Sarfraz is happy with team’s overall performance in the World Cup

Pakistan team captain Sarfraz Ahmed admitted that his team did not perform well in the first five matches of the World Cup, but they made an impressive comeback in the last four games.

Sarfraz returned to Pakistan on Sunday after getting eliminated from the World Cup after having a tie with New Zealand with 11 points, but missing out on the Net Run Rate. The skipper held a press conference at the National Stadium Karachi, where he expressed that it was Pakistan’s bad luck that they could not earn a spot in the last four teams of the tournament.

Pakistan had a disastrous start to their World Cup campaign where they were all out for 105 runs against the West Indies, the thumping defeat badly affected their Net Run Rate and that loss haunted the Men in Green through out their World Cup journey.

“I think we were unfortunate to miss out on the semi-final spot because of net run-rate,” said Sarfaraz. “We did not play well in the first few matches but made a good comeback in the second half of the tournament,” he said. “I’m satisfied with the team’s overall performance.”

Pakistan had to defeat Bangladesh by a nearly impossible margin of 316 runs in the final group match to book a berth in the semi-finals, which they could not and were knocked out of the mega cricketing event.

“We are feeling as sorry as the nation [after exit from World Cup]. No one goes there to lose,” he said.

They were unlucky to have their game against Sri Lanka washed out and were handed just one point against a team which was not in a great shape during the World Cup.

On the other hand, New Zealand had narrow wins against Bangladesh, South Africa and the West Indies, while their match against the red hot India was washed out which earned them one easy point.

However, the skipper accepted that his unit’s performance against the arch-rivals India and Australia was not up to the mark.

“After the first match, we gained momentum but unfortunately we could not play against Sri Lanka because of rain and in the two next matches, against Australia and India, our performance was not good.”

The Champions Trophy winning captain recalled the forgettable few days after their humiliating defeat against India and revealed that he had a meeting with players without team management that boosted players’ performance in the next matches.

“The next seven days after the defeat to India were very tough for the team,” he recalled.After the match, we took a two-day break and then I called a meeting with all 15 players, without the management. I discussed everything I had observed during the first five matches, all that we were doing wrong, and all the players responded well and gave their feedback.”

“The team then performed very well in the remaining four matches. All players, juniors as well as seniors, played their part and I am happy with them as a captain,” he added.

Fans abused and criticized the players blatantly after India’s defeat and several incidents were reported by the captain himself and other players of the squad to team management. However, the skipper was happy set aside everything and thanked all his fans for unconditional support.

“It was not only one incident with me, other players also faced similar reactions where ever they went and we reported those incidents to our team management,” he said. “But, I want to set aside all those actions and want to thank all our fans who supported us, it was overwhelming to see support in Lord’s, Birmingham and Leeds.”

Pakistan’s veteran all-rounder, Shoaib Malik has bid farewell from One Day International cricket after the World Cup and unfortunately, he could not have a farewell game. The captain said that they did not want to change the winning combination in their last game against Bangladesh.

“As far as Shoaib [Malik] is concerned, unfortunately, he was not a part of the final match because we tried to go with a winning combination. He was given a farewell by the team and our best wishes are with him,” he said.

Talking about his captaincy role, Sarfraz said that the decision will be made by the Pakistan Cricket Board and he cannot comment on that.

 

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