Pakistan have had a mixed campaign like always in CWC 2023. They start off their World Cup campaigns with great uncertainity. They win a big match and then lose few. Suddenly, under pressure, they re-group and play with great determination. They either qualify to Quarter-finals or Semi-Finals. In 2022 T20I CWC, they started off similarly but got to Finals.
Now, they started off in CWC 2023, every ungamely. They lost to India, Australia and looked completely out of sorts. Then, they had to face a real slap of face when they lost to Afghanistan. Pakistan woke up after PCB forced chief selector, Inzamam-ul-Haq to resign. This pushed the team management to drop underperforming Imam-ul-Haq for Fakhar Zaman.
They almost won against South Africa in a tense chase. One DRS decision did not go their way and they lost the match by 1 wicket. South Africa, who lost to Netherlands and India, chasing, won against them. Interestingly. Afghanistan, who looked set to win against Australia, lost to Glenn Maxwell, who scored single-handedly 201 in a chase of 293/7. This made it slightly easy for Paksitan to think about Semi-Final spot.
Fakhar Zaman looked like winning it for them against New Zealand, even though opposition scored 400. Had that match not been shortened due to rain, their NRR could have been better or NZ would have found a way to win it. But as it rained, they got benefit of DLS method and won 2 points. Now, New Zealand have definitively pushed them away from the competition.
They have to win against England by 287 runs or chase the target in 16 balls to better their NRR above NZ. Afghanistan face South Africa and their NRR is in (-). So, Maxwell has bashed them out of competiton. But now, New Zealand has almost closed doors for Pakistan. Seems like they got their revenge for the shortened match in this way.