Can’t call it an upset, Zimbabwe deserved to win against Pakistan: Asghar Afghan

Zimbabwe on Thursday (October 27) stunned the cricketing world when the Craig Ervine-led side defeated Pakistan by a run to win their first match in the Super 12 of 2022 T20 World Cup. Pakistan, who were considered one of the favourites to lift the trophy, were in shock and disbelief while the Zimbabweans celebrated in ecstasy.

Now, even though Zimbabwe ranks 11th in the ICC Men’s T20I rankings, former Afghanistan skipper Asghar Afghan is not ready to call their victory over Men in Green an upset. He believes that the Zimbabwe team has the potential to win such games and having played a lot of cricket against the Babar Azam-led side, they were ready for such a challenge.

“Zimbabwe cricketers were mentally ready to beat Pakistan and they played some amazing cricket to achieve that. They didn’t let the match slip away at any point. Pakistan probably thought 130 to be an easy target but in cricket, one can even chase 200 on some days and fail to chase 120-130 on some other day. So, according to me, Zimbabwe are a very good team and you can’t call it an upset. They are an experienced side, a Test-playing nation and a full-member team of ICC. I think Zimbabwe played some extraordinary cricket and thus, they deserved to win the match against Pakistan,” said Afghan on 'BatBricks7 presents Run Ki Runneeti show on CricTracker'.

Very disappointing performance, we are not up to the mark in batting: Babar Azam

Pakistan captain Babar Azam was in utter shock following their defeat at the hands of Zimbabwe. As things stand, they remain fifth in the table with zero wins to their name. Now coming to the T20 World Cup, Azam along with his opening partner Mohammad Rizwan were in terrific form but that surely hasn’t been the case in the ongoing tournament. The middle order is yet to help them win a match and overall, their batting performance is under a lot of pressure.

The 28-year-old Pakistan captain understands that and even called it a very disappointing performance against Zimbabwe. Chasing 131, they were the favourites going into the second innings but the batters failed to cope with pressure and eventually lost the match by just one run.

“We would have taken 130 at the halfway stage. Very disappointing performance, we are not up to the mark in batting. We have good batters but both openers got out in the powerplay. When Shadab and Shan were building a partnership, unfortunately Shadab got out and then back-to-back wickets that pushed us into pressure situation.We will sit out, discuss our mistakes and we will train hard and come back strong in our next game,” said the captain in the post-match presentation.

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