Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar slammed Pakistan after their Super Over loss against the USA at the Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas on Thursday. Manjrekar called this Pakistan’s worst ever defeat and feels they played like club level cricketers.
The Men in Green posted 159-7 in the 20 overs after they were put into bat by the American skipper Monank Patel. Babar Azam top-scored with 44 runs but he took 43 balls to score his runs. Shadab Khan played a decent knock of 40 runs off 25 balls but Pakistan kept losing wickets at regular intervals, which led to their downfall.
On the other hand, Pakistan bowlers could not execute their plans as the USA batters batted at the top of their game. Monank Patel top-scored with 50 whereas Andries Gous and Aaron Jones scored 35 and 36 runs respectively in the run-chase.
In the Super Over, the home team posted 18 runs with Jones scoring 11 whereas Saurabh Netravaklar was able to defend it.
“So early to reach such a peak as far as international cricket is concerned, winning this game. You have got one team like USA reaching Mt. Everest while Pakistan have really hit rock bottom. I have not seen a worse performance from Pakistan. This is not just about the defeat. The review, the Super Over from Mohammad Amir, the misfields when the pressure was on. It hurts me to see this because when I played against Pakistan they were world champions, they have hit rock bottom now,” Sanjay Manjrekar said on Star Sports.
Manjrekar slammed Pakistan batters for their mundane performance and also lashed out at Mohammad Amir for conceding 18 runs in the Super Over.
“They have seen a few dips over the years. Pakistan being upset is actually a story in itself. India does not feature even once in the list of upsets in the T20 World Cup 2024. The quality of cricket that Pakistan have played today, they looked like club-level players. Their batters at the top of the order gave far too much respect, they thought that 150 was a good enough score and that is why Babar Azam played the way he played. And that is where I really lost respect for Pakistan. Mohammad Amir has been brought for the experience and he started off with a wide ball in the Super Over. It was terrible,” concluded Manjrekar.
Pakistan will next take on arch-rivals India at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, New York on Sunday.
