Nervous times for Pakistan

Today is the all awaited encounter for Pakistani fans, its not a Pakistani team's match but its encounter between Bangladesh and Australia, this match will clear the dust from the points table of Group A which is still undecided whether who's going to be the leader of this group. Pakistan already have played its quota of two matches, one comprehensive win against Bangladeshis and one lost against Aussies against them, we lost miserably and the advantage we gained in win against Bangladeshis was all drained in next 24 hours when we lost against the Aussies in our second encounter and in return we lost the match and probably early exit in the tournament, because Pakistan's inclusion in the tournament is dependent on Australia Bangladesh's match.

If I were the skipper of this Pakistan side, like I said is one of reply's that this would have been my last option to depend on other team's result.

Even if we had lost the match but had reduced the defeat margin, and not bowled out completely than the scenario would be different and Australia had to play today's match with a pressure of surviving in this tournament, but we ourselves gave this advantage to Australia and now don't wanna be strict but Australia is playing today's match with its own terms and conditions, and we are dependent on them whether we can stay in this tournament or not!

Its just humiliating for me being a Pakistani to be so much dependent on others, for somewhat its ok but totally dependency is another thing and I discourage it being a Pakistani...

Bangladesh can take Pakistan's hope for qualifying for Super 8s on their encounter against Aussies

Matter taken from http://shortofalength.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/can-bangladesh-still-qualify-and-eliminate-pakistan-from-the-2010-icc-twenty20-world-cup/

It could happen… Pakistan defeated Bangladesh by the rather comfortable margin of 21 runs in their opening match, but ended up losing heavily to Australia, and that 34 run loss means that Bangladesh have a very realistic shot of upstaging the defending champions and giving them a humiliating first round exit. Here is the points table as it stands right now:

Group A
Teams	Matches	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Points	Net R/R	For	Against
Pakistan (01)	2	1	1	0	0	2	-0.325	329/40.0	342/40.0
Bangladesh (08)	1	0	1	0	0	0	-1.050	151/20.0	172/20.0
Australia (09)	1	1	0	0	0	2	+1.700	191/20.0	157/20.0

Simply put, all Bangladesh have to do is defeat Australia while maintaining that they score not less than 12 more runs than they have conceded in total. That gap is currently 21, so if they beat Australia by as low a margin as 9 runs they will end up with a better run rate than Pakistan. Lets take a look at all the possible scenarios:

1) Bangladesh Bat First: In this case they have to ensure that no matter what they score, Australia lose by a margin of at least 9 runs. Australia in this case would still qualify with a net run rate of 0.65. If however, they manage to defeat Australia by as high a margin as 48 runs, then Pakistan would qualify ahead of Australia on net run rate.

2) Bangladesh Bat Second: The first assumption is that Australia are either bowled out or bat their full 20 overs. The second assumption is that Bangladesh win by a margin of one run, i.e. they just get over Australia’s score rather than hit a six and win by six or five or less runs. In this case Bangladesh have to chase down whatever Australia score in 113-116 balls (18.5 to 19.2) depending on what Australia score (I’ve taken realistic ranges from Australia scoring 90 to 250), to get a higher net run rate than Pakistan. For these same ranges in scores, Bangladesh would have to achieve their target in roughly 7.3 to 11.2 overs (varying from 90 to 200) to push Australia’s nrr below Pakistan, which is much riskier for them and unlikely to happen.

So as you can see, if Bangladesh do win, they stand an excellent chance of qualifying ahead of Pakistan as long as they don’t win by a very small margin. Which is why it was crucial for the defending champions to score as close to Australia’s score as possible yesterday, so that Australia would not take the chance of losing to Bangladesh by a small margin themselves since that might have ended their aspirations. The match on the 11th of May assumes critical importance!

A threat for early exit for the defending champions

Prior to last night's clash between Aussies and Pakistanis, Aussies no doubt outclassed Pakistanis in every department of the game, which was expected and which I was concerned for but other people didn't acknowledged it and were being optimistic with the result.

Don't wanna say anything regarding yesterday's match and performance of Pakistani team but now we're on the mercy of Australia v Bangladesh match, which I think is gonna happen that Aussies would want Pakistani kicked out of the world T20 by making Bangladeshis winning the next encounter against the Aussies because Pakistan no doubt can prove to be a tough opposition for Aussies. That's why teams have this option of depending on other team's results on their last priorities.

So I bet it would be Pakistan who would be returning home, because statistics of Group A are saying so, after playing two matches Pakistan got 2 points with Net Run Rate of -0.325, whereas Australia after winning their match yesterday are on +1.700, they still have to play their match against Bangladesh and Bangladesh on -1.050 and they still have to play another match in this group which is against the Aussies. So a person with limited mathematical knowledge can easily understand that if Bangladesh win their final match of the group against Aussies, they will definitely going to become the second seed team of this group with Australia replacing Pakistan as the First Seed team in Group A. All Pakistanis can hope for is that Aussies thrash Bangladesh out of this tournament!

Tough luck. We should start preparing for "grand welcome" for our team. And like I said, Aussies will definitely do the same to kick out Pakistan as they are a difficult opposition to tackle and to make their position concreted for the semis.