Sidra Nawaz addresses Pakistan’s growing problems this WC as they remain winless after their first three games.
Pakistan’s problems mount after letting golden chance slip, says Sidra Nawaz.
Pakistan knew they had to be almost flawless to defeat Australia, a team they had lost to 16 times before, and they were for about 22 overs.
There were diving catches, stumpings that were lightning fast, and your typical fielding livewire. The circumstances were also specifically designed; although some people were surprised when Pakistan chose to bowl first, they were confident in their ability to take on Australia’s hitters given the quality of spinners in their lineup.
That assurance was quickly confirmed when the reigning champions faltered to 76 for 7 thanks to a combination of deft bowling, effective catching, and some unusual batting mistakes from a big portion of Australia’s batting lineup.
Same failings time and again
Australia was closer than ever to Pakistan, who had never defeated them. But the chance that had been in front of them was cruelly taken away, like a slow-motion car crash.
“When they’re [Pakistan are] flying, they’re up and about. If you get a little partnership going, they can get a little bit flat, and you can open the game up that way,” Beth Mooney said after the game.
“I sort of knew we had a long time to bat, so we didn’t have to do anything too rash.”
Mooney had taken the game away from Pakistan with a game-winning 109 from 114 deliveries. Pakistan’s final chase total was only five runs short of that 109.
Additionally, Mooney’s innings demonstrated the flaws in Pakistan’s batting lineup. Pakistan lost wickets right away as Mooney shifted the strike, taking 44 singles in her innings, and suppressed her attacking tendencies to turn the tide of the match in her favour.
No batter in Pakistan’s top six scored more than ten runs, with Sidra Amin hitting 35 off fifty-two. Pakistan will be aware that a high score of 159 in those games is insufficient, even though their first game in this tournament was against a Bangladeshi team that is proving to be dangerous with the ball and their last two games have been against Australia and India.
“It is quite disappointing for us also because we were batting well previously. We did well in the Qualifiers, we did well in the series against South Africa in the lead up to the World Cup,” Sidra Nawaz said after the game.
“Here, we aren’t able to create the momentum in our batting, we are trying to figure out how to solve that, and do well in our upcoming matches.”