After the recent handshakes controversy and the resolution of the dispute with match referee Andy Pycroft, Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha says his team is ready for whatever comes their way against India in the Super Four match on Sunday.
In the Asia Cup where teams face each other quickly, India and Pakistan will play each other for the second time in cricket. The match comes after the strained relations between the two countries after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.
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The group stage match was criticized and boycotted by fans and former cricketers. Despite that the match took place on Sunday in Dubai and India won by 7 wickets. After the match the Indian team went straight to the dressing room and didn’t shake hands with their opponents. Pakistan responded by not attending the post match presentation.
Former Pakistani cricketers criticized India’s actions. PCB blamed match referee Andy Pycroft and asked for his removal for violating the Code of Conduct. ICC rejected PCB’s request and Pakistan cancelled their pre match press conference.
Despite all this Salman is focused on the second match. In the post match presentation he said, We are ready for any test. If we continue to play like we have in the last four months we will be competitive against any team.
Pakistan threatened to boycott their match against UAE after their request to remove Pycroft was rejected. The Pakistan players were told to stay at their hotel in Dubai’s Marina area. With 30 minutes to go for the toss the team got the approval from the management and went to the stadium but the situation caused a one hour delay.
Pakistan arrived late for the match and struggled in the batting but improved. After being put in to bat Pakistan were 128/8 with one over to go.
Shaheen Afridi Pakistan’s top bowler hit some big boundaries. He hit the ball in to the stands for two sixes in a row and then a four and scored 18 runs off Muhammad Rohid Khan. He remained not out with 29 runs off 14 balls and helped Pakistan to 146/9. That gave us some relief but Salman said it was not enough. Pakistan’s batting was covered by their spinners, Abrar Ahmed, Saim Ayub and Salman took 4 wickets for 40 runs in 9 overs and Pakistan won by 41 runs and made it to the Super Four.
We achieved our target but we need to improve our middle order batting. That’s a concern we need to address. Otherwise we were good. We haven’t batted well yet and we are still trying to reach 150. If we bat well in the middle overs we can get 170 against any team. Shaheen has improved a lot as a batsman and he’s already a great bowler, Salman said.
