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The Fakhar Zaman-Babar Azam partnership versus India was directionless

That I don’t know but they certainly can. If it was someone other than Sarfraz at the other end, Pakistan would have won that match against Australia.

there you are dost, you can't win matches with those guys unless you are playing UAE, Namibia with your batting lineup.
 
It started at around 6.7 and reached 8.5 by the time batsmen were looking to hit.

Do you know how 9 runs are scored in an EVERY over to win the match?

You MUST HIT a BOUNDARY EVERY OVER.

That's not easy to do and every over that you play out 4-6 runs will cause the RRR to get higher and higher.

When Babar got out as it is, it was already 8.5. Hafeez had no choice but to play aerial from ball number 2 anyways. When the RRR is 8.5 for greater part of 25 overs, each batsmen that gets out, puts extra pressure on the new batsmen to keep hitting a boundary from ball 1.

I don't like this approach at all of taking the game deep UNLESS you have hitters like PANDYA, MAXWELL, CAREY, BAIRSTOW, BUTLER in your side.

What was Pakistan doing taking the game deep and letting the run rate hit 10 or 11 an over?

Sarfraz would become Butler? Malik would become Pandya? Imad would become Maxwell?

I think people underestimate the importance of letting the RRR always stay around 6-7 max per over and think that even 8 per over is doable at the end.

THE HIGHEST run chase in this WORLD CUP IS 245.

Imagine?

And still people want wickets in hand to attack a 350 target after cantering to 160 odd in 30 overs.

It just won't happen.

The pressure is too much.

Yep they had a very difficult task in hand. But I don’t see any other way they could have chased it down. Perhaps should have rotated the strike more often, but India had most angles covered when the spinners were on. With that batting lineup it was the only possible strategy I feel to get anywhere close to the target.
 
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<B>Simple straight-forward answer:</B>

Pakistan batting was simply not capable of chasing down 337 in a World Cup match against India. Only if Fakhar would have played the inning of his lifetime, the chase would have been possible.

Pakistan lost the match when they allowed Rohit Sharma to score his first 50 of 35 balls and could not stop the top three. You lose if you can't stop top three of opposition after winning the toss and opting to bowl.
 
You have to understand that from their perspective they also knew that if they risked accelerating from ball one then they'd be 40-3 expecting hafeez and Malik to hit 150's each..... Very unlikely.

Their approach was the most sensible... I.e bat till 35 overs and see where they stand. If Pakistan were to get 200-1 after 35 with fakhar and Babar both on 100s...you'd hope that the middle order would be able to chase it down.

While ignoring a huge DWL factor looming around?
 
I feel it was good enough. They were going well and they were starting to get a move on, 1 boundary per over. I felt like the longer that partnership grew, the more we were in the game, and with the rain arriving, we could have been on DLS when the rain came. I believe rain came in about 30th over, and I think had those 2 stayed there, Pakistan would have gotten above the DL par score. That partnership was broken by a peach of a delivery however, and after that, I knew we would lose.
 
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