While India came up with flying colours, Pakistan were left thrashed, disappointed and heart-broken on Sunday at the Dubai International Stadium. It was for the second time in the ongoing Asia Cup that Sarfaraz Ahmed and his men were hammered by India.
Pakistan toiled hard to put 237 runs on the board. However, in reply, India found no difficulty in chasing down the target with 9 wickets in hand. After losing the game, Pakistan skipper blamed his fielders for this heart-wrenching defeat.
“Tough game, we did well with the bat, but 20-30 runs short. But if we keep dropping catches, we won't win games,” said Sarfraz in the post-match press conference.
“We've done hard work at fielding. So I'm not sure what's going wrong. I thought the pitch was difficult to bat on, that it would be hard for a new batsman to start here and for that reason, we should have held on to our catches,” he added.
Sarfraz asserted that the need to raise their skill levels when it comes to facing stronger teams like India.
“They [India] had set batsman to do the job. We're trying to get early wickets, we're talking with the bowlers, and when we don't get them, with batsmen like Rohit and Dhawan, it's hard to come back. Their skill level is high, ours is not quite there, but by the final, we'll get better. It's a do-or-die match for us in the next game, we'll do our best”
After losing to India by a huge margin, Pakistan will face Bangladesh for the final time on Wednesday. Both the sides have won one match each. Whichever side wins the battle on Wednesday will play India in the final which is scheduled to take place on Saturday in Dubai.