Bengaluru (Karnataka): Pakistan has won only three games while they have lost four in the ongoing Cricket World Cup 2023 and their Director of Cricket Mickey Arthur on Friday admitted that their performance was "well below par". Pakistan, which won the ODI World Cup in 1992, are in a must-win situation against New Zealand on Saturday and against England at Eden Gardens on November 11, and they also need some other results to go their way to reach the last four stage.
"I'll be brutally honest. I don't think we've played to our full potential in this tournament. I thought the Bangladesh game (on October 31 at Kolkata) is the first game where we actually put a complete game together. I just hope that's not too late for us," Arthur said during the pre-match press conference.
According to Arthur, not being able to strike a balance between the three faculties of the game batting, bowling, and fielding has been the bane of Pakistan in this tournament. "We batted beautifully, bowled beautifully, and fielded beautifully (against Bangladesh), which in all the other games, we've done one or two disciplines OK, but our other disciplines let us down.
"So, I'd like to think we're peaking, but the preparation and attitude of the guys will get better every day, that has been exceptional. I can't fault anybody in terms of that," he said. From the outside, a lot of people have been trying to find a parallel between Pakistan's run in this World Cup and the one they had under Imran Khan in 1992, where they survived heart-stopping moments to emerge champions.
However, Arthur refused to buy that comparison or historical coincidence. "Everybody tells me it's the classic (Pakistan) World Cup campaign. I hate that because I'd rather say that we were cruising as it would certainly be a lot less stressful," he said. However, Arthur believed that his side was still in control of their fate in the showpiece.
"We got ourselves into a position before the Bangladesh game where it was kind of out of our hands. It's come back in a funny way into our hands albeit we've to win big in both our games. It's still in our control. "Then South Africa did us a little bit of a favour (beating New Zealand). So, it's kind of pushed it back into our hands, albeit a long shot," he added.
Arthur said the calmness of Pakistan players under such a stressful scenario has helped their cause a long way despite him being a bit edgy on occasions. "The one thing that amazes me so much with the Pakistan players, is generally how calm they are. I'm a cat on a hot tin roof. They kind of take it in their stride. That's the feeling I got before the Bangladesh game. It's certainly the feeling I'm getting right now. So, yeah, we're in a decent place," he added.
The 55-year-old South African said while his side's primary goal is to win the matches ahead, they also have to factor in the Net Run Rate (NRR) to stay alive in the marquee tournament. "During the Calcutta chase (against Bangladesh), I had every scenario in my pocket as to if we won in 25 overs; if we won in 26 overs, 27 overs. So, we kind of knew as to how we were going to eat into the net run rate of New Zealand."
Arthur said the first thing to make an impact on the match and thereby on the NRR was to accept their current position in the tournament and respect the Kiwis for playing some good cricket despite losing their last three matches. "The first thing is to respect our position. New Zealand are very well coached and very well led. We've got to respect it. Once we get ourselves in that position, only then can we start talking about those net run rates," he added.
Arthur's method to keep the players calm was not to let them know about all those mathematical calculations. "I'll have all the information, but I won't necessarily give it to the players until we feel the time is right to put the foot down and potentially try and close that net run rate because we've still got to win the game as well."
He further said they will decide on Shadab Khan, who had suffered concussion at Chennai during the match against South Africa, at an appropriate time. Arthur said the leg-spinner has gone through an initial medical test without much issue.
"The latest update is that Shadab went through a preliminary test today, which you've got to do as per medical protocol. He came through that OK. But we're in no position yet to make a decision on him. Concussion is a really important injury, and we've got to be 100% sure before we make a decision. No decision has been made on him at the minute," he concluded.
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