World Cup 2023: Why Pakistan’s semi-final stint may be difficult after Australia’s big win today?

The big win has put the chances of other teams in a bit of jeopardy including reigning World Cup champions England and Pakistan.

Pakistan is currently placed in fifth position after playing five games and winning only two of them and their current run rate is negative(-0.400). The upcoming games of Pakistan include some tough teams like South Africa, New Zealand, and England. The another team that Pakistan will face is Bangladesh. For a team to be sure of semi-final place has to win at least six matches and for that to happen Pakistan needs to win all the remaining matches and wish that other teams at the top of the table slip up badly.

Also, England’s condition is also not looking very positive as it has just won 1 game out of the four that it has played and will have to win the remaining games and it has to defeat team like India, Australia and register big win against team like the Netherlands which the Australian team did today. The current net run rate of England is (-1.248).

Meanwhile, as news agency AFP reported that Pakistan’s bowling which was touted as world class before the Asia Cup and when they restricted a strong India side to 266 all out in a washed out game at Pallekele, commentators saw it as a major warning to World Cup rivals.

But two weeks before the showpiece event, key fast bowler Naseem Shah was ruled out with a shoulder injury.

Spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi has 10 wickets in five games in India but has failed to make an early impact — his 2-36 against India and 5-54 facing Australia came in losing causes. In the opening wins over Netherlands and Sri Lanka, he managed two wickets at a combined cost of 103 runs.

*With Agency Inputs

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Updated: 25 Oct 2023, 10:49 PM IST