Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif revealed the turning point of Pakistan’s defeat against England in the second T20I which was played at Edgbaston Stadium, Birmingham, on Saturday.
Pakistan failed to chase the 184-run target as they were all-out for 160 runs in 19.2 overs with Fakhar Zaman top-scoring for the losing side.
Zaman played an explosive knock of 45 runs off 21 balls with the help of three fours and five sixes. Skipper Babar Azam scored 32 runs on 26 balls as he was the second-highest run-getter.
Following Azam’s dismissal, Pakistan continued to lose wickets and failed to build a big partnership which was needed at that time.
Latif talked about the reason why Pakistan lost the match despite being in a very comfortable position after the initial eight overs.
“We were 67/2 in eight overs with Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam on the crease. It looked like Pakistan just have to play four more overs with the same run rate and we will be in the game,” Latif said while talking on YouTube.
“But the problem is in the next four overs (9,10,11 and 12), a total of 25 runs were scored and the required run rate had increased to 11.5. This was the turning point, they scored with the run rate of 6.25 in those overs.”
The former wicketkeeper-batter also added that Fakhar Zaman should have played the most balls in overs between 9-12 as he was in form and was playing with a strike rate better than 200.
“And the most important thing is that Fakhar, who was in form, only played six balls in four overs while Azam Khan played 10, Shadab Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed 4 each. Fakhar should’ve been striking during those overs. Four batters played 19 balls over the in-form batter, and scored only 15 runs,” Latif added.
Pak vs Eng series schedule of remaining matches:
25 May — 2nd T20I, Birmingham
28 May — 3rd T20I, Cardiff
30 May — 4th T20I, The Oval
- Rashid Latif