KIMBERLEY, South Africa, 16 February 2003 — Pakistan captain Waqar Younis will not tell his fearsome pace attack to take it easy against World Cup debutants Namibia, even if it becomes clear the African amateurs are not up to handling the pace.

Waqar said his team could not afford to show any sympathy as they chase their first Group A win today, even if the opposition are in physical danger.

“We can’t take it easy on them,” Waqar said. “We’re playing international cricket, we will play our best.”

Waqar, part of a formidable three-pronged pace attack with Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar, did admit it might be difficult motivating his players, despite their heavy opening defeat by Australia.

“It’s a very important game, it’s a World Cup, and you can’t take any game easy,” he said. “Morale is pretty high. We just lost one game.

“We’ve still got five games in this pool so morale is pretty high and, hopefully, we’re going to do really well at this tournament.”

Pakistan coach Richard Pybus believes it is important for his team’s World Cup prospects that they treat every game seriously, regardless of the standard of the opposition.

“Our job tomorrow is to go out there and be clinical in our execution of our plan which is to win the game,” he said.

“I think the results speak for themselves, we have been very inconsistent and one thing we’re trying to do is raise the intensity of our practice sessions and by doing that I believe the consistency of our performances will improve.”

Pybus said it was important for the team to win convincingly in case run-rates come into play later in the tournament, something that proved vital in the last World Cup when Australia reached the final after their semifinal against South Africa ended in a tie.

“Our job is to win every game from here on...but we want to be careful about trying to manipulate games,” he said.

“We saw in the last World Cup that at times sides tried to manipulate situations in games to work with it but we just want to go out and play hard, aggressive cricket.

“As cliched as that sounds, that’s what we want to do but we’ll constantly be aware of run-rates because from what happened between south Africa and Australia was crucial so you’d be an idiot not to monitor it.”

Aggressive bowling a winning

formula for Ponting

In Centurion, Australia captain Ricky Ponting said the way his fast bowlers bullied India into submission in their Group A match yesterday was all part of a calculated plan.

With man-of-the-match Jason Gillespie, Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath all in top form, India were skittled for 125, their lowest-ever World Cup total, before Australia knocked off the runs required in only 22.2 overs.

“Bowling short of a length at them was a definite plan and it worked very well today,” said Ponting.

“Their players had struggled on the recent tour of New Zealand and we wanted to continue with the way they had bowled to them, fairly short and aggressive.

“The tactic was designed to unsettle the batsmen and it did it fairly well as it didn’t let any of their batsmen get away from us.

“At the same time, the tactic can also give you some dot balls to build pressure so it worked both ways and it was pleasing the way all the bowlers stuck to the plans today,” he added.

With that strategy in mind, Ponting gave the new ball to Lee ahead of Gillespie and was rewarded with outstanding performances from both players.

Lee produced a hostile opening burst that yielded two for 17 before finishing with figures of three for 36, while Gillespie took three for 13, one of the most economical spells in World Cup history.

McGrath, meanwhile, was his usual miserly self with one for 23 in eight overs.

“India’s weakness is sheer pace and bounce and if anyone will get that out of the wicket it will be Brett Lee,” said Ponting. “I wanted him to blast out a couple of their top order and he did that, which set us up from there. Glenn McGrath then bowled a couple of maidens in a row just as Jason Gillespie came on and we really tightened things up against them.” (AFP/R)