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The legendary Wasim Akram ripped into the Pakistan cricket team after the Babar Azam-led side suffered a shock defeat to the USA in the T20 World Cup this week.
Calling Pakistan's performance “pathetic”, Wasim Akram opined that it would be difficult for the South Asian side to qualify for the Super 8 stage of the tournament after their defeat to the USA.
“Pathetic performance. Winning and losing is a part of the game. But you need to fight till the last ball. It was a bad for Pakistan cricket,” Wasim Akram told Star Sports.
“Pakistan will struggle from here onwards to qualify for the Super Eight because they have to play India (on June 9) and two more good teams (Ireland and Canada),” the former Pakistan skipper added.
“The turning point of the game…the way USA got early wickets. Pakistan had a little partnership between Babar and Shadab and then nobody turned up. The fielding was below average, the overall cricket by Pakistan was average,” he stressed.
“While playing against USA, I was confident, every Pakistan supporter was confident that they will win after the way they played in the first innings. In the second innings, they (USA) came out to chase…I mean getting 19 runs in the Super Over is like getting 36 runs in a Super Over. Well done USA,” Wasim Akram explained.
“The moment of the day for me was the innings of USA captain Monank Patel, the way he batted…carried his bat. The way he used his suit as in he led from the front. Their fielding was spot-on every time, and very impressive cricket from the USA,” he underlined.
On Thursday, Pakistan's batters led by Babar Azam demonstrated a rather unusual approach on the pitch. Rather than taking on the USA's bowlers, they were circumspect, allowing them to build pressure on them.
Babar Azam in particular failed to break the shackles as he struggled for rhythm throughout his innings of 44 off 43 deliveries. Fans were so furious with his batting display that they described his knock as a “Test innings.”
Other than Babar Azam, no Pakistani top-order batter made any significant contribution to the total with Mohammad Rizwan, Usman Khan, and Fakhar Zaman falling for 9, 3, and 11, respectively.
Thanks to their lower middle order, Pakistan did manage to put up 159/7 on the board in their allocated 20 overs after Shadab Khan (40 off 25 balls) and Shaheen Shah Afridi (23 off 16 deliveries) made vital contributions.
With Pakistan putting up a below-par total, the Americans felt they were in with a chance to inflict a shocking defeat to the 2009 T20 World Cup champions.
Unlike the Pakistanis who were cautious while batting in the powerplay, the Americans decided to be aggressive from the word go, and their captain Monank Patel went ballistic, taking the opposition bowlers head-on.
He stitched together a crucial partnership of 68 runs with Andries Gous for the second wicket, helping USA past the 100-run mark in their run chase in the 14th over. While Monank Patel made 50 off 38 balls, Andries Gous scored 36 off 26 deliveries.
Despite that Pakistan made a match of it as they restricted the Americans to 159/3, which meant that scores were tied after both sides played out their respective 20 overs, forcing a super over to decide the winner.
In the super over, Mohammad Amir's indiscipline cost Pakistan 18 runs, leaving them 19 to chase to claim victory in the game. However, they couldn't do so and only scored 13 runs in reply to USA's total. It helped the USA register an upset of epic proportions, sending shockwaves across the cricketing world.
The loss is one of the greatest upsets in the history of cricket, considering the Americans hardly feature in top-level competitions. In fact, the Monank Patel-led team only made it to the event as the joint hosts of the high-profile tournament, otherwise, they wouldn't have been taking part in it.
It is worth noting that the Pakistan cricket team has been severely criticized for their underperformance in T20Is in recent days. Just a few weeks ago, Pakistan was beaten by Ireland in a T20I series at home.
In the post-match media briefing, Babar Azam was asked tough questions about his team's dismal performance at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas.
A journalist asked Babar Azam if the USA's defeat of Pakistan was an “upset” or whether their opponents played exceptionally well in the game.
Babar Azam seemed to have misunderstood the reporter's question and instead told him that he was “upset” with the result.
This made Babar Azam the butt of jokes on social media after Pakistan was upset by the USA in the T20 World Cup.
Moreover, Netizens hurled expletives at the Pakistan cricket team after their poor display in all departments of the game against the USA.
