Abdullah believes Pakistan still in race for semis

IT was all smiles at the ‘MAC B’ — the training facility in the premises of the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium — here on Wed­nes­day as Pakistan players conducted their first practice session after their historic World Cup defeat against Afghanistan.

The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association had called up a number of bowlers to help the Pakistan reeling after their third defeat out of five matches in their tournament, with their chances for the semi-finals now out of their control.

Among the net bowlers were at least one left-arm spinner and a chinaman bowler, helping Pakistan prepare for the South African spin duo of Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi — with Babar Azam’s side set to take on the Proteas here on Friday.

Pakistan opener Abdullah Shafique, who was trapped leg-before, by Afghanistan chinaman Noor Ahmad in the last match, was particularly practicing driving against the net bowlers of the same type.

At one point during the practice session, even Pakistan pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi rolled his arm as a chinaman against Hasan Ali.

Meanwhile, Shaheen’s fast-bowling partner Haris Rauf’s interactions with bowling coach Morne Morkel involved bursts of laughter every now and then.

After what happened against Afghanistan, Pakistan had to break out of the gloomy air with new found energy, and it did look that they were trying.

For them, as Abdullah would tell reporters following practice, “The World Cup is still on”.

“.. we have our chances,” he said about Pakistan’s remaining four matches of the 50-over showpiece; against South Africa, Bangladesh, New Zealand and England.

“We are only looking to learn from our past mistakes and want to do better in the upcoming matches.”

Pakistan weren’t expected to go down against Afghanistan given their 7-0 record against their northwestern neighbours before they met in the ongoing World Cup.

Abdullah said it was the Hashmatullah Shahidi-led side that was better “on the day” and that that was all that was required to win matches.

“This is the World Cup and none of the teams can be taken lightly,” noted the young batter. “They played good cricket and we have to regroup as soon as possible to do better in our remaining matches.”

South Africa, thanks to their ultra-attacking batting approach, can be dubbed as the most dangerous team in the tournament so far, having won all their matches — baring the shock defeat to the Netherlands — by margins of 100 or more runs.

Pakistan, on the other hand, have stuck to the mindset that “every team has their own style of play”. But against Temba Bavuma’s men, a classical approach may not be the way to go.

“As a team, we look to play the first 10 overs well,” said Abdullah. “But I don’t think it’s always important to hit sixes. You can use boundaries as well to score a big total.”

Having very few chances now to make the semi-finals, Abdullah was hopeful of himself and his team-mates to use the situation positively.

“All teams are equally important in the World Cup and we will try to use our position at this point as a challenge,” he observed. “We haven’t been at our best so far, and I’m sure we will start winning as soon as we display that.”