Pakistan pacer Naseem Shah was spotted walking off the field after the Men in Green registered a narrow 6-run defeat against arch-rivals Team India in the T20 World Cup 2024 Group A clash at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on Sunday.
With a target of a mere 120, Pakistan failed to chase it down as they were restricted to 113/7 by Indian bowling attack in a stipulated 20 overs. Mohammad Rizwan led the Men in Green's batting with an innings of 31 off 44 balls. Apart from Rizwan, no other Pakistan batters tried to make an impact. The second best score was 15 by Imad Wasim.
When India required 17 runs off six balls to defend the 119-run total, Arshdeep Singh was brought into the attack and conceded 11 runs. Naseem Shah put in the best of his effort to take Pakistan past the finishing, but went in vain.
As soon as the match concluded with Pakistan falling 7 runs short of the target, Naseem Shah was seen walking off in tears as his valiant effort couldn't help the team to achieve the 120-run target. He was consoled by his teammate Shaheen Afridi as they walked back to the pavilion. The video of the same went viral on social media.
Naseem Shah walked out to bat in the 20th over when Pakistan required 18 off final over to win the match. However, Shah scored 10 runs off 4 balls, but it wasn't enough to secure victory for his team.
For India, Jasprit Bumrah brilliantly led the bowling attack with the figures of 3/14 with an economy rate of 3.50 in four overs. Bumrah picked a crucial wicket of Mohammad Rizwan to turn the tables on Pakistan in the 15th over of the run-chase.
Bumrah was supported by Hardik Pandya, who picked two wickets, while Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel picked a wicket each.
'had too much dot balls': skipper Babar Azam
Pakistan skipper Babar Azam lamented that batters playing too many dot balls rather than scoring runs in 120-run chase cost the team a victory against India. He added that batters failed to utilize first 6 overs of the second innings to lay the foundation for the team's victory.
"We bowled well. In the batting, lost back to back wickets and had too much dot balls. Tactics was simple to play normally. Just strike rotation and the odd boundary. But in that period we had too many dot balls." Azam said at the post-match presentation.
"Our mind was to utilise first six overs in batting. But one wicket down, and again we weren't up to the mark in the first six (overs)." he added.
Pakistan have suffered two consecutive defeats against USA and India in the Group Stage of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024. The Men in Green need to win against Ireland and Canada in order to have realistic chance of qualifying for the playoffs.
