Having pulled off a thrilling win over Bangladesh, Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha said such victories make him believe it is a “special team” and added his side has the quality to beat anyone, including India, in the Asia Cup final. Pakistan’s bowlers rose to the occasion, defending a modest 135 with all their might to carve out an 11-run win in the Super 4s clash here on Thursday and book a maiden Asia Cup title showdown with arch-rivals India.
“If you win these kind of games, then we must be a special team. Everyone played really well. There is some improvement needed in batting. But we will work on that,” Agha said at the presentation.
The two arch-rivals will face off for the third time in the tournament, having already met once in the group stage and again in the Super Fours.
“Very excited. We know what we need to do, and we are a good enough team to beat anyone, and we will come on Sunday and try to beat them,” the skipper added.
Agha made special mention of Shaheen Shah Afridi, who bagged the Player-of-the-Match award for his all-round show.
“Shaheen is a special player. He does what the team needs of him. Very happy for him. We were 15 runs short. The way we bowled up front, we will create pressure. We bowled well with the new ball. More often than not you will win games if you bowl like this,” he said.
“We have been fielding well… We have been having extra sessions. Mike Hesson said if you can’t field, you won’t be in the team.” Afridi had earlier smashed a 13-ball 19 to help Pakistan post a fighting score before returning with figures of 3/17.
“Early on, as a team, we need breakthroughs and I go for that. In a small total, you need early breakthroughs and we planned that. Three overs in the powerplay – that is the difference,” Afridi said.
On his batting, he added: “After early wickets, team decided (to let me go) and take on bowlers. Those sixes turned momentum to our end.” Looking ahead to the final against India, Afridi said: “We are ready.”
Batting cost us the match: Jaker Ali
Bangladesh stand-in skipper Jaker Ali blamed their batting for their successive defeats. Bangladesh lost to India in their last Super 4s clash here on Wednesday.
“As a batting unit, last two games we lost it. We did good work with the bowling unit. Yesterday also the batting cost us the game,” he said.
“I tried to take those chances. I tried to adjust to the captaincy. Our bowlers Rishad and then Saif with the bat. Unfortunately, we didn’t support Saif much.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
