India snatched victory from Pakistan after defending 120 runs and won their second match consecutively. Pakistan is now on the verge of elimination after suffering the loss against the USA and India. Pakistan won the toss and opted to bowl first though they proved themselves in the first innings. While chasing 120 runs Pakistan had a solid start but later they collapsed like a pack of cards and so it remained a margin of 6 runs in the end.
Gary Kirsten blames Pakistan for their loss
Pakistan head coach Gary Kirsten was held responsible to Pakistan for their loss against India. While chasing 120 runs it felt like Pakistan would make it this time and the plan was going smoothly but suddenly after 15 overs fortunes turned with India and the bowlers outshined well so in the end they won the match by 6 runs. Arshdeep successfully defended 18 runs in the last over and took India to the winning side. However, we see that Pakistan took so much pressure which cost them badly and so they lost the match if they had planned wisely they wouldn’t have lost wickets. Gary Kirsten says:
“You are pretty much spot-on. These guys are all international players and they’re aware that when they’re not performing at their best there’s going to be pressure put on them. That’s understandable, but a lot of these guys have played a lot of T20 cricket around the world over many, many years and it’s really up to them to decide how they’re going to take their games forward,” said Kirsten.
“So, the message from all of us was to look for the odd boundary, try and capitalize on the loose balls, and make sure that you can get as many ones as you can through the innings. And I thought we did that brilliantly for 15 overs. We kept it at a run a ball, and then we lost wickets and then we stopped scoring ones and then we were looking for boundaries and once you’ve got to that point it was always going to be hard. So, the message was to do what we executed on for 15 overs,” said Kirsten.
Pakistan will now face Canada on June 11 will they stay alive for Super8 or else will bid adieu to the tournament?