PAK vs NAM: Pakistan face another must-win situation, need to beat Namibia to advance to Super Eights | Cricket News

The flight from Colombo to Chennai is about to take off in the afternoon, and many Pakistani fans are waiting in line. Two flights – one to Lahore and the other to Karachi – are scheduled around the same time and you can eavesdrop on their conversation. It’s mostly about Pakistan’s chances and India’s capabilities. When TOI asked some of them how they felt about the rematch against India later in the match, some of them said: “Allah, ho jayega… if that happens, we will come back again.”Push boundaries with our YouTube channel. Subscribe now!Such is the cautious optimism of fans. But for that to happen again, Pakistan must do a lot of things right, starting with winning the match against Namibia in Colombo on Wednesday. If they win, or even if they are eliminated, they will advance to the Super Eights and take on strong squads from New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England. But if they lose, they will be out and the US, who already have a better net run rate than Pakistan, will advance along with India.

Despite a gloomy atmosphere hanging over Pakistan after Sunday’s loss to India, there is a glimmer of hope. It was a show by two spinners, Usman Tariq and Saim Ayub, who bowled a little bit of everything. Left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz was also pretty good, although Shadab Khan and Abrar Ahmed were below par.There is nothing on the Namibia side that can trouble Pakistan. But given Pakistan’s ability to self-destruct, you can’t take anything for granted.Tariq was Pakistan’s best bowler against India and he tried to stay as positive as possible. “It’s difficult if you don’t correct your mistakes. We just had a conversation about where we made mistakes. We will work hard to resolve these issues and look forward to the upcoming matches so that we do not repeat the same mistakes,” Tariq said on the eve of the SSC match.It was a 3pm match, the pitch was slow and the best thing for Pakistan would be to bat first if they won the toss. In a pressure game, it will be important for them to make runs on the boards and put pressure on their opponents with spin balls.Even though Pakistan’s batting performance wasn’t great, they should make some impact against Namibia. The real concern for the 2009 champions, though, is the form of their best pacer, Shaheen Afridi. He was very disappointing against India and the Namibia game could be the right platform for Pakistan to try Naseem Shah or Salman Mirza, if not both.However, Tariq defended Afridi and said the pacer was not under “any special pressure”. “We just want to execute our plan. Performance depends on the day. If the bowling team misses their lines, we will focus on those things and try to improve in the next game,” Tariq said. It was absolutely necessary for Tariq’s colleagues to do so on Wednesday in order to stay alive at this World Cup.