakistan’s captain, however, is hoping the experience gained by throwing away a winning position in the losses will help the girls register a convincing win on Friday.
“Obviously victories in the warm-up matches would’ve boosted our confidence but the important thing is to realise what we did wrong and work hard on overcoming that when it matters the most,” Sana told Dawn on Thursday. “Our morale is still very high and the team’s looking forward to winning tomorrow’s match convincingly.”
While a win remains a possibility, a convincing margin looks far-fetched given Pakistan’s performance with the bat recently. Chasing 115 against West Indies in a rain-shortened match, Pakistan lost regular wickets and could only muster up 88 with only two players reaching double figures. Similarly, against South Africa, they crumbled from 43 for no loss to 90 allout, chasing a meagre 127 for victory. While restricting the opposition to low total seems no problem, batting, by the looks of things, remains a cause for concern.
“We have been poor with the bat but we have worked hard on it and know how to handle it well now. Our collapse against South Africa was very disappointing but we are getting used to conditions and our opponents well and working hard to overcome our lapses in concentration.”
While Pakistan women have yet to play their Sri Lankan counterparts in the shortest format of the game, the girls in green will take heart from the last time these two sides met: A group match in the Women’s World Cup that Pakistan won by 57 runs.
“We have been playing a lot over the last three years and although we’ve only won once, we have come close to beating them on numerous occasions. We will take our win against them in Australia into the match but we fully realise they will come back at us strongly as well with revenge in mind so we can’t solely rely on that win alone.”
The team, much like their male counterparts in the warm-up matches, have shuffled the batting order around, looking for the best eleven. While Sana himself came at number three against Sri Lanka, her demotion to number ten against West Indies was all part of the plan to try out as many players as possible.
“We have taken our time getting used to conditions and we’re finally there. We performed well in Ireland and we wanted to gauge our best eleven hence the shuffling batting order. It was only a temporary move and I’ll be seen in the middle order come tomorrow.”
As the team heads off to watch India play England, the two other sides in Pakistan’s group, Sana emphasised on the importance of learning from other teams and ensuring they know their opponents. It will all help when we are pitted against them in the days to come, according to Sana.
© Faras Ghani 2009
Published in DAWN newspaper June 12, 2009
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