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Pakistan manages to survive this World Cup in spite of
all the obstacles. With a century from Rachin Ravindra and 95 from Kane
Williamson, New Zealand amassed 401, their biggest World Cup total, to put
Pakistan on the ropes in a match when they produced one of their most ordinary
bowling performances in World Cup history. Fakhar Zaman, however, launched a
stunning comeback, scoring an unbroken 126 in 81 balls, keeping Pakistan in the
game despite the DLS asking rate being threatened for a large portion of the
second innings. And when it did start to rain, Pakistan was already well ahead
of schedule, winning the match to tie New Zealand on points and set up a
semi-final berth within realistic grasp.
Having won the toss, Pakistan chose to field first on
a flat track, raising suspicions that they were just as interested in
increasing their net run rate as they were in scoring runs. However, as soon as
New Zealand’s innings commenced, both possibilities appeared to be far-fetched
chances. After a good start by Devon Conway and Ravindra, Pakistan, who had
strangely abandoned both of their legspinners and Mohammad Nawaz, found
themselves looking to Iftikhar Ahmed’s spin in the sixth over.
His pursuit was matched by New Zealand, and it was
Haris Rauf who struck first, a short delivery that kissed Conway’s bat on its
way to Mohammad Rizwan. Williamson was brought back for just his second game of
the competition, yet he looked as though he had never left. Despite having very
different backgrounds, the two felt comfortable working together to negotiate a
Pakistani attack that appeared to have no teeth, with Babar Azam calling the
shots and trying to find some solace in any way.
They had already surpassed their half-centuries and
were rapidly approaching three digits. This was fueled by a Hasan Ali overtake
that saw eighteen of them pass as they got closer to the nineties. However,
neither of them was going to slow down; with New Zealand being at 240 for 1,
there wasn’t much need to stop the momentum in the hopes of reaching a
milestone. Williamson’s risk-taking escalated to an almost irresponsible
degree; he came dangerously close to running out of gas three times while still
very nearly to century par. In the meantime, Ravindra smeared Wasim through the
onside to reach 99, and in the birthplace of his parents, a single lifted him
to his third World Cup hundred.
That’s definitely not how it began; Pakistan needed
everything to go their way to have a snowball’s chance in hell. Abdullah
Shafique was eliminated by the incomparable Williamson, who made the opening
catch of the event with a breathtaking diving grab while sprinting backwards.
But in a scenario such as this, Pakistan needed
Fakhar, and his assault on Trent Boult made it apparent what he wanted. The
tone was set with two fours and a six in his third over, and the 17 he gave
away was Boult’s most costly World Cup over. He added 16 more in his next, at
which point Babar joined the group as well.
Pakistan was up on the DLS by ten runs when the rains
came, but it was only going to be a temporary stoppage. But as soon as they
resumed, they firmly established their control, reducing the chase to 342 off
41 overs, thus turning it into a T20 match. Williamson switched to Sodhi, who
unfortunately gave up 32 in the two overs he bowled, including two massive
sixes from Fakhar that showed he had not lost any of his pace despite the
break.
Pakistan was 21 ahead of where they needed to be when
the consistent rains started again. They would never be able to recover from
that damp evening, as Pakistan made history by winning the two points in an
incredible smash-and-grab.