Babar Azam "The early wickets by Shaheen Shah Afridi really boosted our confidence"

[Saj]

Babar Azam post match today:

It was a great effort by the boys and we executed our plans accordingly and the early wickets we took were very helpful.

The early wickets by Shaheen Shah Afridi really boosted our confidence and then our spinners did well and dominated and then we bowled well at the death. We applied our plans and the results were there

Rizwan and I keep things simple and whatever we had planned we achieved and we built the partnership. We had planned to ensure that we stayed there to the end, didn’t get too far behind the run rate as the dew was making the ball come nicely on to the bat.

This was just the start, we’ll gain confidence from the first match and we’ll take that forward but there is a lot of cricket still to be played. The aim is to give our 100% just like we did today in the future matches.

The preparation was to ignore what had happened in the past. I was just trying to instil confidence in the boys, back them and ensure we had quality practice in the warm-up matches and ensure we made the most of our domestic tournament before the World Cup. When you’ve had good practice and played good cricket before a big tournament that really gives you a lot of confidence

 

[Amjid Javed]

Most of indias defeats in LOI games over last few years have come when their top 3 or openers fail. Indias top 3 is world class and when they dont fire the rest of their batting rarely bails them out in high pressure games when they go 2 or 3 wickets down early. shaheen did an Amir on them today.

 

[DHONI183]

What Shaheen`s early strikes did was that it put a huge total beyond India`s reach because India were put on the back foot right from the start and were forced to be cautious. His strikes meant that the Pakistan batsmen were almost certain to be chasing a reachable score. Anything over 170 could've caused a huge headache to the batsmen. It was just an amazing performance!

 

[MenInG]

Rizwan and Shaheen answering questions from press:

Q. 10-wicket win tonight; was that in some ways the complete performance by Pakistan?

SHAHEEN AFRIDI: Thank you. I think, yeah, to be honest, a really good feeling for win against India in World Cup and a special thing for our Pakistani. First of all, congratulations to Pakistan; they all setting and they all pray for us. So yeah, I think we plan and just execute, and yeah.

Q. It was a brilliant performance from yourself; what aspect of the team performance, though, pleased you most?

SHAHEEN AFRIDI: Yeah, just trying to bowl in the right areas, and the way Rizi and Babar finished the game and the way they're playing, I think credit goes to these two, like one-man army swinging the bat. It's good for Pakistan to start good, and yeah, our first game, and we're looking forward for more games.

 

[shamaan]

I expect Shaheen to get wickets with the new ball but he totally broke the back of the Indian team

 

[MenInG]

Shaheen Afridi announced himself as the bowler to look out for this tournament by putting India on the backfoot in a devastating opening spell. Going off the numbers, India won’t be the only team he troubles with the new ball.

Making his ICC Men’s T20 World Cup debut, Afridi took just four deliveries to make his presence felt, trapping Rohit Sharma in front for a golden duck with a perfect in-swinger. It was so plumb that commentator Nasser Hussain gave it out before the umpire did.

In his next over, Afridi struck again, bowling KL Rahul with an unplayable delivery that snaked in off a good length to knock over the in-form opener for three.

He would later complete his set of India’s big three by removing Virat Kohli in the 19th over, showing his skills at the death. But it’s what he can do with the new ball that is especially noteworthy.

The seamer has taken a wicket in the first over a T20 innings 20 times across just 60 innings, with a grand sum of 21 first over wickets.

Effectively, across his career, he takes a wicket in the first over almost once every three matches.

Of course, as Rahul found out, he’s not just dangerous in the first over of a T20.

Afridi is the top Powerplay wicket-taker in T20s since the start of 2019, with his two early strikes against India taking him to an even 50.

India’s Deepak Chahar is the only other bowler with more than 45 wickets in the Powerplay in this period, and the Pakistani’s sub-20 strike rate is an anomaly among anyone with more than 35 wickets.

Off the back of Afridi’s early burst, Pakistan managed to keep India’s batters in check for the majority of the innings, paving the way for a 10-wicket victory.

“He did bowl very well with the new ball,” India captain Kohli said after the match. “He hit the right areas to pick up wickets, and in T20 cricket you need good execution to pick up wickets with the new ball, and certainly he did that, so credit to him.

“He put our batsmen under pressure immediately with the new ball, and he ran in with intensity and showed that he's bowling in consistent areas, so as batsmen you are forced to be a bit watchful.

“That spell kind of put us on the back foot immediately, and from there on to get those extra 20, 25 runs in the end seemed pretty difficult when you lose three wickets for 20 runs.”

One suspects he will continue to put opponents on the back foot over the remainder of the tournament.

 

[Coolcapri]

Well done but focus on next match.

 

[MenInG]

Babar Azam speaking at end of the match v New Zealand

Feels great to win and we'll look to carry forward the confidence. The spinners started off brilliantly, and Haris and Shaheen carried it through. I would like to compliment our fielding, that has carried us through here. I thought we gave 10 runs too many. But this is cricket and it happens. While batting, there were wickets early on and we needed a partnership. Malik showed experience and Asif Ali contributed too. Every match is crucial. There is no easy match. We'll look to play it day by day and game by game.