T20 World Cup: Pakistan nearly make a mess of it

It was the second ball of the 19th over. As Faheem Ashraf’s mistimed slog hung in the air, Pakistan supporters must have felt another T20 World Cup campaign would be over even before it had started. But Dutch long-off fielder Max O’Dowd let the ball slip, allowing Ashraf a life and the belief that this could be pulled out of the fire.Ashraf is a left-hander in the Raul Tewatia mould, who can take on medium-pacers bowling full inside his hitting arc. The Netherlands pacer Logan Van Beek’s inexperience came to the fore under pressure as he kept trying the yorker instead of bringing the slow pitch into the equation. The yorker simply didn’t land and 24 runs flowed from Ashraf’s bat in the 19th, leaving Pakistan to get only five runs in the last over.Those were easily mopped up with three balls to go, handing Pakistan a face-saving three-wicket win. “We’ll have to do it the hard way,” said captain Salman Ali Agha, breathing a sigh of relief at the end of the game. But he will know it’s just temporary relief.The performance that Pakistan dished out on Saturday at the SSC in chase of a modest 147 will not take them too far in the tournament. At 98-2 at the end of the 11th over, the match should have been over by the 17th over, even if we take a stutter into the equation. But what transpired was a full-blown collapse against a team that gets to play top-notch opposition maybe once in two years.It was similar to Pakistan’s collapse in the Asia Cup final against India last Sept after a rollicking start. The indications are quite clear, the team hasn’t been able to do anything with their middle-order. In fact, they have messed it up even more with the inclusion of Babar Azam.The senior right-hander trudged his way to an 18-ball 15 and when the requirement was to see his team through anchoring one end, he threw it away trying a big shot in the 13th over. In a space of 30 balls, Pakistan lost four middle-order wickets for 16 runs.Those who are still hoping for an India-Pakistan game next Sunday started believing that Pakistan would lose this one and Agha’s boys might be handcuffed to take the field on Feb 15 to keep their World Cup hopes alive. But Ashraf (29 not out off 11 balls) has a bit of T20 experience and knows how to make the most of an opportunity, if the opposition isn’t top-notch.Brief scores: Pak 148/7 (Farhan 47, Faheem 29*, van Meekeren 2-20, Dutt 2-33) beat Netherlands 147 (Edwards 37; Mirza 3-24, Ayub 2-7, Abrar 2-23, Nawaz 2-38) by 3 wkts.