NEW DELHI, June 10
In the end, it turned out a contest that’s lived up to all the India-Pakistan hype. One man that stood out of the crowd was India’s pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, arguably one of the best fast bowlers around world cricket, but for his skipper Rohit Sharma, the right-arm pacer is a “genius with the ball”.
Rohit was effusive in his praise for his bowling unit that helped India successfully defend 119 —the lowest total between the two rivals in T20 World Cup history, but felt that the Indians fell 15-20 runs short on that tricky New York pitch.
“We didn’t bat well enough. Halfway through, we were in a good position, 80 for 3 (81 for 3). You expect guys to stitch partnerships, but we didn’t put enough partnerships there. I thought we fell 15-20 short. We spoke about how every run matters on a pitch like that. We were looking at 140, but I thought the bowlers can (do), and did, the job for us,” Rohit said.
As for Pakistan, they went from 80 for 3 at the start of the 15th over to 113 for 7 after 20 to fall six short, thanks largely to Bumrah, who got India back into the game with the crucial breakthough of Mohammed Rizwan to trigger the collapse.
“We felt we were a little under par. When the sun came out, the wicket got a bit better. So we had to be disciplined with what we were trying to do. I tried to keep it simple, the wicket got better, and the swing was less. So I tried to hit the seam as much as I can. I just tried to be clear with my plan and focused on my execution,” Bumrah said.
Rohit talked up India’s “never-say-die” attitude on a New York surface he felt was “good” compared to those in the earlier games.
“With only 119 on the board, we wanted to make early inroads, which we didn’t. Halfway through, I got everyone together. We said if things can happen to us, it can happen to them as well,” he revealed.
Bumrah aside, India also had key bowling contributions from Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, who gave away 19 runs in four overs, and the spin twins – Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja – who conceded 1 for 21 in four overs between them.
Axar, in particular, bowled an excellent 16th over that went for just two runs, even though the match-up of bowling to Imad Wasim, a left-hand batter, could have worked against him.
“Absolutely! That’s what’s required in a tournament like this. We need everyone to show up. Those little contributions make a huge difference. Whoever had the ball in hand wanted to make a contribution for the team,” Rohit said of his bowlers.
“Bumrah is going from strength to strength. We’ve seen him over the years what he can do, I’m not going to talk too much about him. We want him to be in that kind of mindset till the end of the World Cup. He’s a genius with the ball, we know that, but hats off to the other guys as well,” Rohit said.
We left too much in the end: Babar
Analysing the heartbreaking loss that left them on the brink of elimination from the T20 World Cup, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam felt that his side left too much till the end after consuming a lot of dot balls and in the process losing a couple of wickets. Babar felt that the pressure was back on the Pakistan batting as the top order failed to capitalise on the decent start after fallingf short of the target they wanted to reach by the end of the power play.
Hailing the Indian bowling attack, Babar felt that the regular fall of wickets affected their tempo during the chase of 120.
“I think they bowled well after 10 overs. We were chasing 120, we were run a ball for the first 10 overs, but back to back wickets and then (we left too much in the end). Tactics was simple, play normally, rotate strike, 5-6 an over. But in that period we had too many dot balls, the pressure was on us, and we lost three quick wickets. Can’t expect too much from tailenders,” he said.
“We were not up to the mark in the first six overs, we had targeted 40-45 runs, we have not capitalised properly. ‘Pitch looked decent, ball coming nicely. Little bit slow, some balls are bouncing a bit more, but you expect it with a drop-in pitch,” he added while dismissing any demons on the pitch.
