Pakistan skipper Babar Azam blamed the batting collapse for his side's flop show in the much anticipated ICC ODI World Cup 2023 clash against India. He also lauded his Indian counterpart Rohit Sharma for his stellar show with the bat after the home side registered a comfortable 7-wicket win in Ahmedabad on Saturday after bowling out Babar Azam and company for 191.
The Green Shirts had a good start and were 155 for 2 until the 30th over before losing the remaining eight wickets for just 36 runs.
"We started well. We just planned to play normal cricket and build partnerships. Suddenly, there was a collapse, and we could not finish well. The way we started, our target was 280-290, but the collapse cost us. The total was not good."
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Babar credited Rohit for his glorious knock. "We are not up to the mark with the new ball. Rohit played an outstanding innings. We just tried to take wickets, but that didn't happen," he signed off.
Rohit's decision to bowl first after winning the toss might have raised a few eye-brows but the Indian team always had things under control despite a 82-run third wicket stand between skipper Babar Azam (50 off 58 balls) and Mohammed Rizwan (49 off 69 balls).
It was a matter of one wicket and once Siraj got one to just move in a shade from a shorter length, the Pakistan skipper misjudged it completely and remained rooted to his crease trying to steer it to third man.
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The sound of timber was what the entire Motera wanted to hear.
Rizwan, on cusp of his half-century got a wobbly seam slow off-cutter from Bumrah which entered through the gap between bat and pad as Pakistan's resistance ended at that moment.
Babar and Rizwan had a partnership going but if one looks at how the ODI landscape has changed, they were well behind par during the stand.
- With PTI inputs