To win against India we have to be at our best in all three departments, says Sarfraz Ahmed
Ahead of Pakistan's much-awaited clash against arch-rivals India on September 19 in the Asia Cup, Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmed has stated that the team will have to excel in everything to secure a win. Pakistan have started their campaign with a comprehensive eight-wicket win against Hong Kong.
Securing a win against Hong Kong has definitely been a positive start to their campaign in the Asia Cup as per Sarfraz Ahmed, but he has been of the opinion that the team would have to give their best if they are targeting a win against India in the upcoming group match.
“We will work on it in our next practice session. It’s a good win but to win against India we have to be at our best in all the three departments,” Sarfraz said after the match, as reported by PTI.
Despite the easy win against Hong Kong, Sarfraz has admitted that there are some things that they the team would be needing to brush
“As a captain, I saw a couple of things which we should work on. For us to go the distance in the tournament, we should have won this game (against Hong Kong) by nine or 10 wickets. We also need to ball better with the new ball. We need to get early wickets with the new ball. It didn’t swing for us with the new ball, that is alarming for us,” he said.
Pakistan left-arm pacer, Usman Khan was declared the Man-of-the-Match, after he snatched three wickets in a single over. Hong Kong concluded their innings with a total of 116 runs. Pakistan, in reply effortlessly scored 120 runs for the
“When I came to bowl in the first spell, I tried to pick wickets with the new ball, but luck was not with me. In the second spell, I got the ball to reverse swing and I managed to take wickets,” Usman said.
Hong Kong skipper Anshuman Rath has put the blame of defeat on his batsmen. He appreciated the bowlers from Pakistan for their amazing performance.
“Lots of soft dismissals. 120 (116) was not enough. It was a good wicket. Credit goes to the Pakistan bowlers. Our off-spinners are top class, but we just didn’t have enough runs on the board. I think early on, it swung a bit, there was a bit of bounce. We got through the start, but we couldn’t convert it. One fifty-run partnership is not enough to post a good total,” Anshuman said.