INTRODUCTION:
The Pakistan – England encounter was one of the entertaining games as it opened up the tournament for many teams in the 2019 edition. But this time around, it is just a mere dead rubber. As New Zealand thumped Sri Lanka in their last encounter, the Semi-Final hopes of Pakistan has been thrashed. Only a world record margin of win would give them a chance. But for England who had a terrible world cup, a win here would slightly lift their morale and confirm them a spot in the 2015 Champions Trophy.
PAKISTAN:
Pakistan have had a very Pakistan type of tournament. They started well and then went into a loosing streak and some controversial thing happened with their Board and when it all seemed over, they fought back and won back-to-back games. But all to late as they need a humongous win to dethrone New Zealand and enter the semis. They are exactly in the situation they were in the 2019 WC before their last league game where they had to win by a margin of over 300 runs to go past New Zealand. Pakistan were the No.1 ranked ODI team before this Tournament, but they never played like and faltered in each and every department. Their batting against India, bowling against Australia and their fielding against Afghanistan were terrible. The one game in which they fought hard was against South Africa which gave them a heartbreak. They might point back at that unlucky lbw decision, but they have themselves to blame. Loosing Naseem Shah is a big blow but both Afridi & Rauf were not at their best even though they have some wickets to their name. Finally, their skipper Babar has been scoring runs but at far less strike rate and some of decisions during crucial moments of the game has cost them. The best they can do here is not to think about the margin and win this game and finish 5th in the points table with 5 wins.
ENGLAND:
If there is a team other than Pakistan which has performed way below the expectation, it has to be England. Especially coming into this World Cup as not only defending champions, but as double World Cup Champions. If 2015 World Cup was the transforming point of the English white ball cricket, this has to be the 2.0 version of it. They might say that the build up and the scheduling towards the tournament was not helping them, but most of the players are experienced pros and a have won multiple World titles. Again, there was a lot happening between the board and the players. The ECB have given central contracts for multiple years on the middle of a tournament and that is not the worst part. David Willey was not given a contract as he was still in the playing XI. As a result, 4 days later Willey announced hi retirement from International Cricket. The one thing which England did really well during the 2015-19 phase was setting a template of stacking up all-rounders and going hell for leather and playing according to them no matter what. They registered record totals and at times folded for some low totals as well, but never gave up the template. But this time around, after a couple of losses they dropped all their all-rounders and played with specialist batter & bowlers. This is not the confusing part, after another loss, they again came back to their template of all-rounders, but it was too late and still did not produce results. This will go down as one of the worst title defences in the Cricket World Cup history and we might see some big guns retiring after this game (definitely not Buttler).
PROBABLE PLAYING XI:
PAKISTAN: Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam (c), Muhammed Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Agha Salman, Hasan Ali, Muhammed Wasim Junior, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf.
ENGLAND: Dawid Malan, Johnny Bairstow, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (c & wk), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Gus Atkinson, Adil Rashid
INTERESTING MATCH-UPS:
An out of form Bairstow versus Shaheen Afridi will be a good contest.
Adil Rashid has been England’s best bowler, him versus the Pakistani batter’s timid approach with the bat during the middle phase will an interesting contest.
INTERESTING FACTS & STATS:
The England vs Pakistan game in the 2019 WC was the first time where two centuries were scored in the 2nd innings in a losing cause (Buttler & Root).
Pakistan has won 5 out of the last 7 games in the World Cup vs England since 1987.
Jos Buttler needs 66 runs to reach 5000 ODI runs.
DATE: 11th November 2023
TIME: 2.00 PM (IST)
VENUE: EDEN GARDENS, KOLKATA
PREDICTIONS:
TOSS: Team winning the toss would look to bat first considering the amount of swing which the seamers getting under the lights.
WINNING CHANCES: PAKISTAN 60% - ENGLAND 40%
