New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson extolled the top-class bowling performance from Pakistan against them on Tuesday, October 27 at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, admired the clinical show of Pakistan, especially at the death overs.
New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson extolled the top-class bowling performance from Pakistan against them on Tuesday, October 27 at Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
He also admired the clinical show of Pakistan especially at the death overs when Haris Rauf mixed the pace with the slower one had left the New Zealanders clueless.
Pakistan restricted New Zealand to a modest target of 134/8 and then romped home in 18.4 overs to win the Super 12s contest by five wickets and marked their second consecutive victory of the ICC T20 World Cup.
Haris Rauf was the top-wicket taker from Pakistan with the fixures of 22/4 while Imad Wasim and Shadab Khan were the ones to choke the batters at the middle order.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t quite go our way and I suppose if we look at the opposition and how clinical they were at the death and not allowing us to time the ball, they were the highest class and for us, it’s trying to take some of those learnings and move forward,”
said Williamson.
“There’s a lot to learn from those experiences but at the end of the day, Pakistan was outstanding and they finished the game beautifully on it on a very tough surface”,
Kane added.
Read here: Virat Kohli reacts after Pakistan defeat
“Their bowlers were outstanding today as they were the other night in their first match (against India), which we expected to be the case. They continued to deliver and they were outstanding in their performance for Pakistan,”
he said.
Pakistan bowlers were aggressive against their arch-rivals India on Sunday when Shaheen Afridi went through their top order to get the dismissals of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul.
Williamson who managed to score 25 runs before getting run-out said that the wicket at Sharjah was quite tough but Pakistan finisher Asif Ali timed the ball with quite an ease to take his side home by 5 wickets.
“It was a tough surface to time the ball on and someone like Shoaib Malik batting through and finishing off with a couple of blows. And Asif Ali who came in and hit the ball beautifully, much sweeter than anybody else on a tricky surface,”
he explained.
New Zealand might have lost the game but Williamson has no regrets on the performance of his players who fought the best out of them.
“The guys went out and competed really well and made a lot of good decisions along the way and when you play those low scoring matches on tough surfaces like we did tonight, the game has very small margins, and unfortunately, when it counted, a couple of misses means a lot,”
Kane concluded.
New Zealand will face India on Sunday for their next match on October 31 and they will be playing without Lockie Ferguson who pulled out of the World Cup following a calf injury.