CHENNAI: Pakistan will be looking to bounce back after their defeat at the hands of Australia at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru in the World Cup on Friday. Pakistan were outplayed by the five-time champions in all the departments.
With that victory, Australia are back in the running for top-four finish. On the other hand, Pakistan, after a promising start, now have suffered two consecutive defeats and are in danger of losing their way.
In what was a high-scoring contest against Australia, Pakistan batters did put up a decent fight but eventually fell short of the target by 62 runs. On a track that was strongly in favour of the batters, Pakistan captain Babar Azam felt the team could have done well in the first-half while fielding.
"We were not up to the mark with the ball. And if you drop the catch of someone like Warner (David), he won't spare you. This is a big-scoring ground, the margin of error is very less," said Babar.
"All credit to fast bowlers and spinners for the way they pulled it back in the last few overs. Just tried to hit the length and hit the stumps. Message was simple; 'We can do it, we've done it in the past'. Ball came on well under the lights. Couldn't get big partnerships in the middle overs. Need to be better in the first 10 overs with the ball, and better in the middle overs with the bat," Babar added.
Babar will be hoping that will be the case during their next match against Afghanistan. After their defeat against New Zealand, Afghanistan will be equally pumped up for Monday's clash.
Pakistan opener Abdullah Shafique, who scored 64 during the match against Australia, felt that their batting unit had to do better in the middle-overs. Chasing 368, Shafique and fellow opener Imam-ul-Haq had laid a solid platform, stitching together a partnership of 134 runs in 21.1 overs. However, the rest of the batters failed to capitalise on that.
"Australia played very well. We have to admit that and we also have put in our entire effort. As a bowling unit, we bowled very well. Our batting was also good, but in the middle overs we couldn't finish well. We will work on this. Hopefully, we will learn from this and perform better in the next matches," said Shafique after his team's loss.
Shafique insisted that 368 was a gettable target in the batting-friendly conditions.
"We have chased down this kind of total like 345 in the previous match against Sri Lanka. We have confidence in our batting unit as well. But yeah, they (Australia) bowled pretty well. So, they have ticked all of their boxes in the fielding and in the bowling as well," he said.
Usama Mir dropped David Warner when the batter was on 10 and he went on to make a match-winning 163. In the final analysis, that proved very costly for Pakistan. But Shafique did not blame Mir for that lapse on the field.
"Yes, catches obviously change your game, you get wickets and you get into momentum. All fielders are trying to do their best, but sometimes you don't get that value (of training). But we have given a good fight," he said.
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