Asia Cup 2018: Pakistan were poor in every facet of the game, says captain Sarfraz Ahmed
Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed blamed "poor batting" for his team's ouster from Asia Cup 2018. Pakistan on Wednesday lost to Bangladesh by 37 runs in the final Super 4 clash to bow out of the tournament, which they have won twice in past.
Mushfiqur Rahim struck a valiant 99 as Bangladesh produced an all-round effort to stun Pakistan in Abu Dhabi and progress to the final of the Asia Cup.
Speaking after the match, Sarfraz said: "We are obviously not feeling good. As a team we have not done well. Our performance has been very poor."
Sarfraz, who himself failed to perform with the bat and only managed 68 runs in 4 innings, took responsibility of the defeat and said he should have played better.
"As a player, I have done really bad too. I should have done better. We were poor in every facet of the game. There were lot of batting collapses for us in the tournament," he said.
"Fakhar is our main batsman, he failed to perform in this tournament and Shadab was hit by injury too. We have to play well to beat good teams. Our batting was the main reason for our defeat in this tournament. Shaheen Afridi is a talented youngster, we have given him opportunities to showcase his talent and he has done well too," he added.
Defending 239, Bangladesh bowled tight line with left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman leading the pack with 4-43. Mehidy Hasan also contributed with two wickets.
Apart from Imam-ul-Haq (83) no other batsmen stood up to the occasion and went back cheaply. Shoiab Malik (30) and Asif Ali (31) tried to contribute but could not stay for long at the crease and thus dismissed when needed the most.
Tail-ender batsman Shaheen Afridi (14) then tried to take Pakistan out of troubled waters but failed and Pakistan only managed to score 202/9 in their allotted 50 overs.
(With agency inputs)
