REACHING WORLD CUP SEMIS: Captain believes Pakistan still have a chance

LONDON: It was the sort of result Pakistan were secretly praying for since their back-to-back World Cup defeats against Australia and India last week.

Sri Lanka’s shock 20-run victory against England at Headingley on Friday was seen as one of the biggest upsets of the World Cup so far.

Watching the sensational game in their hotel rooms, Pakistani players must have seen it as divine help.

England’s defeat has opened up the World Cup and now even teams like Pakistan, who have to win all their remaining four matches to stay alive, are now fancying their chances of reaching the last four.

While acknowledging that his team is facing an uphill task, Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed believes they still have a chance. “Losing to India was definitely a tough thing for us. But we gave a two-day rest to the players after the game. After that we’ve been practising hard. So the morale is very high for us.

“(Following England’s loss) the tournament is open now, so we have a chance. We are focussing match by match. Hopefully we will try to win tomorrow’s match,” Sarfaraz commented in his pre-match press conference here at Lord’s on Saturday.

Pakistan face South Africa, a team that has had almost a similarly poor run in the World Cup as Pakistan. After just one win against minnows Afghanistan from six World Cup outings, the Proteas are almost out of the race for semi-final qualification.

But their dismal situation could make South Africa dangerous opponents for Pakistan. Pakistan enjoy a healthy World Cup record against them. But the South Africans prevailed in the ODI series, which was the last time the two teams met before this World Cup.

“If you talk about the South Africa series, it’s different,” said Sarfaraz. “Bilateral series, different type of pressure. We played good cricket but unfortunately we didn’t win the series. But (for tomorrow’s game) we are very hopeful against South Africa.”

Pakistan have been braving intense criticism from all quarters since their humiliating 89-run loss against old foes India at Old Trafford last Sunday. But asked whether he and the team was under any kind of psychological pressure, Sarfaraz played it down.

“I don’t think so. Everything is fine. We all are okay. We are all are backing ourselves, so hopefully we will bounce back in tomorrow’s match.”

There are several potential match-winners in the South African squad but Sarfaraz made it clear that Pakistan were not thinking about any of them.

“We all know South Africa have good players in their team. So we are all focussing (on the) whole team.”