IND vs PAK | Prepared well and kept history out of mind, says Babar Azam after Pakistan's first ever WC win over India
Pakistan skipper Babar Azam acknowledged his team’s all-round effort, after the team’s dominant 10-wicket win over India - their first-ever in World Cup - in their T20 WC 2021 opener on Sunday. Babar stated that the team prepared well, and didn’t reflect much on the head-to-head World Cup history.
Shaheen Shah Afridi set the tone for Pakistan with quick wickets of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul within the first 15 minutes of the much-anticipated clash of the T20 World Cup 2021. India stumbled to 31/3 by the sixth over, before Virat Kohli (57) and Rishabh Pant (37) helped them to get to 151/7 at the end of 20 overs.
Babar Azam (68* off 52) and Mohammad Rizwan (79* off 55) then excelled in the chase to guide the 2009 champions to a historic 10-wicket win.
The Pakistan skipper couldn’t be more pleased, and reflected on an all-round show.
“This was the team's effort, and the early wickets were very helpful,” said Babar after the historic win. “It gave us a lot of confidence and our spinners were very good as well. We applied our plans and got the results. We, the openers, kept it simple and built a partnership and because the wicket was getting better so we just wanted to keep batting till the end, which we did.Â
“It won't get easier just because we beat India. We will take the confidence, but we're taking it one match at a time, and there's a long way to go in the tournament. We prepared well, and just kept the history out of our mind. We needed quality practice, and warm-up matches, and even our domestic tournament and those games gave us a lot of confidence.”
Shaheen, who led the charge with the ball, was extremely proud of the result, and acknowledged Babar and Rizwan’s brilliance in the chase.
“This is the first time we've beaten India and I feel proud,” said Shaheen as he received the Player of the Match award. “I knew it would be good for us if I got early wickets and that worked out. My idea was to get as much swing as possible. You don't get a lot here, but I wanted to get those breakthroughs and gave it 100%.Â
“In my opinion the new ball was difficult to play, so credit goes to Babar and Rizwan. All the teams are difficult at the World Cup, we'll try to take this momentum forward and make the final.”