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Misbah-ul-Haq, the former captain of Pakistan, shared his disappointment about the batting performance of the Men in Green after they suffered a 62-run loss against Australia in the ODI World Cup 2023. At the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, Pakistan were unable to chase down the big total of 368, following a quality start at the top of the order from Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq, who completed their fifties.
The Pakistan cricket team were well on their way to overhauling the daunting score from Australia, after a stand of 134 for the first wicket. But, when Marcus Stoinis bulldozed his way to picking up both the openers in quick succession, the responsibility of taking the Men in Green went to their captain Babar Azam and the wicket-keeper batter Mohammad Rizwan.
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Adam Zampa picked up their wickets to put Pakistan firmly on the backfoot before the pressure of the required run rate was too much for the rest of the batting lineup against the top-quality Australian bowling attack. They were bundled out for 305 in the 46th over, to succumb to their second consecutive defeat in the ODI World Cup 2023.
After the match was completed, Misbah-ul-Haq wasn’t happy with the batting performance of Pakistan versus Australia in the run chase, while doing the detailed analysis of the match on a studio show on a Pakistan channel. He was quoted as saying, as per the Times of India, “Jaise hi run-rate upar jata hai, hum panic karte hain (as soon as the required run-rate goes up, we panic).”
“Bhae aagey gir raha hai (ball), 60-62 (metres) ki boundary hai, toh (When the ball is pitched up, the boundary is just 60-62 metres, then) why are you not taking that risk?”, said Misbah-ul-Haq, calling out the batting lineup of Pakistan, who had hit just six maximums at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, compared to 19 maximums from Australia.
