The Afganistan victory hurts us. We had a good total. In bowling, we weren’t up to the mark as we did not take wickets in the middle overs. If you are not good in even one department, then you will lose the game,” said Pakistan skipper Babar Azam.
Pakistan were thrashed by Afghanistan who won by eight wickets at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, leaving the 1992 World Cup champions facing an uphill task to qualify for the knockouts. We didn’t stop boundaries and gave away runs, that cost us. In bowling – we started well, in the middle overs, we needed wickets but we couldn’t take any,” Babar added.
The Pakistan skipper credited Afghanistan and said the arch-rivals won because of “the way they played in all three departments”. “We have to try better in the next game, and take good things from this game and move on. We didn’t hit the right lengths, especially in the middle overs and we conceded a boundary every over and those mistakes caused our defeat added Pakistan skipper.
The winning Afganistan Skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said with a smile that the victory tasted ‘nice’. “This win tastes nice. The way we chased was very professional. Looking forward to the other games. The way we chased today, we’ll do it again. We have been playing quality cricket, the belief was there when we played in the Asia Cup as well,” said Shahidi.
The Afghan skipper reflected on the England win and said his men had carried over the confidence from there.
“First was England, today Pakistan, looking forward to the other games. We’ll try to play positive cricket and do a lot for our country.” With the win, Afghanistan have a realistic chance of breaking into the top four and with the next game scheduled against Sri Lanka,on October30 in Pune the subcontinent team will hope to make further inroads in the tournament.
As for Pakistan, it is three successive defeats but it is the manner of the loss against arch-rivals Afghanistan that would have hurt their morale. Nothing went right for Pakistan but they will have to brush themselves up and look to take every match as a knockout from hereon.
Afghan victory an eye opener for Sri Lanka
Afghanistan victory against Pakistan is an eye opener for Sri Lanka team .They scored 344 runs against Pakistan but due to poor bowling attack Pakistan reached that target to defeat Sri Lanka.The way Afghan team reached 282 runs target against Pakistan was exceptional.The openers made 130 runS while Afghanistan were able to reach their target after solid platform from openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran.However after 120 runs opening stand by Kusal Janith Perera and Pathum Nissanka Sri Lanka batting line up were struggling against Australia said a cricket expert .
Sri Lanka batters are not consistent and this is the main issue for this world cup. They tried to fill this from experienced player like Angelo Mathews and Kusal Janith Perera also not among the runs. The openers like Indians Rohit Sharma and Gill while Gurbaz and Zadran from Afghanistan far ahead of Sri Lanka openers and Sri Lanka batters should realize about their responsibility said a cricket expert.
Dhammika Ratnaweera reporting from India