Pakistan cricket captain Sarfraz Ahmed has slammed his batting line, which once again faltered against New Zealand in the first T20I on Monday.
New Zealand comfortably won the match by seven wickets, after the Green Shirts gave them a modest target of 106 runs. “Again, the same problem was that we didn’t bat well up the order and lost too many wickets in the first six overs and we couldn’t recover,” Sarfraz said, while talking to media after the match.
The batting line was unable to cope with the Kiwis fast bowling line, as Pakistan were left reeling at 38 for six in 10 overs. The Men in Green were unable to recover from the early losses.
Pakistan lost both openers early, Fakhar Zaman (3) and Umar Amin was taken on naught. Mohammad Nawaz (7) and Haris Sohail (9) were the next to go, as Pakistan were reduced to 22-4 before six overs. Captain Sarfraz Ahmed poor form with the bat continued in T20I as well, after he was dismiss by Santner on nine runs only.
All-rounder Shadab Khan too cannot do much with the bat after he received his golden duck. Babar Azam was the only ray of stability in the crumbling batting line as he patiently added runs ending up scoring 41 runs, while wickets continue to fall at the other end.
“We assessed the pitch and the new ball was swinging and bouncing at times and we couldn’t keep wickets in hand,” Sarfraz said. The skipper praised the opposition and was optimistic to fight back in the next T20I.
“They bowled really well. We’ll try our best to recover against the new ball in the next game… If we made 140-160 runs, it would’ve been a good match,” he added.
