NEW DELHI: Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha on Sunday shared his thoughts on the defeat to India and admitted his team did not perform well. He said the team trusted their spinners, but they had a bad day and failed to execute their plans properly. He explained that losing early wickets in T20 cricket makes it very hard to recover.
“We were believing in our spinners, and they had an off day today. Execution was missing in some parts of the game. We were obviously always going to believe our spinners, because they’ve done really well in the last six months. And with the batting, I think we didn’t start well, and in T20 games, if we lose 3 or 4 wickets in the powerplay, you are always chasing the game,” Agha said in the post-match presentation.Agha also explained why Pakistan chose to bowl first. He said the pitch was difficult early on, with the ball gripping, but it became better for batting later. He admitted the bowlers did not adjust to the situation, and the batters did not play long enough to take the game deep.Talking about pressure in big matches, he added, “In these kinds of games, the emotions are always going to be high. We just need to deal with that because we have played enough cricket and we have played enough games like that. So, it’s just we need to gather ourselves very quickly, and we have a game in two days’ time, and we need to look forward to that as well.” Looking ahead to the rest of the tournament, he stressed staying positive and focusing on the bigger goal, saying, “Yeah, obviously, you have to see the bigger picture. We have a game in two days’ time. We need to win that game and qualify for the Super Eights and then it’s a new tournament start again.”On the field, India dominated. Ishan Kishan scored 77 to help India reach 175/7. Then India’s bowlers bowled Pakistan out for 114, giving India a 61-run win. India are now top of Group A, while Pakistan sit third with two wins and one loss. Pakistan will have to win their last group-stage game against Namibia to qualify for the Super 8s of the tournament.
