The captain of the Pakistan cricket team, Babar Azam, opened up after the Green Shirts’ 62-run loss against Australia at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, India, on Friday.
According to Babar, the Green Shirts’ fielding and bowling in the first 34 overs took the game away from Pakistan. The Pakistani skipper also mentioned David Warner’s dropped catch.
“First 34 overs in the bowl and field cost us. We dropped Warner and such batters ensure they cash in. Credit to quicks and spinners for coming back in the last 15, who hit their lengths and the stumps,” Azam said in a post-match ceremony.
The 29-year-old then talked about the flaws in Pakistan’s batting mentioning that the team failed to create a big partnership.
“Message for the batters was that we can do it. We've done it and the ball comes well under lights. We started well. We got small partnerships but needed big ones in the middle. Honestly, we have to get up to the mark in the first ten with ball and partnerships in the middle with bat,” he said.
The Aussies managed to restrict the Green Shirts to 305 runs after posting a colossal 368-run target courtesy of a 259-run stand from David Warner and Mitchell Marsh.
Pakistan were off to a great start as their opening duo of Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique had a 134-run partnership — the first time a Pakistani opening pair had a century stand against Australia in a World Cup match.
Pakistan were 154-2 in 23.4 overs — after losing Abdullah and Imam — and were in dire need of a big partnership to get back in the team but their skipper Babar Azam was removed by Adam Zampa just after scoring 18 runs courtesy of an excellent catch by Pat Cummins.
The Green Shirts kept on losing wickets at regular intervals but after the arrival of Iftikhar Ahmed, it looked like Pakistan would get in the game once again as the 33-year-old started hitting boundaries.
But Adam Zampa provided the Aussies the much-needed breakthrough and removed Iftikhar and Mohammad Rizwan in back-to-back overs.
The Green Shirts were all out for 305 runs in 45.3 overs.
Batting first, Australia posted 367 runs on the scoreboard, recording the biggest total against Pakistan in the World Cup.
Shaheen Afridi was the pick of the bowlers for Pakistan as the 23-year-old bagged five wickets, his second World Cup fifer.
- Babar Azam