Florida, Lauderhill, IREvsUSA were some of the trending words in X pretty much all throughout Friday for obvious reasons. It has been raining in Florida for the last few days and the venue for the last few T20 World Cup Group A games, Lauderhill, is just a 40-minute drive from Miami. But as the toss was delayed between Ireland and the USA due to a wet outfield and it became increasingly clear that the chances of Pakistan being knocked out of the tournament were huge, “Qudrat” also started to trend.
“Qudrat” is part of the famous phrase “Qudrat ka nizam” which means “force of nature” uttered by former Pakistan coach Saqlain Mushtaq after the side’s defeat in the third T20I of their home series against England in 2022. It was mocked at the beginning but it soon became a moto for Pakistan’s T20 World Cup campaign a couple of months later.
Pakistan lost the first two matches against Zimbabwe and India and were on the brink. The only they would have a chance to go through to the semi-finals is if the Netherlands beat South Africa, the most in-form team in the group. That seemed highly unlikely. But Qudrat ka nizam kicked in, and the Netherlands beat South Africa.
Pakistan went all the way to finals before losing to England in the title clash.
Pakistan had a similar sort of beginning even in this World Cup. They shockingly lost to the USA in their opening match and then failed to score 120 against arch-rivals India. They bounced back to beat Canada comprehensively in their next match, but their fate was not in their hands. The only way they could have advanced to the Super 8 stage was if the USA didn’t get any points in the Ireland game and they won their last match against Ireland by a big margin.
Pakistan’s fans were hoping for the stars to align again. But it wasn’t to be. “Qudrat ka nizam” betrayed them this time around.
But the rain Gods were not kind to Pakistan. The groundstaff did their best to make the conditions match-ready, but the heavy downpours for the last three days created many problematic areas throughout the outfield.
It hadn’t rained in Lauderhill since the afternoon, but the toss was delayed due to the wet outfield. The match officials conducted a couple of inspections at about an hour’s interval each, but around 11 pm IST (three hours after the scheduled start time), it started to rain again, ending all hopes of conducting a five-over-a-side match. That’s when the umpires decided to call off the game.
USA and Ireland got a point each, which obviously meant the co-hosts advanced to the Super 8 while Pakistan were knocked out of the tournament.
Here’s how X reacted to Pakistan’s exit from the T20 World Cup
India ended on top of Group A with six points, while the USA finished second with five points. India will play Canada in their last group fixture on Saturday at the same venue. Pakistan, on the other hand, will take on Ireland on Sunday before heading home.