(AP Photo)
Ramiz Raja commented that if India hadn’t pursued aggressive batting tactics, they might have stretched the game beyond Pakistan’s grasp.
Ramiz Raja, former PCB chief, remarked that India inadvertently assisted Pakistan by underperforming in the latter part of their innings during the T20 World Cup Group A match in New York. Despite a promising start with a score of 80/3 in the first 10 overs on the sluggish Nassau Cricket County ground pitch, India faltered. Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, and Rishabh Pant’s quick departures, attributed to both quality bowling and questionable shot choices, significantly altered the course of the match.
Ramiz suggested that had India not opted for aggressive batting, they could have secured a lead that would have been difficult for Pakistan to overcome.”India did them a favour by playing poorly. Actually because they were playing like mavericks, otherwise they would have easily gotten to 140-150, which would have been beyond Pakistan. But because of their faulty shot-making and some good bowling, Pakistan came back into the game,” Ramiz Raja told Cricbuzz.
India managed to score 119 runs in 19 overs before being all out, losing their last seven wickets for just 30 runs. Surprisingly, this total turned out to be sufficient for victory. The Indian bowlers, spearheaded by Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya, delivered an outstanding performance, limiting Pakistan to 113/6 in their allotted 20 overs. This victory marked a significant advancement towards Super 8 qualification for India.
Ramiz highlighted that the dismissal of Mohammad Rizwan was the pivotal moment in the match.”We didn’t see any positive intent. There was no great game awareness either. That (Mohammad) Rizwan shot off (Jasprit) Bumrah was not on. Bumrah had come in to provide the breakthrough. His two overs were make-or-break for Pakistan. If they had put their mind to it and made sure that Bumrah was negotiated safely, it could have been a smooth sailing. Also Bumrah, as we all know, is a classic (bowler). Give him the ball in any crunch moment and he will deliver. There is so much clarity in his mind on what he wants to do and he’s always a step ahead of the opponent. That really was the critical moment,” he said.
‘Pakistan tend to freeze under pressure against India’: Ramiz Raja
Rizwan was dismissed for 31 runs while attempting to play a cross-batted shot against Bumrah on the first delivery of the 15th over. At that point, Pakistan required 40 runs from 36 balls. However, following Rizwan’s dismissal, their lower-middle order struggled to maintain the scoring momentum.
“Because Rizwan was the last man standing for Pakistan. You see, the thing that frustrates me is that when you’re chasing 120, even on a tricky pitch, even against a good bowling attack like India’s, all you need is one solid partnership. That’s it. No heroics were needed, no fours or sixes. You were going at six an over. Why did you let it slip? That’s got to do with temperament,” Ramiz added.
Ramiz said Pakistan players tend to freeze in pressure situations. “You got to do simple things. It was a difficult pitch and you saw how India threw their wickets away by trying to be aggressive. You couldn’t be aggressive because there was variation in the bounce. So what you had to do was to just negotiate two or three balls that were difficult. Otherwise, there were three, four runs. But they kept losing wickets. They lost momentum. It’s just that they tend to freeze in a tense situation. And that’s very sad to see. This was the best chance they had in a very long time to beat India.”
