He produced mixed results. His batting went from bad to worse. Whenever a team needed him to score, he not only let himself down by playing childish strokes but also cost the team dearly. The real test of his leadership qualities was up to test at the World Cup where his performance as a captain was not more than average. He was not able to make decisions, which were required at that time, especially his team selection and batting order was not up to the mark. He was not able at any stage to utilise his bowlers appropriately. He used different bowling combinations throughout the tournament, which showed he had no game plan and lacked any proper strategy for the opposition. He seemed confused during the entire World Cup, and had no grip on the game and also on the team, it is true Pakistan had reached the semi-final of the World Cup but this happened purely because of the prayers of the entire nation rather than the team efforts.
Pakistan cricket team did not play a single match according to its potential. Had the lady luck not favoured the team, they could have easily been crashed out of the mega event at the first round stage. The Pakistan team had only managed to win a single match against Kenya with some kind of satisfaction; otherwise all of their matches almost went to the wire. They were hardly able to beat Sri Lanka, Canada and Australia, as every one had seen how close all these matches went away.
Had they lose to Australia in the last group stage match they were not able to beat the opposition in the quarterfinal, which could have been different. It was Pakistan's sheer good luck they have to face a relatively weaker opposition in team like West Indies, to whom they were able to dispatch easily and book their places in the semi-final against India.
The Indian's were not the winners of that particular match, it was Pakistan who just gifted the match to their arch rivals. The 261 runs target is by no means was a difficult one for the Pakistan batting. But the batsmen gifted their wickets to the Indian bowlers by playing careless and unjustified shots. From M Hafeez to Younus Khan and Shahid Afridi all were in a hurry to finish the match.
