Indian conditions different ball game for Pak

Kolkata, October 30

Lack of swing in India has taken much sting out of the Pakistan pace attack in the ODI World Cup, head coach Grant Bradburn said ahead of tomorrow’s clash against Bangladesh.

Pakistan’s semifinals hopes hang in balance after just two wins in six matches and their bowling, usually their strong suit, has looked mostly pedestrian with Shaheen Afridi failing to produce his best form so far in the tournament. “We have a great resource of fast bowling talent in Pakistan,” Bradburn said today. “We do rely on swing, but we haven’t experienced too much swing here. The balls are different. The conditions are different and certainly the ball tends to wear a lot quicker here.”

Bradburn blamed the debacle on “foreign” Indian conditions and their lack of familiarity with the venues.

“This tournament is on foreign conditions for us. None of our players have played here before. Every venue is a new one, including this one,” he added. Pakistan must win their remaining three group matches and hope other results go their way to make the last four, a situation Bradburn called far from ideal.

“We’re in a position that we didn’t want to be. We were determined to be in control of our destiny but we’re not,” he said. — Reuters