Can Pakistan Play T20 World Cup Semi Final?

Sluggish - The least one can say about the performance of Pakistan Cricket Team in the match against England.  And after losing a close match to New Zealand, people can only hope Pakistan qualifies for the Semi-finals of the T20 World Cup-2010.

Pakistan were playing the first match of their Super-8 round in the ICC T20 World Cup-2010, being played in West Indies. Pakistan batted first and could only score 147 despite a start. As usual, the poor batting forms of all the batsmen stopped Pakistan from getting a higher score.

In response, Pakistan Fielding was just good enough to help England achieve the target. Not only the batting failed for Pakistan, the bowling was also terrible. And fielding… well don’t ask me.

Saeed Ajmal was truly the hero for England. This man
dropped 3 simple catches all at Mid Off. But he was not the only one to do the honors: Abdul Razzak and Kamran Akmal also received the credit to ensure victory for England. And Shahid Afridi, the hero of World T20 Cup-2009, has done all the efforts to become ZERO.

I wonder what happens to a person when he becomes the captain of Pakistan Cricket team. The captaincy of Shahid Afridi was pathetic. He had no idea whatsoever about where the game is heading and what he should do.  He never replaced Saeed Ajmal with any other fielder at Mid Off. And when Saeed Ajmal got the wicket in his first over, Afridi replaced him with Hafeez.

Wait a minute! Mohammed Hafeez is the most unwanted man in the Pakistan Cricket team in T20 World Cup-2010. I don’t know why he is being given so importance. Afridi has even given him the first over of the match. What the hell is going on in Pakistan Cricket team? What specialty does Hafeez possess? Why is he given so much weight? Pakistan team also lacks the team spirit.

Talk about Pakistan performance against New Zealand: The story is not much different.  Pakistan lost the match by 1 run.  You  might say, being defeated only by 1 run is not a bad performance. But, actually, Pakistan could have won the match quite concivently had they played sensibly. Especially, had they batted with simple common sense. A target of 134 was the meager one on that pitch. But hats-off to the Pakistani batsmen who never tried to win the match, except for Salman Butt.  And I must say Abdul Rahman really made the difference with his left arm spin bowling.   

What now? The chances of Pakistan qualifying for the Semi-Finals of T20 World Cup-2010 are very thin. Only if England beat South Africa, and Pakistan beat South Africa, only then Pakistan might have some chance. Overall, Pakistan team performance in T20 World Cup-2010 was below par and at not a single moment, they looked like playing like a defending champions. Match-Fixing controversy has again started to come up. God bless Pakistan Cricket!

Your Turn Now: What do you think Pakistan should do to qualify for the Semi-Finals? What should Afridi Do? Should Hafeez be in the team? Or anything else… Tell in your COMMENTS!