Former cricketer of the Pakistan national team, Basit Ali, is of the view that just like the adoration of Virat Kohli among Indian supporters, Pakistan cricket fans have high hopes from Babar Azam as well. Babar made a decent start but his innings ended at 37 in the first ODI match between Pakistan and Australia played on Monday. During his analysis, Basit pointed out that while Babar did seem to be in control and composed there fans back in Pakistan will not settle for 37 and there will always be a need for more from him.
“Babar Azam appeared to be in good touch today. The style of his batting was absolutely class apart. Sadly, though, he played Adam Zampa off the back foot to a ball that he should have played on the front foot. His footwork and how he wanted to score runs were pleasing signs.”
“Our people would not put up with 37 runs, they want Babar to get 137. Plus, Indian supporters do not relish the fact that Virat Kohli got 70 runs and are okay with it, they want him to get 170. So, this is the problem with a big player, even scoring a fifty is worthless,” Basit Ali stated on his YouTube channel.
Meanwhile, Haris Rauf, a bowler for Pakistan, confessed that they went wrong in their first One-Day International match against Australia which took place at the memorable Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Monday.
Pakistan in turn was defeated by Australia and that added another home win (27th out of 28 played matches in all formats) to their stats collection. The latest home win added to this fantastic statistic was a close won by 2 wickets with 99 balls left.
Although the opening pair was disadvantageously lost, Steven Smith and Josh Inglis brought relief to the camp as they built an 85-run stand. Even so, Pakistan somehow managed to come back into the game with a surprising upturn from Haris Rauf and Shaheen Afridi.
The two were effective in getting rid of the batting pair, which had settled well, resulting to an unlikely revival. Rauf had just enough pace within him to create the extra bounce that would get the batter’s glove, so as to dismiss Glenn Maxwell for a brown duck in the 204 runs chase.
Furthermore, Australia found themselves three down in the first five balls without even a single run on the board. This was just the scenario Pakistan envisioned when it decided to assert itself and go for the win.
“We played all of us for sure in the field and with the ball, giving it our best. My end was to bowl short. We had a plan and it worked because we got a few wickets,” Rauf stated, as cited by ESPNcricinfo
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