Pakistan captain Misbah-ul Haq conceded that Australia will be the favourites when the two teams meet for the third quarter-finals of the 2015 World Cup at Adelaide Oval, but that is not going to stop his team from giving it their 100 per cent and plot an upset.
On the eve of the match, Misbah said: “Yeah, they are favourites, but there is no hard and fast rule that favorites are always going to win the game.
“It’s what happens on the day, the team that performs better, the team who has better chances and better luck. So we are hopeful and we are very positive.
“I think we’ve got a bowling lineup which can go through any team, and a few batters who are just getting back into form.
"This is only a matter of putting a good show on that day. So I think we're looking forward for that.”
And on the absence of Mohammad Irfan, on whose bowling Misbah had pinned a lot of hope in this World Cup, the captain added: “Regarding Irfan, obviously, everybody knows that he is a different kind of bowler, and that’s a big loss for the team.
“But you have to just handle these things. You can’t say now Irfan is out of this competition so we just can’t play Australia. I mean, we’ve got other bowlers who are equally good, and they are also performing really well. All three seamers are up to the mark, even the fourth one.
“Yassir Shah is a bowler that can really put pressure on the opposition. So, we’ve still got that sort of team, that sort of talent, that sort of bowling line-up that could really put Australia under pressure.”
Given that two giants of sub-continent cricket – Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara – playing their last ODIs on Wednesday during the quarter-final loss against South Africa, it was obvious for Misbah to be asked the question as both he and Shahid Afridi are retiring from the format after the World Cup.
“I’m pretty satisfied with what I have had and Shahid too. The biggest satisfaction is that we gave everything to our team and country,” said Misbah.
“Whatever we have got, we just put our efforts together for the country. Obviously, this World Cup is still not over, and we’d really like to do even better in this tournament, especially trying to win tomorrow’s game and go further in the tournament. You could say that is our desire and dream.
“As for tomorrow, it is very simple. You just take it as any normal game. Go there and try to do your basic things and try to give a hundred percent. That is the only thing you can do.
“If you just think about this game further than that, you are putting yourself under pressure, and I’m not going to do that, even Shahid is not going to do that.”
