Pakistan vs Canada T20 WC Live Score: Battered by India and stunned by the United States, Pakistan will not be able to move past the group stage of the tournament even if they defeat Canada in their penultimate match at the T20 World Cup here on Tuesday.
Pakistan suffered a six-run loss to India in a low-scoring game here on Sunday, after losing narrowly to co-hosts New Zealand in their first Group A match that went into Super Over.
Now it depends on whether Pakistan can beat Canada and Ireland big enough for them, while USA come up with humiliating defeats against India and Ireland. In any case, both teams will tie at four points apiece and it’ll come down to who has a higher net run rate. So, for now Pakistan’s hopes hang around divine intervention.
USA have enjoyed two wins with a healthy run-rate of +0.626; they can relax because just one win from their next game against Ireland would do the trick while worst-case scenario requires both winning and comprehensive margins for victory as they have NRR of -0.150 up until this point.
In its two matches so far, 2009 champions have not looked as formidable as it used to be.
Babar Azam has no idea what he is doing when leading the side. To make matters worse there are two factions within his team- one led by him along with close friends Mohammad Rizwan and Shadab Khan while another consisting also including recently sacked Shaheen Shah Afridi.
In fact no unit clicked through out the two games of Pakistan and for outside chance they will need more coherent showings from themselves.
While Babar score around 40 runs off 40 balls against USA that saw them post 159/7, they were unable defend these totals even in Super Over as we lost our final wicket during regular play itself.
However in response chasing an unimpressive target of 120, none of the Pakistani batsmen could speed up and, as a result, they took 59 balls to add just four runs.
Pakistan’s main concern going further is their batters’ lackluster performance as Fakhar Zaman, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed threw their wickets away against India.
While Mohammed Rizwan took 44 balls to score his 31 runs, Wasim consumed 23 balls for his 15.
On Sunday Pakistan’s bowlers were the only bright spot with Naseem Shah (3/21) and Mohammad Amir (2/23) leading from the front.
However in two remaining games premier fast bowler Shaheen has to do more upfront if they want to stay in races. He has hardly been able to get swing in conducive conditions.
If Pakistan wants to resuscitate its flagging campaign it will have to make some serious soul-searching.
Canada are placed third in Group A at present after winning one of their first two games.
Canada lost their opening game by seven wickets against USA but made amends with a 12-run win over Ireland in their next match.
While Canada boasts a wealth of experience through Navneet Dhaliwal; he was part of that winning team against Ireland in 2019 which many believe started resurgence.
Canada will also be heartened by the defeat to the USA because they had posted a mammoth 194 though in vain.
TEAMS
Canada: Saad Bin Zafar (c), Aaron Johnson, Ravinderpal Singh, Navneet Dhaliwal, Kaleem Sana, Dilon Heyliger, Jeremy Gordon, Nikhil Dutta, Parminder Singh, Nicholas Kirton, Rayyankhan Pathan, Junaid Siddiqui, Dilpreet Bajwa and Shreyas Movva.
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Abrar Ahmed (wk), Azam Khan (wk), Fakhar Zaman (vc), Haris Rauf (vc), Iftikhar Ahmed (vc), Imad Wasim (vc), Mohammad Abbas Afridi(vc), Mohammad Amir(vc), Mohammad Rizwan (wk) (vc), Naseem Shah (vc), Saim Ayub (wk) (vc), Shadab Khan (vc), Shaheen Shah Afridi (vc), Usman Khan Shinwari with Misbah ul Haq as their head coach.
