Pakistan set to beat Canada to enter quarters [March 02 2011]

Chris DHAMBARAGE

Pakistan will be looking to book a place in the quarterfinals of the Cricket World Cup after a lapse of 12 years when they take on the minnows Canada in their Group 'A' fixture under lights at the R. Premadasa Stadium tomorrow.

After defeating Kenya and Sri Lanka respectively Pakistan are almost assured of qualifying for the last eight if they could win today's day night game in the 14 nation tournament.

Pakistan's last two campaigns had ended in real disaster as the 1992 champions made a first round exit in the year 2003 in South Africa and four years later in the Caribbean.

Canada lost their first game to Sri Lanka by a huge margin of 210 runs in Hambantota and then they were beaten by Zimbabwe by 175 runs in Nagpur.

However Pakistan coach Waqar Younis said that because of the importance of the tournament they are not going to take any team easily.

"We played well against Sri Lanka but tomorrow is another game and we need to carry on the momentum. It's still early days in the tournament and bigger teams will come but we are not thinking far ahead," he added.

Pakistan's strength has been their bowling attack and surprisingly skipper Shahid Afridi has been the most successful among the lot with a total of nine wickets from the two games and is on the verge of entering the World's top ten bowlers in the ICC Rankings.

Fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has also provided vital breakthroughs whenever the team needed but Umar Gul is yet to fire and his place could be in danger as Pakistan have the option of playing Wahab Riaz.

Akhtar needs only four more wickets to reach the milestone of completing 250 wickets in One Day Internationals. In addition Abdur Razzaq is 30 runs short of becoming just the fourth player to achieve the 5000 run and the 250 wicket ODI double.

Pakistan and Canada have met just once in One Day Internationals with Pakistan winning their match at Leeds in ICC Cricket World Cup 1979 by eight wickets thanks to three wickets each for Sarfraz Nawaz and Asif Iqbal and 57 not out from Sadiq Mohammad.

The two teams also met in a Twenty20 International at Toronto in October 2008 in which Pakistan won by 35 runs. Pakistan has played 16 One Day Internationals at the R. Premadasa Stadium, winning nine, losing six, with one no result.

In contrast this will be Canada's maiden appearance at the R. Premadasa Stadium. Canada will be really up against it although they have won three of its last six matches, but has only played two One Day Internationals since last September.