The Pakistani squad performed poorly during the on-going 2013 ICC Champions Trophy by losing all three matches as their batsmen surrendered without any fight.

The Green Shirts were unable to bat through their required quota of overs during the event. They were bowled out thrice by the rival teams and their batsmen looked timid against the bowlers of West Indies, South Africa and India. The Pakistani team was led by Misbah-ul-Haq who fought well personally, in three encounters along with the young opener, Nasir Jamshed. The bowlers of the Men in Green did not have enough runs to defend but anyhow, they did their best to bring their team close to win at least once against the Windies.

Mibah-ul-Haq was the highest run scorer with 173 runs at an awesome average of 86.50, the best of unbeaten 96 with two fifties. Nasir Jamshed followed him by scoring 94 averaging 31.33 with one fifty whereas Amin managed 43 runs in two games. Asad Shafiq scored 41 in two matches whereas their prominent batmen, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal and Imran Farhat ended up with the horrible averages of 12.66, 8.33, 7.66 and 2.00.

Below, we will highlight the performance of the Pakistani team in the three matches they played in the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.

1-     Vs. West Indies on June 7, 2013, at Kennington Oval, London.

Scores

Pakistan – 170 all out in 48 overs (50 overs game), Misbah-ul-Haq 96* (5×4 3×6), Nasir Jamshed 50 (93b, 5×4), Kemar Roach 3-28, Sunil Narine 3-34

West Indies – 8-172 in 40.4 overs, Chris Gayle 39 (47b 4×4 1×6), Marlon Samuels 30 (57b 3×4), Kieron Pollard 30 (58b 3×4 1×6), Mohammad Irfan 3-32, Saeed Ajmal 2-38

Player of the match – Kemar Roach (West Indies)

Result – West Indies won by two wickets

2-     Vs. South Africa on June 10, 2013, at Edgbaston, Birmingham.

Scores

South Africa – 9-234 in 50 overs, Hashim Amla 81 (97b 9×4), AB de Villiers 31 (31b 1×4 1×6), Faf du Plessis 28 (40b 2×4), Mohammad Irfan 1-27, Shoaib Malik 1-27

Pakistan – 167 all out in 45 overs, Misbah-ul-Haq 55 (75b 3×4 1×6), Nasir Jamshed 42 (76b 4×4), Umar Amin 16 (29b 1×4), Ryan McLaren 4-19, Lonwabo Tsotsobe 2-23

Player of the match – Hashim Amla (South Africa)

Result – South Africa won by 67 runs.

3-     Vs. India at Edgbaston, Birmingham, on June 15, 2013.

Scores

Pakistan – 165 all out in 39.4 overs (40 overs game), Asad Shafiq 41 (64m 57b 3×4), Umar Amin 27* (43m 26b 3×4), Mohammad Hafeez 27 (44m 31b 5×4), Bhuvneshwar Kumar 8 – 2 – 19 – 2, Ravindra Jadeja 8 – 1 – 30 – 2

India – 2-102 from 19.1 overs (22 overs D/L method), Shikhar Dhawan 48 (70m 41b 5×4), Virat Kohli 22* (36m 27b 3×4), Rohit Sharma 18 (54m 32b 2×4), Wahab Riaz 4 – 0 – 20 – 1, Saeed Ajmal 5 – 0 – 29 – 1

Player of the match – Buvneshwar Kumar (India), 2-19

Match result – India won by 8 wickets

Pakistan did not get any point and was placed at the bottom of Group B with a net run rate of -1.035. The selectors and the think tanks of the Green Shirts should put their heads down to get the necessary changes required for strengthening their batting line up and groom them well for the future assignments of the team.