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- Pakistan-Ireland match is to be played at 7:30pm PST.
- Babar-led squad is more likely to win this game.
- Team “upset, talking” about what has gone wrong.
Pakistan and Ireland — who are already out of the T20 World Cup 2024 — will go up against each other today (Sunday) in Florida, seeking to end their tournament’s campaign with a win.
In the ongoing mega tournament, Pakistan have only defeated Canada and lost their opening two matches against US and India. Whereas, Ireland have been winless in their all three encounters so far, including the third against US that was washed out on Friday.
Pakistan’s first match against the US ended in a super over victory for US as Pakistan were unable to defend the target of 160 runs set for US. The latter scored 159 and forced a super over in which they scored 18 runs. Pakistan lost the match by six runs after failing to reach the 19-run mark.
They bowled India to 119 runs, demonstrating an unexpectedly improved bowling performance. However, they were then seven runs shy of the total after failing to achieve 120 runs target.
Subsequently, Pakistan restricted Canada to 106 in their match against them. Pakistan secured victory in this match but the cautious batting stretched the match to 17.3 overs.
Ireland have not yet secured a win in this T20 World Cup. In their opening match against India, they set a target of 97 runs, which the Indian batters comfortably chased in 12.1 overs with two wickets lost.
The Ireland cricket team lost their next game to Canada. They were 13 runs shy of the mark and could not make a total of 138. Rain caused the third match between Ireland and the US on June 14 to be postponed and with this Pakistan’s hope for advancing into the next stage were dashed. For Pakistan to have a better chance of qualifying for the Super 8, they needed Ireland to defeat the US.
Hence, the match between Pakistan and Ireland today will have no bearing on the ultimate results as India and the US already have checked into the next stage, a full match would at least help the reserves flex their muscles.
Pitch condition
Pitch of Central Broward Park & Broward County Stadium in Lauderhill is batting-friendly, nevertheless, the current weather conditions in the city shows batters will not have an easy sail, as the pitch could act slow. Whereas, the pacers would have an upper hand over spinners.
Weather
On Saturday, India and Canada match was also abandoned without a ball being bowled due to rain. For the second day in running there has been no play at the venue.
It started raining in Lauderhill last night, and the sky was covered with clouds on Saturday as well. The outfield in Broward County is still wet and didn’t dry out completely. It is likely to be more affected by excessive rain.
The match between Pakistan and Ireland is to be played at Lauderhill at 10:30am (local time) — 7:30pm PST.
Likely batting lineups
Pakistan: Saim Ayub, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Babar Azam (c), Fakhar Zaman, Usman Khan, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abbas Afridi, Abrar Ahmed.
Ireland: Paul Stirling (c), Andrew Balbirnie, Lorcan Tucker (wk), Harry Tector, Gareth Delany, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Mark Adair, Barry McCarthy, Joshua Little, Craig Young.
Prediction
Ireland has beaten Pakistan recently in a T20I match in May, so it would not be surprising if Irish team eclipsed Pakistan again. However, the probability of victory meter shows that the Babar-led squad is more favoured to win this game.
Team morale
As the Pakistan team is set to complete the formality by playing against Ireland, the mood within the camp is at the lowest ebb following the worst ever performance in the T20 World Cup.
Yet again, the team members decided against going through practice sessions on Saturday, a day ahead of the match.
The only point of interest is whether Pakistan will conclude the Pool A engagements on a winning note or whether the weather will again have the final say.
The indications are that playing conditions will be much better for Sunday-which is also an Eid Day here. The chances of having a full match are not all that bright.
An accompanying official has confirmed to The News that the morale of team members hit rock bottom with this unexpected result that left members counting the flaws and weaknesses of the team.
“The team members had a combined dinner last evening. They were upset as to what had happened to their World Cup campaign. Everyone was seen talking as what had gone wrong and as to why we were unable to make the best of opportunities coming our way,” he said.
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