(AP Photo)
Fast bowling icon Wasim Akram strongly criticized the Pakistan cricket team after their momentous defeat to the USA in a T20 World Cup showdown on Thursday. This encounter marked the first-ever meeting between the two teams on the international stage. Despite Pakistan’s storied history in cricket, they were outplayed by the USA in a thrilling match that was ultimately decided by a Super Over.
Pakistan, batting first, faced early setbacks as they lost Mohammad Rizwan, Usman Khan, and Fakhar Zaman within 4.3 overs, leaving them in a precarious position at 26/3. However, a resilient partnership between captain Babar Azam (scoring 44 runs off 43 balls) and Shadab Khan (contributing 40 runs off 25 balls) orchestrated a partial recovery. Yet, once this partnership was dismantled, the 2009 T20 World Cup champions faltered again, ultimately posting a total of 159/7 in their allotted 20 overs.
“Pathetic performance. Winning and losing is a part of the game. But you need to fight till the last ball. It was a bad for Pakistan cricket,” Akram told Star Sports.
The USA team wrapped up their innings with a total of 157/3, with their captain Monank Patel leading the charge with a commendable half-century, resulting in a tied match.
In the ensuing Super Over, USA exhibited dominance by scoring 18 runs and subsequently restricting Pakistan to 13/1, clinching a nail-biting victory by five runs. Wasim Akram foresaw Pakistan facing significant challenges in advancing to the Super-8 stage based on their performance in this match.
“Pakistan will struggle from here onwards to qualify for the Super Eight because they have to play India (on June 9) and two more good teams (Ireland and Canada),” he said.
Akram believes that the pivotal moment of the match occurred when the USA team delivered several significant blows during the Powerplay phase.
“The turning point of the game…the way USA got early wickets. Pakistan had a little partnership between Babar and Shadab and then nobody turned up. The fielding was below average, the overall cricket by Pakistan was average,” he said.
“While playing against USA, I was confident, every Pakistan supporter was confident that they will win after the way they played in the first innings. In the second innings, they (USA) came out to chase…I mean getting 19 runs in the Super Over is like getting 36 runs in a Super Over. Well done USA,” he added.
Akram commended Monank for his exemplary leadership in guiding his team to victory.
“The moment of the day for me was the innings of USA captain Monank Patel, the way he batted…carried his bat. The way he used his suit as in he led from the front. Their fielding was spot-on every time, and very impressive cricket from the USA,” Akram said.
