Soon after Pakistan’s humiliating nine-wicket loss against arch-rivals India, Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur said that his team was going through a “confidence crisis”.
“We are not abandoning them. Yes, they are suffering a bit of confidence crisis at the moment. There is fear of failure in the dressing room. There is a bit reality check of where we are as a cricket team,” Arthur was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Arthur rated this defeat as the worst performance though praised India for the team effort. “In terms of worst performance, nine wickets has to be up there. India have very good players. If we give them an inch, they are going to make us pay and they did just that,” he was quoted.
Pakistan suffered the loss at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday in which only their former captain Shoaib Mallik (78 off 90 balls) put up some resistance while others failed to match up to India’s dominating show. In reply to Pakistan’s 237/7 in 50 overs, Indians achieved the target losing just one wicket and 10.3 overs to spare.
“Our strike rates were not good enough with the bat. With the ball, we need to strike early against these guys. We had a couple of chances, we didn’t take them. When you get these guys chances on wickets like these, they dominate you. We need to get into their middle-order as quick as we can that’s when we can inflict most damage” Arthur said.
In an effusive praise for India, the South African coach was particularly impressed with Jasprit Bumrah’s accuracy. “One thing that really impressed me, we were at optional training session the other day and I sat there for 20 minutes. I saw Jasprit Bumrah in a net next to us execute yorker after yorker after yorker,” Arthur said.
A disappointed Arthur said that now Pakistan have an uphill task when they take on Bangladesh on Wednesday. “It’s a semi-final now. We have to find a way to dig ourselves out of the hole we are in at the moment. We will come back from this. We are at our best in must-win matches. That’s when we come to the party,” Arthur felt.
ALSO READ: Asia Cup 2018: Rohit, Dhawan help India pummel Pakistan by nine wickets