After a heart-breaking one-run loss against Zimbabwe, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam admitted that it's now hard for them to qualify for the semifinal of the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022, but he vowed to come back stronger in the upcoming matches.
A spirited Zimbabwe team held its nerves to beat Pakistan by one run in a thrilling Super 12 match that went down to the very last delivery at the Perth Stadium on Thursday, 27 October. This was Pakistan's second defeat in two games and their road to the semifinal has become difficult now.
Though the losses have put Pakistan on the brink of an elimination, they are not yet totally out of the picture.
"To be honest, it's hard (to qualify now), but we have two days, and we'll have a sit together and discuss. We will come back stronger," Babar said at the post-match press conference.
The skipper also mentioned that they had contrasting finishes while batting and bowling.
"To be honest, we were not up to the mark, starting with the first six overs in the bowling, but later on we finished well. But in the batting time, we had our collapse. The batting was not up to the mark. When me and (Mohammad) Rizwan were out, Shan (Masood) and Shadab (Khan) built a partnership, but after that collapse we did not finish well," he added.
Complicated Calculations Await Pakistan
After Thursday's loss, Pakistan will need to win all three of their remaining fixtures while also relying on other results elsewhere.
The maximum number of points Babar and his side can now reach is six. So essentially, if any two of India, South Africa and Zimbabwe win two of their remaining three matches, Pakistan will not qualify for the semi-finals.
Were Pakistan to finish on six points with only one team above that tally then it could come down to net run rate, but India and South Africa are currently well ahead in that column.
However, the clearest and likeliest route to a Pakistan qualification would require them to win their three remaining matches, India to beat South Africa, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe to top the group, and Zimbabwe to lose either against Bangladesh or Netherlands.
Hence, though it is not mathematically impossible, but a lot of results that need to go in Pakistan's favour for them to make it to the next round.
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