Pakistan captain Babar Azam admitted that it was a very disappointing performance and they were not up to the mark with the bat after his team lost against Zimbabwe by one run at the SCG, Sydney on Thursday in the ongoing T20 World Cup.
Pakistan had to chase down 131 runs after Zimbabwe posted an under-par score. However, the Men in Green kept losing wickets at regular intervals to flounder in the run-chase.
Shan Masood top-scored with 44 runs for the team but none of the batters could go past the 25-run mark. Pakistan was put under pressure when both Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan were back in the pavilion after only 23 runs were put on the board.
Zimbabwean bowlers kept the Pakistan batting on their toes as they bowled in the right areas. Brad Evans, Blessing Muzarabani, and Richard Ngarava were able to get help from the Perth pitch because of their height and they were right on the money.
Babar Azam was satisfied with the bowling effort but feels the batters let the team down.
Babar Azam said in the post-match presentation, “We would have taken 130 at the halfway stage. Very disappointing performance, we are not up to the mark in batting. We have good batters but both openers got out in the powerplay. When Shadab and Shan were building partnership, unfortunately Shadab got out and then back-to-back wickets that pushed us into pressure situation. First 6 overs, we haven’t used the new ball well but we finished well with the ball. We will sit out, discuss our mistakes and we will train hard and come back strong in our next game.”
On the other hand, Sikandar Raza was awarded the Player of the Match for taking three wickets. Raza accounted for Shan Masood, Shadab Khan, and Haider Ali and conceded only 25 runs in his quota of four overs.
Raza said after the game, “I am lost for words, my mouth’s dry probably because of the emotions I am going through at the moment. I can’t tell you how proud I’m of this bunch of boys. The way our seamers started at the top, was just unbelievable and the way we backed it up in the field and the way we kept believing, really lost for words. When we were coming to Australia, I said to my captain (Ervine), If you become Man of the Match, pick any watch from the catalogue and I’ll buy you that. But if I win Man of the Match (award), you’re going to buy me one. I was reminding him that he owes me three watches now. I was excited today, and I watched this clip by Ricky Ponting earlier in the morning, and that motivated me to come up with this performance. I would like to thank Ricky Ponting for that.”
Pakistan will next take on the Netherlands at the Perth Stadium, Perth on Sunday.
