HAMBANTOTA – Victorious Pakistani captain Shahid Afridi said he took positives from his team’s crushing win over Kenya on Wednesday but urged his batsmen to be more adventurous early in the innings. Pakistan scored an imposing 317 for 7 in their 50 overs with half centuries for Kamran Akmal, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Akmal and were helped by an astonishing 46 extras from the hapless Kenyan bowlers. Afridi then took five wickets for 16 runs as the African minnows were dismissed for just 112 runs, slumping to a huge 205-run defeat, to go with their 10-wicket loss to New Zealand on Sunday.
“It was a good start but I think the next game (against Sri Lanka) is very important for us. I think it will become harder. I think we learned a lot of things from here,” Afridi said. But he added: “I think we should be more positive, especially in the batting. I know that was a little bit of a slow track but I think we should start in a positive way.” Pakistan had just 40 runs on the board after the first 10 overs.
“You should take a chance, otherwise they will bowl in the same area if you don’t take chances,” Afridi said. Despondent Kenyan skipper James Kamande said his side had under-performed in both batting and bowling. “All I know is we’ve given away a lot of extras. I think maybe the guys are trying hard because every time we got a wicket we gave a few runs here and there and that should not be the case. We should be getting on top of the other team.” “It’s a difficult situation for us but we are going to try hard and try to improve in the next matches that are coming up,” he added.
