KARACHI: Pakistan all-rounder Salman Ali Agha pinpointed a timid powerplay performance and the delayed arrival of opener Fakhar Zaman as critical factors behind the team\u2019s 60-run defeat to New Zealand here at the National Bank Stadium on Wednesday, admitting the hosts \u201clacked momentum\u201d throughout the match.<\/p>\n
Chasing a mammoth 321-run target, Pakistan collapsed to 260 all out with Salman playing a quick-fire knock of 42 off 28 deliveries, among the batters failing to convert starts.<\/p>\n
He conceded the team\u2019s cautious approach in the first powerplay \u2014 scoring just 22 runs while losing two wickets \u2014 set a damaging tone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t play well in the powerplay. That is the main reason we lost today,\u201d Salman said in the post-match press conference. \u201cWe were never able to build momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n
He emphasised the void left by Fakhar \u2014 who was forced down to the number four as a result of his absence from the field due to injury during New Zealand\u2019s innings \u2014 calling him Pakistan\u2019s \u201cbest powerplay utiliser.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without Fakhar\u2019s aggressive intent, Pakistan\u2019s top order crawled to their second-lowest powerplay score in the past two years.<\/p>\n
Salman, who walked in at 69-3, said he attacked immediately to reduce the mounting required rate but acknowledged the batting unit\u2019s broader failures.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe match was slipping away, so I had to charge from the start. But partnerships are crucial, and we didn\u2019t stitch them consistently,\u201d he said, referencing Pakistan\u2019s five partnerships under 20 runs.<\/p>\n
The middle-order batter contrasted the display with Pakistan\u2019s record run chase against South Africa earlier this year, where strike rotation and collaboration anchored victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to convert our small scores into bigger ones. If we keep getting out after small scores, these losses will keep happening,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n
Salman also addressed Pakistan\u2019s constant failures against New Zealand \u2014 the BlackCaps winning the last three matches between the two sides \u2014 due to lack of consistency.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to be the best side, you have to be consistent. We\u2019re lacking that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Khushdil Shah was the highest run-getter for Pakistan and he echoed Salman\u2019s views about Fakhar\u2019s absence while talking after the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m familiar with batting in situations when the required run-rate is around 11-12. However, we did suffer because of Fakhar\u2019s injury at the start,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Pakistan pacer Naseem Shah who took two wickets while giving away 63 runs, noted that Pakistan were not doing well in the death overs and that\u2019s where, he thought, the match slipped away from their hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KARACHI: Pakistan all-rounder Salman Ali Agha pinpointed a timid powerplay performance and the delayed arrival of opener Fakhar Zaman as critical factors behind the team\u2019s 60-run defeat to New Zealand here at the National Bank Stadium on Wednesday, admitting the hosts \u201clacked momentum\u201d throughout the match. Chasing a mammoth 321-run target, Pakistan collapsed to 260 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5794,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5792\/revisions\/5794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}