Waqas Khan dismantles the myths about Pakistan's ODI performances
The Pakistan cricket team is in better shape for the World Cup campaign than many commentators and pundits think. The throw-away line from the usual newspaper correspondents, TV commentators of assorted nationalities with a loose grasp of the Pakistan cricket team dynamics, and from almost everyone else, is that this is a very talented but deeply inconsistent team.

While that might have been true a year ago, it is patently incorrect at the moment.

It is easy to keep extrapolating the past on to the present and extending it to the future. The reality, as explained by actual results, tells a different story. In the last 30 matches that each international team has played (up to and including the second ODI between New Zealand and Pakistan), their records are:

Team	Win	Loss	NR	%
Pakistan	22	8	0	73
Australia	21	8	1	72
Sri Lanka	20	10	0	67
South Africa	18	11	1	62
India	16	14	0	53
England	12	18	0	40
New Zealand	10	20	0	33
Zimbabwe	8	22	0	27
Kenya	5	25	0	17
Bangladesh	3	27	0	10

The pundits would surely be stumped by these figures. They cannot blame the team for being inconsistent any more. I can see the team improving by another 20% between now and the World Cup with a combination of better fielding and strategy, consistent team selection and superior match tactics - a topic perhaps for the near future.

The other myth that has been perpetuated is that the team is bad at 'chasing', batting second in one-day cricket. There is much talk of their lack of discipline. Again, fair enough in the past but not true any more.

In the last 30 matches while batting second (or chasing), the results for all international teams (up to and including the second ODI between New Zealand and Pakistan) are as follows:

Team	Win	Loss	NR	%
Pakistan	9	4	0	69
Australia	11	7	1	61
South Africa	9	6	0	60
India	10	10	0	50
England	6	6	0	50
Sri Lanka	6	7	0	46
Zimbabwe	5	11	0	31
New Zealand	3	11	0	27
Kenya	1	12	0	8
Bangladesh	1	12	0	8

The reality is much more positive than the old wives tales. I hope the team and its fans look at these numbers and understand that there is nothing wrong with Pakistan chasing targets - to the degree that all chases are slightly lower percentage plays than posting totals. The team is good batting first or last.

No one should make the mistake of going in first after winning the toss, even if it looks like a seaming wicket, simply because of this myth about the chase. The skipper and team management should sort out their strategy to make the best decision after winning the toss.

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