Pakistan vs South Africa: Sarfaraz & Co look to bounce back in do-or-die clash

LONDON: Win or go home. The four words that aptly summarise the do-or-die World Cup encounter between Pakistan and South Africa at Lord's on Sunday.

Today's match will quite literally be a battle for survival. Pakistan need to win all four of their remaining matches, AND rely on the outcome of a few other matches, in order to have a shot at making it to the top four. So the very minimum the Green Shirts can do is win all of their remaining four games, and leave the rest to Divine intervention. New Zealand's stunning victory against West Indies on Saturday hasn't helped their cause, either. So now their best bet would be to bank on England to be defeated in at least two of their upcoming games. 

Pakistan are currently ranked number nine on the World Cup points table, just above Afghanistan with one win (against England), three losses (against West Indies, Australia and India), and one washout against Sri Lanka. 

South Africa have very, very slim chances of making it to the top four after having lost four out of their six matches so far. With one win and one washout in addition to the four defeats, the Proteas are one spot above Pakistan at number eight. 

Skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed insisted that Pakistan’s morale remained high despite the crushing loss to arch-rivals India last Sunday. Speaking on the eve of their match with South Africa, the captain admitted to feeling the pressure but said the players were backing each other to revive their World Cup campaign. 

“Psychologically the pressure is on a captain if you lose a World Cup match against India,” Sarfaraz told reporters.

“But we all are okay. We are backing ourselves. Hopefully we will bounce back [against South Africa].

"It’s tough but after the match we gave two days’ rest to the players. We’re practising hard and the morale is high.”

Pakistan will also look to take inspiration from Sri Lanka’s stunning 20-run victory over England on Friday that has somewhat opened up the race to the semi-finals.

“The tournament is open now, so we have a chance. We’re focusing match by match and we’ll try to win. We’re hopeful against South Africa,” Sarfaraz added.

Head to head comparison 

Pakistan and South Africa have played 78 ODIs against each other, of which Pakistan have won 27 and lost 50. One game ended in no-result.

The World Cup record between the two sides is just as lop-sided as well. Pakistan and South Africa have faced off against each other four times in the mega tournament (1992, 1996, 1999, and 2015). The Green Shirts only managed to win one of these matches, in 2015, and lost the other three.