Pakistani batter Iftikhar Ahmed has shared his opinion on his team’s loss in their T20 World Cup 2022 opening match against India on October 23 at MCG and said that the 4-wicket defeat was not easy to digest.
Pakistan was asked to bat first by Rohit Sharma who won the toss and despite losing openers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan early, Iftikhar Ahmed and Shan Masood consolidated well with both scoring 51 and 52* respectively while adding 70 plus runs for the third wicket.
Thanks to their effort, Pakistan posted 159/8 in 20 overs with Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh picking up three wickets each.
In reply, India lost cheap wickets and were 45/4 in 10 overs, but then Virat Kohli lit up the sky in MCG with some amazing batting as he made 82* in 53 balls and added 113 runs with Hardik Pandya (40) for the fifth wicket, hitting Pakistani bowlers at will with 48 runs needed in last 18 balls.
His amazing knock enabled India to win the match by 4 wickets on the last ball.
Ahead of their super 12s match against Zimbabwe on October 27 in Perth, Iftikhar Ahmed said that the side was left disappointed after the loss to India.
“That’s not an easy defeat to digest. They (the players) were disappointed. But the way the captain (Babar Azam), and the coach supported the whole squad, they were exceptional. And the message is clear that was the first game, now time to move forward. And we have some more games here," said Iftikhar during the pre-match press conference on Wednesday.
Asked if his bowlers would be excited looking at the fast and bouncy Perth pitch, Iftikhar said, “There’s bouncy tracks in Australia. We have to practice a lot for these bouncy fields. And he’s (Haris Rauf) a main strike bowler, and we’re expecting him to do much."
On the same day, India will play the Netherlands in Sydney.
(IANS inputs)
