Pakistan men’s cricket team captain Babar Azam was crestfallen after his team succumbed to a third consecutive defeat in the World Cup. The men-in-green were thrashed by Afghanistan who won by eight wickets at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, leaving the 1992 World Cup champions staring at an uphill task to qualify for the knockouts. 

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Speaking at the post-match ceremony, Babar said Pakistan were not up to the mark yet again.  

“This hurts us. We had a good total. In the bowling, we weren’t up to the mark as we are not taking wickets in the middle overs. If you are not good in even one department, then you’ll lose the game,” said Babar. 

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“We didn’t stop boundaries and gave away runs, that cost us. Bowling – we started well, in the middle overs, we needed wickets but we couldn’t take any,” he 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, try 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 boundary every over.”

Beaming Afghan skipper Shahidi

Meanwhile, winning captain Hashmatullah Shahidi said with a beaming 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 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 4 and with the next game scheduled against an underfiring Sri Lanka, the subcontinent team will hope to make further inroads in the tournament. 

As for Pakistan, it is three successive defeats on the bounce but it is the manner of the loss against arch-rivals Afghanistan that would have hurt their morale. A lot of events did not fall in place for Pakistan but they will have to brush themselves up and look to take every match as a knockout from hereon. 

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