Pakistan keen to be back to winning ways

KIMBERLEY - Having been beaten by Australia in the opening game, and to add insult to injury, being considered 'a topsy turvy team, which is quite beatable on its off-day' by Namibian coach Douglas Brown, Pakistan enter the De Beers Oval Sunday to put some points on the table and improve their net run rate.

In a press conference here, skipper Waqar Younis acknowledged that motivating the boys against the minnows was important. "This is a World Cup game; so there is no question of any complacency".

To another question, he said that he would not ask his fast bowlers to relent simply because of the inexperience of the Namibians.

Reacting to the opinion of the Namibian coach, his Pakistani counterpart Richard Pybus said that an effort was being made to make the side clinically efficient, so that better results are obtained all the time.

Another thing providing impetus to Pakistan is Zimbabwe getting four points due to the England forfeit, and consequently sitting pretty at the top of the pool, along with Australia (which has completed a clean sweep against the sub-continental sides in the pool). The relentless Aussie march and Zimbabwe's good fortune has put the cat amongst the pigeons as far as qualification for Super Sixes is concerned. The trio of Pakistan, India and England are now going to fight for either one place or two out of the three Super Sixes slots from this pool. If Zimbabwe rustles up a win or two against either Pakistan or India, along with Australia it too would be certain of a slot in the Super Sixes - something it managed in the last version of the event.

So it was imperative for Pakistan to win all its remaining matches, and the message was loud and clear for Waqar and his charges. And Waqar said that his squad was determined to do just that. "We don't just want to win our remaining five pool games, but also the ones in the Super Sixes", said he.

There would definitely be some changes in the team which played at the Wanderers against Australia. Wasim Akram though is not likely to be one of them, and he looks all set to get to another landmark in what is already a most illustrious career - replacing Javed Miandad and Steve Waugh (both with 33 matches) as the player with most World Cup games.

"Every game is an important game, because of not just various permutations coming into play because of some upsets but also because of the net run rate [a complicated affair the nuances of which are too cumbersome to master by most]. Hence, we would be playing our best eleven", said Waqar.

He wasn't willing to divulge the combinations that the Pakistan think-tank was working on, but two people under active consideration for insertion into the eleven were Saeed Anwar and Saqlain Mushtaq.

For their part, the Namibians were coming into the game with a positive attitude. "We know that beating Pakistan would be tough, but we would throw everything into it... We've made a plan and though we have great respect for the Pakistanis, we would not be fazed or scared off", said coach Brown.

Fielding is Namibia's strongest suit, and captain Deon Koetze believed his side would do better in this area than it did in their opening loss against Zimbabwe.

Definitely concerned about Pakistan's pace, the Namibians have these past few days furiously worked at the nets by putting the bowling machine up to speed. But Koetze admitted that simulating the pace of Shoaib Akhtar or spin of Saqlain Mushtaq was difficult. "The important thing for us was not to neglect the preparation... Most of our players have grown up watching the six or seven world class Pakistani players. But tomorrow we would be playing the ball and not the bowler".

Despite all this technical and mental preparation, it would still take some doing to beat Pakistan, which has to face stronger challenges in the next two weeks and the outcome of these would determine how they fare in this World Cup. But there is no belabouring the fact that they need to get back to their winning ways without wasting a minute.