Numerically Pakistan better than England: Wahab

LAHORE: Pakistan’s late recruit in the World Cup team, pacer Wahab Riaz believes that there is not much difference between his team and England and numerically speaking the team green has an upper hand.Wahab is turning to stats to give Pakistan heart after tough start to their ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup campaign.Numbers can look harsh in black and white, but Riaz insisted there were positives to take from a seven-wicket defeat by the West Indies at Trent Bridge.Despite posting 105, their second lowest total in tournament history, the Pakistan bowlers showed encouraging signs in their mission impossible.Riaz, back in the team for the first time in two years, has done the maths and insists there are reasons not to be fearful.And he points out they were not outscored, Pakistan averaging 339 with the bat to England’s 356.“We lost that series 4-0 but there wasn’t much between the runs we scored, I think the only difference was the fielding, we dropped too many catches at crucial moments,” he said in a briefing made available here.“We’ve worked a lot on that because we need all departments on form to beat England.“We know we have to take wickets up front against England with the new ball, we know what can happen if you get (Jason) Roy or (Jonny) Bairstow out early.“We have to be on the very top of our game to beat England, we have to have spot on execution of our plans.“It was disappointing to lose to the West Indies but this is just the start, we will comeback from this. We just need to get into our rhythm. We will have to look at this as a practice match now.

from The News International - Sports http://bit.ly/2Idw5jY