One positive change and a whole different scenario for Pakistan

In Auckland, NZ, Pakistan took on South Africa today. The latter is one of the favourites of the tournament. Pakistan had been lagging behind the leaders in the pool, because of pathetic performance with the bat and behind the wickets.

But today, at last a lot of PCB officials including the coach, swallowed their pride and let Sarfraz play in place of the most rotten of cricketing humpty-dumpties, Nasir Jamshed. Sarfraz not only replaced him in the playing eleven, but replaced him as an opener.

His 49 of 49 balls, with his 3 sixes in one over to J. P. Duminy set the tone for the Pakistani innings. For the first time the Pakistani team posted some respectable score on the board, before Shahzad was dimissed. If you ever wanted to see a real stunner in cricket, you have to see the catch taken by Steyn, to dismiss Shahzad.

Although the total of 231 in 47 overs was nothing respectable, but the bowlers took the torch and drove the team home, to a victory, which has made it possible for them to reach the quarterfinals of the event.

The South African bowlers also performed well, to restrict Pakistan to only 231 in 47 overs, taking into account that Pakistan had reached its 100 for the loss of two wickets in the 19^th over.

You can check the detailed score cards to get the statistics. But I am sure that Pakistan need to lose one more rotten egg from this squad if Pakistan wants to make head ways into the tournament. This rotten egg is Sohaib Maqsood. Although his “connection” is very strong, we still have to get rid of him. And as soon as the world cup finishes, we need to get rid of Waqar Younus once and for all.

But right now, lets enjoy the victory and a roaring performance by Pakistani pacers (Rahat Ali, Wahab Riaz and Irfan all took 3 wickets each). Let’s enjoy the memory of watching Pakistani wicket keeper really taking catches. Lets enjoy the solid stance of Misbah, who as always did not let the batting collapse and kept building the innings with his slow, but crucial 56. Let’s enjoy the memory of a great catch by Steyn and the show of high levels of athletic ability.

Let’s just close our eyes and enjoy the victory!