Pakistan’s top-order batter Mohammad Rizwan feels that the Men In Green’s bowlers conceded more runs than the team expected from them in the last league match of the tri-nation series against Bangladesh.
The wicketkeeper-batter, however, praised his teammate Mohammad Nawaz for accelerating the innings and helping Pakistan reach the target.
Talking to Geo News after Pakistan’s seven-wicket win against Bangladesh on Thursday, Rizwan said that playing in New Zealand have provided Pakistan with a good opportunity ahead of the world cup to prepare for the megaevent.
“Although, the result wouldn’t have made any impact on our progress in this tournament, but every game we play for Pakistan is an important game for us,” he said when asked if this was considered a dead rubber by the team as well.
“I feel that we shouldn’t have conceded 170+ runs in the first innings, the way our bowling strength is and what we expect from them suggest that we conceded a bit more runs than what we should’ve done,” he said.
Talking about Pakistan’s strategy, Rizwan said that team started the run-chase with a plan in hand.
“We knew what we had to do, we went step by step and followed the plan like we always had one while chasing in T20Is, though in 19th over a couple of dot balls were tricky but, in the end, we finished it off well,”
“I must say that Nawaz played brilliantly, he accelerated the innings exactly when we needed it and put us in a comfortable position,” he said.
The top-order batter said that playing in New Zealand has provided Pakistan with a good opportunity to test itself ahead of the world cup and the team is confident ahead of the final of the tri-nation series.
“Winning the final here would provide us the boos ahead of the world cup, it will allow us to go into the tournament with high confidence,” said Rizwan.
“Playing in New Zealand is always helpful, wickets may not be the same but weather in Australia won’t be much different from what we faced in New Zealand and playing against a quality side is always a good preparation,”
“We tried out different combinations as well and will try to apply what we have learned from our experience of the tri-series here,” he concluded.
