{"id":18713,"date":"2023-10-28T03:35:32","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T03:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/friendly-atmosphere-fails-to-inspire-as-pakistan-left-staring-at-early-exit\/"},"modified":"2023-10-28T03:35:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-28T03:35:32","slug":"friendly-atmosphere-fails-to-inspire-as-pakistan-left-staring-at-early-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/friendly-atmosphere-fails-to-inspire-as-pakistan-left-staring-at-early-exit\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Friendly atmosphere\u2019 fails to inspire as Pakistan left staring at early exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

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CHENNAI: Pakistan finally had the atmosphere they\u2019d been craving, the sounds they wanted to be ringing in their ears, the positive energy they needed to spur them on during what has been a spiralling World Cup campaign at the M.A. Chidamabaram Stadium here on Friday.<\/p>\n

But they just couldn\u2019t match it with the result. There were cheers for Pakistan as they closed in on a victory \u2014 a much-needed one to stop a run of three straight losses \u2014 only for South Africa to deny them and secure a one-wicket win.<\/p>\n

Now, they\u2019re really staring at the exit door; a berth in the semi-finals looking elusive. Keshav Maharaj roared after hitting the winning four, South Africa\u2019s last stand leaving Pakistan limping in the race for the final four.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a very close fight and fought very well. We had an opportunity to win this match and stay in the tournament but we missed it,\u201d rued skipper Babar Azam after the tense one-wicket loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course it is very disappointing for all the players,\u201d he added. \u201cWe fought back but we were 10 to 15 runs short and didn\u2019t finish well. The way fast bowlers and spinners bowled, they fought well but unfortunately the result was not in our hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will try our best in our next three matches and put our effort in every match so let\u2019s see where we stand after the three matches.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the country\u2019s unofficial anthem \u2014 Dil Dil Pakistan<\/em> \u2014 being played at the Cheupak, Pakistan had reduced South Africa to 250-8 in their chase of 271. The place was buzzing, team director Mickey Arthur caught smiling by the TV cameras in the team\u2019s dressing room.<\/p>\n

After the hammering by hosts India in front of a partisan crowd in Ahmedabad, one that started this run of losses, Arthur had complained<\/a> of the World Cup looking like an event organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India rather than that run by the Inter\u00adnational Cricket Council.<\/p>\n

But here, the crowd was backing Pakistan. Shaheen Shah Afridi, who\u2019d turned the game in his superb finishing spell, had the crowd on its feet. Each time he would beat the outside edge of the South African tailenders, there were loud gasps.<\/p>\n

But once Pakistan\u2019s pace options dried out, South Africa\u2019s wagging tail \u2014 led by Maharaj \u2014 saw them through.<\/p>\n

Arthur would end up regretting the fact that Pakistan had posted a below-par score after electing to bat.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be brutally honest, we haven\u2019t put together the perfect game yet. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve batted well enough yet as a unit. I think that pitch, certainly par on that pitch is 300 at least. We haven\u2019t put together enough runs,\u201d Arthur told reporters at the post-match presser.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then we haven\u2019t put together a bowling performance that goes with it. Tonight I thought was our best bowling performance of the competition. We bowled really well, but I still thought we were under par in terms of the runs that we had.\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been for lack of effort, we haven\u2019t got enough players in form at the minute, particularly with the bat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s fourth successive defeat after two early wins left them on the brink of elimination from the knockout stages but Arthur said he would not throw in the towel with matches against Bangladesh, New Zealand and England coming up.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know. What I do know is we need to go and assess combinations again, we need to have a look at the holes we have within our team,\u201d Arthur said \u201cWe need to start improving in a lot of areas and we\u2019ve got to go and finish this tournament with three victories. Every day we\u2019ll be trying and striving to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did, however, have a word of appreciation for Chennai and its cricket fans.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026the crowd was outstanding tonight. It was really good,\u201d Arthur said. \u201cYou know, take the results out the way. Chennai has been outstanding. Training facilities, everything has been brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just not the results, though, that Pakistan needed.<\/p>\n

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHENNAI: Pakistan finally had the atmosphere they\u2019d been craving, the sounds they wanted to be ringing in their ears, the positive energy they needed to spur them on during what has been a spiralling World Cup campaign at the M.A. Chidamabaram Stadium here on Friday. But they just couldn\u2019t match it with the result. There […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/10\/280831336d3f5ed.png?r=083447","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}