How will Pakistan react to the scenes of Sunday night?

The prospect of facing Haris Rauf, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah at Perth's Optus Stadium, where Mark Wood earlier in the tournament bowled the competition's fastest-ever spell, wouldn't be high on the list of many batters

Nick Friend | 26/10/2022 at 11:30

After the drama and the fervour and the jubilation and the despair, how do you go again if you're Pakistan?

By the time the coin comes down in Perth on Thursday, Babar Azam and his team will have had four days to come to terms with perhaps the most remarkable T20 match ever played: 93,293 supporters of two cricketing superpowers packed into one of the game's most famous venues, watching something play out that was hard to comprehend at the time and continues to be talked about now.

Babar and Mohammad Rizwan so rarely fail at all in the shortest format, let alone within overs of one another. The middle order, which has come in for plenty of recent criticism, pulled them out of the mire. The new-ball attack – so feted for its pace and excitement – came up trumps, and at the end of the powerplay they must have thought the odds were in their favour to repeat the win over India of 12 months earlier.

These teams don't share a field anywhere near as often as they ought to, but that absence of a regular rivalry – albeit they met twice at the recent Asia Cup, with a five-wicket win apiece – means when they do assemble, the stakes are somehow even higher.

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^{How will Babar Azam's men react to Sunday's defeat? (William West/AFP via Getty Images)}

What followed India's early collapse has been told a thousand times since: Virat Kohli's masterclass, Hardik Pandya's supporting cast, a six over long-on for the ages, the last over that had everything. Sceptics of T20 cricket claim that these games merge into one, that there isn't enough time for ebb and flow. Yet, there could never be a night to disprove those theories to a greater degree than Sunday, when both teams felt in the ascendancy at different stages and, in Kohli's knock, the world was treated to an innings – and a single stroke, off the back foot over long-on – that will stand the test of time.

So, the answer to that question – of how Pakistan will react – is simple: they have to, they have no choice. As the corresponding group has already shown, lose once and you're at match point. Whichever of England or Australia lose on Friday will be all but out. If Pakistan are overturned by Zimbabwe 24 hours earlier, they will be similarly snookered.

"I'm pretty sure that Pakistan will be coming hard at us tomorrow," acknowledged Craig Ervine, Zimbabwe's captain and a man experienced enough to know what to expect of a wounded animal. And while there was no shame in losing that game, it can only have stung painfully. "They've got some really quality bowlers up front there with the new ball. So that will be a big challenge for us."

THE BIG MATCH

Who: Pakistan v Zimbabwe

Where: Optus Stadium, Perth

When: Thursday, October 27 (10pm local time, 12pm BST)

Prediction: Pakistan

As Afghanistan's line-up found to its cost as Wood tore in last Saturday, T20 isn't always a batter's game. "I don't think that you can sit back and let quality bowlers like that bowl at you," warned Ervine, "otherwise it's only going to be a matter of time they get you out." In the towering figure of Blessing Muzarabani, though, Zimbabwe have their own weapons for a surface like that.

They were served a dress rehearsal of sorts in their Super 12s opener against South Africa, before the farcical nature of that game's conclusion became the main talking point. There aren't many attacks quicker than one featuring Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje, and Zimbabwe's nine-over thrash in a game shortened by rain was one of the more chaotic episodes of this World Cup so far, even if they somehow clambered to 79 for 5.

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^{Richard Ngarava is a doubt after slipping in his follow-through against South Africa (David Gray/AFP via Getty Images)}

South Africa's response was disrupted by the weather, and it had reached the point of being ludicrous long before the teams were eventually taken from the field for a second time. Dave Houghton, Zimbabwe's head coach, spoke with an appropriate frustration afterwards of the lack of regard shown for the fielding side in an effort to squeeze a result out of conditions that simply weren't befitting a competition of this stature.

Regis Chakabva slipped while keeping wicket; Richard Ngarava limped off the field after falling in his follow-through and is a doubt for Thursday. It was certainly a penny for his thoughts when the game between England and Ireland was halted almost immediately after the rain came down with five-and-a-half overs remaining.

"For most of the evening it was misty mizzle, but it got to the stage where you could actually hear it thumping on the rooftop of the dugout," said Houghton. "To me, that's time to get off the field."

Eventually, they did. "A little bit of a bizarre evening," said Ervine. Whatever happens when Zimbabwe take on Pakistan, you'd expect it to be a little less breathless than their respective openers, extraordinary and eventful in their own ways.