KARACHI: Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has clarified his comments over allegedly holding Misbah-Ul-Haq responsible for the 2011 World Cup semi-final defeat.
On a social media website Twitter, Afridi enlightened about his views that the batting effort was a collective failure in the game.
He further said that his batting was equally responsible for the loss, failing to withstand the pressure and that the blame is not on a single batsman.
Shahid Afridi, who gave an interview to Arab News, mentioned, “Misbah-Ul-Haq’s nature is to play like it, taking his time to settle in and taking the game deep”. Afridi claimed that in that particular game, the right-handed batsman needed to up the ante to get the scoreboard going.
The pressure enhanced continuously as wickets began tumbling rapidly. Afridi, Misbah, and Younis played their last 50-over World Cup four years later.
https://twitter.com/SAfridiOfficial/status/1310913512974229505
“Many people speak about Misbah that he played a slow inning. First, it’s the nature of Misbah, this is his game. He takes enough time to settle,” he added. Afridi strives to take the game to the end. But this situation required him to get the scoreboard going.
“He and Misbah should have changed the plan to increase the runs a bit. Pressure built as wickets started falling back to back,” Afridi said. During the 2011 World Cup, Afridi was captain of the Pakistan team tasted a loss to India in the historic game in Mohali.
The retired and iconic cricketer, who earlier seemed to have criticized Misbah for his uncharacteristic knock, has set it straight.
India and Pakistan met for the fifth time in the 50-over World Cups with the former winning all the previous clashes.
During the match, the tourists began well; however, their vastly inexperienced players like Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, and Misbah-Ul-Haq could not create the desired impact as Pakistan fell 29 runs short of the target.
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