Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed has warned his teammates to raise their fielding standards ahead of the crucial World Cup game against India following the side’s sloppy display on the field against Australia.
Put in to bat, Australia set a target of 308 on the back ofa 146-run opening partnership between David Warner (107) and captain AaronFinch (82). Chasing their second win of the tournament, Pakistan could onlymanage 266 falling to lose by 41 runs.
“We made toomany mistakes in all departments. I’m very disappointed with our fielding, itis not up to the mark or standard expected. We will have to work hard toimprove on this before we play India, there can be no excuse,” Sarfarazsaid after the loss on Wednesday.
Pakistan had upset tournament favourites England last weeklargely because Eoin Morgan’s side produced a poor display in the field. Butroles were reversed against Australia, as dropped catches, mis-fields and overthrowsmade a big difference in Pakistan’s loss.
Asif Ali dropped opener Aaron Finch on 33 and then saw himgo on to add another 49 runs to his score, in an ultimately decisive firstwicket partnership with Warner. Asif’s day didn’t get any better when he alsodropped Warner later on.
But there are some positives for Pakistan Sarfaraz to takeinto this weekend’s clash with India. Mohammad Amir produced a brilliantdisplay of swing and seam bowling to bank career best figures of 5/30 asAustralia lost their last seven wickets for just 86 runs.
Sarfaraz was lavish in his praise of Amir, who wasoriginally left out of the World Cup team but now the leading wicket taker atthe tournament after his first-ever five wicket haul.
“If you take a positive from this match it is howMohammad is bowling for us, that is a big thing to take into our nextmatches.”
“He’s a world-class bowler. When he’s swinging it, it’svery difficult to try to get on top of him. Then when it’s seaming andswinging, it’s even harder,” Sarfaraz said.
Sarfaraz and Wahab Riaz put on a record eighth wicket standfor Pakistan at the World Cup.
“I’m very disappointed. We lost three wickets in 15balls and that’s why we lost. We conceded too many runs in the first 20 overs,we came back and restricted them well but it was a 270-280 pitch.”We made some runs and got starts but we’vegot to convert them and go long. If you want to win matches your top four mustscore runs,” he added.