Pakistan captain Babar Azam reckons the last over setback will be a learning experience for Mohammad Nawaz. The left-arm orthodox spinner had 16 runs in the bank in the final over against India in the team’s T20 World Cup opener at the iconic MCG on Sunday.
However, Nawaz could not defend it, which broke many of Pakistan’s hearts. In fact, Nawaz made a good start, giving only three runs on the first three balls he bowled. But the left-arm spinner bowled a waist-high full toss, which resulted in a six and most importantly a no-ball.
India then ran three byes when Kohli’s stumps were disturned on a free hit. Two runs were needed off the final two balls when Dinesh Karthik was stumped by Mohammad Rizwan. However, Nawaz could not handle the pressure as he bowled one more wide. Ravichandran Ashwin then finished off the match as he played a lofted drive over the mid-off fielder.
“Early on, what the bowlers did in the first 10 overs was outstanding. We have to give credit to Hardik Pandya and Virat Kohli for the way they finished the match, the way they shifted the momentum towards India. Basically our plan was to get our main bowler there because we wanted a wicket. Because the way the partnership was building, I felt I could build pressure by bringing on our main bowler,” Babar said at the press conference on Sunday (October 23).
Babar Azam gave credit to Mohammad Nawaz for bowling the final over under pressure.
“If you see, even the last over was tight and it went down to the last ball. You also have to give credit to him [Nawaz], bowling under pressure, under such high intensity, it is not easy. This will also be a learning experience for him. Whenever he faces such situations in the future, he’ll try to do better.
“We could have bowled him earlier but we wanted to take the match deep. There was a possibility that they could have taken the charge against his spin earlier and at that stage, we felt taking a wicket would have been better. But they played sensibly, they knew that we had an over left of a spinner. Unfortunately, he bowled a no-ball and a wide, and was disappointed with that,” the Pakistan captain added.
India needed 48 runs off the final three overs and it was Pakistan’s match to lose. However, Virat Kohli played one of the best knocks of his career to get his team over the line.
Pakistan will take on Zimbabwe on Thursday at the Perth Stadium.
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