Pakistan's over-reliance on their opening batting pair came back to haunt them as Zimbabwe pipped them in a low-scoring thriller by one run to clinch their first Super-12 win of the ongoing T20 World Cup on Thursday at the Perth Stadium.
Following Zimbabwe President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa's scathing attack on Pakistan in his cryptic congratulatory tweet for his country's victory in the T20 World Cup, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif responded with a subtle dig.
Speaking after the match in a post-match conference, the 'Player of the Match' was emotional and could not find words to express his excitement and happiness. He said that he was really proud of his teammates.
Virat on Thursday scored his 49th half-century in SENA countries. The star batter has 17 half-centuries in Australia, 18 in England, five in New Zealand and nine against South Africa.
A superb performance by Indian bowlers coupled with half-centuries by the trio of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav helped Men in Blue clinch a 56-run win over the Netherlands in their Group 2, Super 12 match
He heaped praises on the team's bowlers who pulled back things to ensure a victory for Zimbabwe and also acknowledged the key contribution from star all-rounder Sikandar Raza in the victory.
Explaining his role at the time he went in to bat in the match against the Netherlands, he said that the need of the hour was to increase the scoring rate and that's what he chose to do, taking it one ball at a time
The opener rued the batting collapse and said that the Shadab Khan and Shan Masood partnership was important for them. After that partnership, wickets fell regularly creating pressure on the team.
Pakistan made a mess of a paltry chase as they suffered a batting collapse and left their bowlers to chase and win the match for them. All-rounder Sikandar Raza took three wickets in a short span to dismantle the chase.
This year, the batter has scored 1,024 runs in 28 matches across 31 innings at an average of 39.38. One century and nine half-centuries have come out of his bat, with the best score of 122*