We were shaken, admits Sarfraz

From our correspondent

DUBAI: Afghanistan stunned Sri Lanka earlier in the Asia Cup and came dangerously close to meting out a similar treatment to Pakistan in Abu Dhabi on Friday night.

But Pakistan managed a close three-wicket win thanks to Shoaib Malik’s last minute heroics.

Later, Sarfraz Ahmed, the Pakistan captain, admitted that the Afghan onslaught in the thrilling Super Fours match left his team “shaken”.

“We were shaken today,” Sarfraz said after the match. “The way Imam, Babar and Shoaib played towards the end was fantastic, but to chase 250 in these conditions against the Afghanistan spinners who I think are the best in the world, you have to bat really well.”

Meanwhile, Malik who is enjoying a purple patch in the Asia Cup, said that he knew that he had to finish the job.

“Being a senior player, when you’ve played enough cricket, you know when you already have a start, the goal is to bat till the 50th over,” Malik said. “At one point the required rate was almost 10 but I kept telling myself to bat till the end because we had batsmen to hit the big shots later.”

The pressure, he added, was going to be on the bowlers. “Even the good bowlers, when they’re bowling in the middle overs, they are confident and want to get you out. But in the end, even they are on the back foot. As a batsman, you can show authority on them.”

On the day, the fielding of both sides left much to be desired. While Ahmed acknowledged there was room for improvement, Ashgar Afghan, the Afghanistan captain, rued the lost chances, including dropping Malik behind the stumps when he was on 11.

“If you let a senior player like Malik play his game, it’s difficult. Babar and Imam played really well too. But we were poor in the field and our medium pacers let us down,” said Afghan.

“We get confidence from the way we won today,” added Ahmed. “As you know, the team has improved a lot on its fielding over the last few years, but today we didn’t show that. Regardless, the team has been motivated by this performance,” he said.