Wednesday, March 9, 2011

New Zealand break the jinx

Despite the world cup going on so smoothly, god knows what on earth made me to go for Bare & Barren. But, that didn't take much time before I could switch back to blogging about cricket which is now going through its all time high with the 10th edition of the world cup keeping all eyes glued to the television sets. Yesterday, there was a rare match between Pakistan and New Zealand which needless to be said New Zealand won convincingly by 110 runs. This would not have been the case had the match been played somewhere in Pakistan rather than at Pallekele.

I just can't last remember when New Zealand had defeated Pakistan in a cricket world cup. I have been watching the event since 1992 and since then, the teams have met on five occasions, all of which have been pocketed by Pakistan. The jackpot struck twice in 1992 and 1999 world cup when Pakistan had two wins against New Zealand, the former being responsible in seeing Pakistan lift their maiden world cup and the latter their second entry into the finals of a world cup. In 1999, it can be said that Pakistan had their maiden runners-up tag which is not too bad.

If anyone comes to the decision that Pakistan are lucky in case they encounter New Zealand in the knock stages of the world cup, I'd like to add an exception citing Pakistan's loss to the Kiwis in the champions trophy 2009 when the Kiwis ran the Pakistanis out of the contest as well as the trophy when they beat them at Johannesburg by 5 wickets. If not for that, all is well for the Pakistanis for they beat them in two world cup semifinals and in the world T20 2007 at South Africa. But, this time things have been different compared to the last 5 world cups.

It was way back in the 1983 world cup that New Zealand had last beaten Pakistan at Birmingham by 52 runs. Pakistan didn't face the Kiwis in 1975, 1979 and 1987 world cups. And, the last they played each other was in 1999 and since then it has been three world cups since they have met each other. Things may be or may not have been different had they played in those world cups as well. But, the victory would have been a delight for the Kiwis which saw them beat Pakistan after 28 years or 7 world cups including this edition.

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