After a great deal of wrangling between the Indian and Pakistan cricket control boards on the security issue of our team which resulted in the hiccup in its timely departure for India, our cricket team finally landed on the Indian soil on last Saturday for participating in the Twenty20 World Cup tournament there. Let it now forget what had happened in the past so that it could concentrate fully on the game, lock, stock and barrel without any distraction. Younas Khan has rightly said that the coming matches in the said tournament are going to provide last chance to all the players to justify their presence in the team after this tournament is over. Those players would have to be sent packing home who would fail to deliver in this tournament. Defeat and victory are a part and parcel of every game, but there is a lot of difference between losing a game lying down without putting up a determined fight and losing it by fighting it out to the last ball. Nonetheless our team deserves full support from the nation as well as media in the coming few days when it will be playing in front of a very hostile crowd. New Delhi should not forget that if any physical harm was done to our team or pitch of any cricket ground on which our team is going to play is dug up, India will, in that case not have to cut a very sorry figure before the cricket playing nations but irreparable loss would also be caused to Pak- India relations.
On paper Indian batting line seems to be the best of all the teams contesting this tournament but its bowling can prove its Achilles’ heel. On their day our seamers like Mohamnad Amir, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Sami and Irfan can wreck any batting line so our team cannot be written off completely. Lately, the Kiwis have been playing extremely well in the shorter versions of this game, whether it is fifty-fifty or Twenty20 and if they persisted in their winning streak they can lift the Cup this time round despite tough opposition from the Kangaroos, Indians or the Springboks. We should, however, not forget that cricket is by chance and result of matches in the shorter version of the game cannot be predicted hundred percent correct. Any team which plays better on the day of the match wins. This is as simple as that.
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