26 June,2019 01:22 PM IST | | mid-day online desk
Sarfaraz Ahmed and Imad Wasim
Pakistan faced severe criticism after their loss to arch-rivals India but their 49-run win over South Africa breathed life into their campaign but the road ahead is a tough one.
With just two wins and three losses, Pakistan are at the seventh spot with five points in six games.
Sarfaraz Ahmed and his men will now not only have to win the remaining three matches, starting with New Zealand, but also hope that the results in other matches favour them to salvage any hopes of a semifinal berth.
New Zealand's Mitchell Santner in a pre-match presser has said that Pakistan is a very dangerous team when they are in form.
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While pacer Mohammad Amir has been their biggest star, claiming 15 wickets to top the list, none of the other bowlers have backed him, which has affected their campaign.
While the batting and bowling units delivered against the Proteas, fielding is an area of concern for Pakistan and Sarfaraz too admitted that the team will need to pull up its socks.
"We have to work harder on fielding. Again we dropped so many catches (against South Africa), some straightforward and some half-chances. All three matches now are very crucial and we have to sort it out," Sarfaraz had said after the match.
New Zealand, on the other hand, have been invincible so far and currently hold the top position in the points table.
The Black Caps, led by inspiration skipper Kane Williamson, have been on a roll ever since they streamrolled Sri Lanka in their opening match.
There is quite a lot of buzz regarding the match on Twitter, we take a look at few interesting tweets:
With inputs from PTI
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