Asia Cup 2018: Shoaib Akhtar encourages Pakistan to make a strong comeback

Skipper Rohit Sharma and his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan were simply unstoppable in the tournament’s second clash between India and Pakistan, in which the men in blue registered a nine-wicket win over their green counterparts on Sunday. This is India’s biggest win against Pakistan in terms of number of wickets lost. However, Pakistan’s performance in this game with the bat was better than the one in their previous game, in which they could manage only 162 runs before being bowled out.

On Sunday, chasing a target of 238, Rohit (111* off 119 balls) and Dhawan (114 off 100 balls) added 210 runs for the opening stand to win the game in only 39.3 overs. Pakistan’s fielding was miserably poor on the day, and their bowlers were helpless in the face of Rohit and Dhawan’s masterclass. Disappointed with how the boys performed, former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar took to Twitter to express his anger, and also backed his team to come back stronger in the semi-final against Bangladesh.

“Disappointing performance by Pak. But I’ll still support my team & i urge &encourage them to come back strong against Bangladesh & make it through the final & have a last show down against India 1 more time Pak team don’t get demoralised by defeat just get your act together & win,” Akhtar wrote.

Here’s his tweet

Disappointing performance by Pak.But I’ll still support my team & i urge &encourage them to come back strong against Bangladesh & make it through the final & have a last show down against India 1 more time
Pak team don’t get demoralised by defeat just get your act together &win.

— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) September 23, 2018

India v Pakistan frenzy is slowly dying

Most of the recent matches between the arch-rivals have been lopsided affairs. The frenzy for the games thus has been reducing due to the poor quality of cricket. Pakistan will be hoping to beat Bangladesh in the virtual semi-final and hope to repeat the Champions Trophy tale from last year – the one in which they lost to India humiliatingly in the league match, but registered a thumping victory in the finals.

As for Akhtar, one of the fastest quicks from Pakistan, he represented the country in 46 Tests, 163 ODIs and 15 T20Is, taking 178, 247 and 19 wickets respectively.

Follow CricTracker for news articles and more