Sarfraz Ahmed, the Pakistan captain, had praise for the Afghanistan side, and admitted his side had been “shaken” on their way to a nervy three-wicket last-over win in their Super Four match of the Asia Cup.
“We were shaken,” Ahmed said. “The way Imam, Babar and Shoaib played towards the end was fantastic, but to chase 250 in these conditions against the Afghanistan spinners who I think are the best in the world, you have to bat really well.”
“We get confidence from the way we won today,” added Ahmed. “As you know, the team has improved a lot on its fielding over the last few years, but today we didn’t show that. Regardless, the team has been motivated by this performance.”
Malik, who has enjoyed a good run in Asia Cup tournaments through the years, stuck around even as wickets fell around him.
“Being a senior player, when you’ve played enough cricket, you know when you already have a start, the goal is to bat till the 50th over,” he said. “At one point the required rate was almost 10 but I kept telling myself to bat till the end because we had batsmen to hit the big shots later.”
