Pakistan women’s all-rounder Syed Aroob Shah on Tuesday said the team was looking to “perform better with the bat” ahead of the pivotal encounter with England in the ICC Women’s World Cup.
Last week’s defeat against Australia left their knockout hopes hanging by a thread as Pakistan recorded three losses in a row.
A magnificent century from Beth Mooney dragged defending champions Australia to the brink of disaster after going 76-7 before completing a crushing 107-run victory over the Green Shirts.
“We are working hard in the nets and our main objective is to make our batsmen fight as much as possible on the ground.
“It is very important for us to post a big total, around 200+, because that will increase our chances of winning. We are working on this and hopefully the next match will see us perform better,” said the all-rounder.
He was answering a question about Pakistan’s batting struggles amid high-scoring encounters in the rest of the tournament.
The Green Shirts are yet to cross the 200-run mark after being bowled out on paltry scores in all three matches so far.
Talking about the advantage of playing at the same venue for all the matches, Aroob said it was up to them to play good cricket to take advantage of the familiarity.
“Yes, we have the advantage of playing all the games in the same place, but obviously the other teams also come well prepared. So that point is no longer very valid: that we are getting an advantage,” said Leggie, 21.
He added that when the team plays good cricket, only then we will get the benefit of the venue and added, “We are working on it and will try to play well in the next match.”
“Yes, the tournament is still open and we have a lot of hope. It happens that some teams lose the first games and then come back strongly,” Aroob added in an optimistic tone.
“So we believe we can do the same. We will take each match as it comes, play well and try to win the remaining four matches to stay in the tournament,” he said.
Fatima Sana’s charges had a tough start to the campaign, suffering tough defeats against Bangladesh and India.
Their batting has faltered, although their bowling has been exceptional in short phases, but they have lacked the punch to finish the innings and spells on the field well, a combination that has left them at the bottom of the eight-team table with little margin for error.
Pakistan need their batting to fire ahead of the England match if they are to avoid an early exit from the main event.
Opener Muneeba Ali is one of the batsmen who need to perform well, coming into the tournament in a decent situation but unable to give the Green Shirts a good start at the top of the order.
England comes into the match with three wins in three games, which increases the danger of the Green Shirts’ task.
Before the match, England’s Alice Capsey said Pakistan had been involved in some “exciting games of cricket”.
“I think what we’ve seen in Pakistan so far is that they’ve been involved in some really exciting cricket, and they’ve had teams in the background,” the 21-year-old batsman said.
He added that England were making sure they were really specific about what their plans were for each individual bowler, whether it was seam or spin.
