Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has reacted over the Green Shirts’ disappointing loss against India in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 in New York.
The former all-rounder took to his YouTube channel and criticised Pakistan’s batting performance as they failed to chase a meagre 120-run target.
“We [Pakistan] just needed to score 120 runs [to win] on the pitch where India was 35-40 runs short [in the first innings] but with the disciplined bowling of their bowlers, we failed to score even 120 runs. It was a game of 120 runs on 120 balls,” Afridi said.
“We always blame the bowlers for not restricting teams on small totals because that is how our mindset has been set that we just don’t want to score runs.
“We failed to score such a total with such a strong batting line-up. I have no words. All I have is disappointment.”
Set to chase 120 at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, Pakistan only managed 113 runs for the loss of seven wickets in the allotted 20 overs.
Pakistan had a cautious start to the pursuit as their decorated opening pair of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan added 26 runs to the total before the former fell victim to Jasprit Bumrah in the fifth over after scoring 13.
Rizwan then put together an important partnership with Usman Khan as the duo added 31 runs to the total, taking Pakistan’s total to 57 at the halfway mark.
After Usman’s dismissal, Rizwan was involved in yet another crucial partnership for Pakistan when he put together 26 runs for the third wicket with Fakhar Zaman.
However, both batters perished in quick succession as Pakistan slipped to 80/4 in 14.1 overs. The back-to-back dismissal halted the flow of runs for the Green Shirts and the new pair of Imad Wasim and Iftikhar Ahmed found it tough to score freely.
Iftikhar perished on the last delivery of the penultimate over after scoring a nine-ball five while Imad followed on the next delivery, walking back after a scratchy 15 which came off 23 deliveries.
Naseem Shah tried to pull off the impossible for Pakistan with his 10-run cameo but Arshdeep Singh held his nerves under immense pressure to steer India to a hard-fought victory.
This was Pakistan’s second loss in the tournament as they previously lost to co-hosts United States of America (USA) in the Super Over.
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