Asia Cup 2018: A concerned Shoaib Akhtar after Pakistan's horrendous collapse
He has called for the players and support staff to pull their socks up before Pakistan's next series against Australia.
Yesterday, Pakistan crashed out of the 2018 Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after their defeat against Bangladesh by 37 runs at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The Men in Green had a number of opportunities to get the Tigers on the mat, however, Sarfraz Ahmed and Co suffered hiccups and were also eliminated from the multi-nation tournament.
After losing the toss, Pakistan stormed into the ascendancy with three early wickets courtesy of some fiery bowling by Shaheen Shah Afridi and Junaid Khan. Thereafter, Mohammad Mithun and Mushfiqur Rahim frustrated their bowlers with a 144-run stand, which was eventually broken by right-arm speedster Hasan Ali with the wicket of Mithun in the 34th over.
Pakistan restricted the Tigers to 239 runs and bowled them out inside 50 overs. The run-chase started in a worst possible manner for the Green Army as Mehidy Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman wrecked havoc in their top order. Shoaib Malik and Imam-ul-Haq tried to stage a comeback but got minimal support from the other batsmen owing to which Pakistan kept struggling.
Pakistan eliminated from Asia Cup
After Imam’s dismissal for 83 runs in the 41st over, Pakistan couldn’t arrest their slump and fell short by a fair margin. Previously, they had a narrow escape against Afghanistan but slumped to a nine-wicket defeat against Rohit Sharma’s India at Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Following the defeat, Shoaib Akhtar, the former Pakistani pacer, expressed his disappointment. He has called for the players and support staff to pull their socks up before they next play Australia in a Test and T20I series, which gets underway from October 7 in the UAE itself.
He took to Twitter and wrote, “Really disappointed to see PAK team collapsing like this. I really hope management selectors & players get their act together b4 next series but never mind still standing with PAK team ..,”
Here is Akhtar’s tweet
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