ISLAMABAD-
Captain Misbah ul Haq believes a score of around 170-180 would have been a good target for India saying right from the toss beating India bowling first was not easy. Misbah said there is big pressure setting a target, because everyone knows India’s batting strength.
“So it was very difficult to set a target against an opposition like this,” he said while talking to a private news channel.
Misbah said there was variable bounce, variable pace, that surprised the Pakistan team. “Pakistan was looking for 180 runs, but later it became too difficult to get even to 150,” he said.
Misbah said the pressure kept on mounting and mounting on the batsmen.
“20 more runs could have made the difference on this pitch,” he said.
Misbah said batsman Umar Akmal played sensibly trying to re-assess the situation after 5-6 overs.
“Pakistan were thinking of 30-40 runs in the last few overs but momentum was missing throughout and it was tough to bat,” he said.
Misbah said the 5th over bowled by Saeed Ajmal was the turning point of the match.
Misbah while praising the captaincy of Indian captain MS Dhoni, said Dhoni read the pitch, the script, went to his main bowlers, and put the brakes on Pakistan.
“Everything on the pitch was for the bowlers, they were getting bounce, and it was difficult for the batsmen to get bat on ball,” he said.
Speaking about the playing leg spinners, Misbah said the reason for the defeat could be that we are not playing leg spinners a lot in our domestic circuit.
“Shahid Afridi is a different kind of leg spinner. We even struggled in South Africa against Imran Tahir, our batsmen feeled difficult to catch his googlies, flippers and leg spins,” he said adding even against Samiuallah Shenwari we struggled, and even during the Asia cup we struggled against Amit Mishra.