Sahibzada Farhan takes positives from loss against India as he exuded confidence ahead of Pakistan’s game vs Sri Lanka.
Sahibzada Farhan takes confidence from ‘brilliant powerplay’ against India despite loss.
Their finest player of the evening said the match demonstrated Pakistan’s abilities, despite the fact that they are currently at the bottom of the Super Four standings following yet another rather convincing loss to India. Sahibzada Farhan, who amassed a 34-ball half-century and controlled the first ten overs of the match, was certain that Pakistan was well-positioned to score against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
“The way we batted today, the boys are very confident,” Farhan said, speaking after the game against India. “The wickets in Abu Dhabi are true and the ball comes onto the bat, and we’ll play to win.”
Unlike Sri Lanka, who have played two of their four games in Dubai, Pakistan’s four matches at the Asia Cup have all taken place there. Since Sri Lanka lost to Bangladesh to start the Super Fours, they will play a game without a structured training session that could end up being an elimination for the losing team. However, Farhan rejected the notion that preparedness was an issue.
“We’re very well prepared. The boys are confident ahead of the Sri Lanka game because this wasn’t a one-sided game; it was one we took right to the end.”
Farhan is mostly responsible for this heightened optimism. Pakistan reached their highest midway total against India at 91 for 1 in 10 overs thanks to his aggressive start, especially the manner he dismissed Jasprit Bumrah in the powerplay and the subsequent four overs against Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel. India had to finish the tournament’s most successful chase to win, but Pakistan produced 171 despite a post-drinks delay that cost them momentum.
“I worked a lot on my six hitting,” Farhan, who hit three sixes and is Pakistan’s highest run-scorer of the tournament, said. “When I used to score runs before, there were very few boundaries among them. If we’d won this game, it would have been very valuable to me. Performing against India is very highly rated but I just regret we didn’t win the game today.
“The mistake we were making in previous matches was losing wickets early on and not utilising the powerplay. This time around our powerplay was brilliant, with 91 in 10 overs. There was a collapse in the middle and we’ll look to rectify that.”