Pakistan Captain Cites Batting Struggles in Narrow Loss to India
In the highly anticipated clash between India and Pakistan at the T20 World Cup 2024 in New York, it was the Men in Blue who emerged victorious by a narrow six-run margin. Pakistan captain Babar Azam pointed to his side’s lack of rhythm with the bat, both in the powerplay and the middle overs, as the primary reason behind their inability to chase down India’s modest 119-run target.
“In our mind, we wanted to play normally, utilize the first six overs in the batting and [if we had done that] we win,” Babar said after the match. “But one wicket down and we were not up to the mark in the first six overs. We were targeting like 40 to 45 runs in the first six overs, but we did not capitalize properly and yes, after the ten overs also, we made the same mistake.”
Despite restricting the Indian batters to a sub-par total, Pakistan’s own batting performance lacked the necessary fluency. They managed just 35/1 in the powerplay and crawled to 72/2 by the 12th over, before a collapse orchestrated by the pace duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya proved their undoing.
“We bowled well after ten overs and we would have taken 120. It’s a better total here. In the batting, we went run-a-ball but unfortunately, but we lost back-to-back wickets and then there were too many dot balls,” Babar rued. “Tactics were simple, play normally, just rotate the strike and just try and play one boundary and be normal…get five or six an over. But in that period, we had too much dot balls, the pressure was on us. And we lost back-to-back two to three wickets.”
With two losses from as many matches, Pakistan now find themselves struggling to make it out of the opening round of the T20 World Cup. Babar, however, remained optimistic about their chances, stating, “Obviously we have to win the last two matches. We will sit and discuss our mistakes but we are looking forward to the next two matches.”
Pakistan’s remaining group games are against Canada on June 11 and Ireland on June 16, both of which will be played at the same New York venue.
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