The ongoing T20 World Cup 2022 has seen quite a few upsets since the tournament opener on October 16, when Asia Cup 2022 champions Sri Lanka were humbled by Namibia with a 55-run defeat.
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While Sri Lanka did bounce back to make it through to the ‘Super 12’ stage, the power-hitters laden West Indies side crashed out of the tournament after suffering shocking upsets against Scotland and then Ireland.
Come the ‘Super 12’ stage, there were a couple of other upsets that humbled the directly qualified teams, but team Pakistan made sure they, with their usual, uncanny brand of Cricket came up with some shocking defeats before coasting through, or play like absolute beasts some other day.
In between, the ‘Men in Green’ also become victims of an upset of the highest order, to add to the entertainment value for the casual Cricket lovers, while soaking in all the curses of their ever-emotional fans back home.
Pakistan defeat South Africa; the only unbeaten team in T20 World Cup 2022 until Thursday
After almost miraculously losing to arch-rivals India, much credit for which goes to an unbelievable knock from Virat Kohli, Pakistan suffered a shocking 1-run defeat against the low-ranked Zimbabwean side in their next match, to find themselves staring at the exit door so early in the tournament.
The unpredictable Pakistani side, then restricted the Netherlands on a paltry 91/9 in their 20 Overs during the next match. And just when everyone expected Pakistan to chase the total down as quickly as possible to improve their Net Run Rate (NRR), none of their top-5 batters batted at a strike rate of even 130+, as it took them 13.5 Overs to reach the target.
Come Thursday, with none of their other group results going their way, their fans had minimal hopes from their team to pull off a victory against a strong South African unit, which were the only team (out of 16) to have not lost a single match in the ongoing World Cup.
However, after some jaw-dropping knocks off the bats of their middle-order batters in Shadab Khan (52 off 22) and Iftikhar Ahmed (51 off 35), Pakistan forced the Sydney Crowd to stand up on the feet to post a challenging score of 185/9.
Their much-famed bowling unit then stepped up, to hand the Proteas a 33-run loss, to find themselves alive and kicking in the tournament.
Most unpredictable cricket team
The Pakistan team, over the years, have always had the knack of producing the unlikeliest of results one day, and then somehow like rising from the ashes like a Pheonix, producing some of the most brilliant individual performances the other, to leave the other teams not only shell-shocked but also make up their minds to never take them for granted based on their players’ reputation or their previous few performances.
Jump back memory lane to the 2019 ODI World Cup. Pakistan had not only suffered a 10-wicket loss against West Indies in their World Cup opener, but had arrived in England on the back of 11 consecutive defeats in the format.
Come their next match against World Cup title favourites England, Pakistan rose to the occasion to post a mammoth total of 348 runs in their 50 Overs, and thereby hand a 14-run defeat to the English side.
The 2007 T20 and ODI World Cup
Who can forget the grand finale of the 2007 T20 World Cup against India, when Misbah-ul-Haq, out of the Blue decided to play the lap scoop over short fine leg to hand the simplest of catches to Sreesanth, and gift India a 5-run victory.
Even during the 2007 ODI World Cup, they suffered a shock defeat against the newcomers in Ireland by 3 wickets, to bow out of the tournament even before their last group stage match versus Zimbabwe.
More recently, during the Asia Cup 2022 final in Dubai, a venue where teams batting second had won 6 of the 8 previous matches largely due to the dew factor, Pakistan had not only invited Sri Lanka to bat first but had reduced them to 58/5 to look like heading towards a comfortable Asia Cup title.
However, a Bhanuka Rajapaksa (71 off 45) special out of nowhere and then a lackluster batting effort from the Pakistani batters, with Mohammad Rizwan (55 off 49) batting out most of the Overs in the 171-run chase meant that they eventually fell short by 23 runs.
