#CWC15: Pakistan’s Waqar Younis happy with win over UAE, but expected better

Joy Chakravarty 18:33 04/03/2015
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  • Vital win: But Waqar Younis expected an even better result from Pakistan.

    A win is always welcome, but coach Waqar Younis could not hide his disappointment that Pakistan were not able to inflict a bigger defeat on the UAE at McLean Park yesterday.

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    It was their second win in as many matches, but Younis was under no illusion that the bigger and more important test for his team was the upcoming tie against South Africa.

    When asked if he was relieved that Pakistan were still in the reckoning for a quarter-final place after the two wins, Younis said: “Look, of course, I am relieved. There is no doubt about that.

    “And yet, the tournament is still very open. We will have to do well against the South Africans. This victory will definitely give us a boost, at least, a positive thinking toward the next two games.

    “The body language of the players has definitely changed because a win always makes you feel comfortable and makes you feel confident.

    "But I still feel that we need to win against a bigger opponent to really tell the world that we are around.

    “Two victories, fair enough. The run-rate is better. We are sneaking in, so we’re just looking to play better cricket and we need to beat bigger opponents.”

    Younis said the plan was to win by at least 150 runs once Pakistan set up a target of 340 runs for the UAE.

    “We wanted to win by a bigger margin. But look, all credit to the UAE batsmen because they batted really well in a couple of phases,” said the coach.

    “It also did not help that we lost (Mohammad) Irfan after just three overs. That was a bit of a setback. He has had a recurrence of some glute issues, but he is doing all right and I am confident he will be fit for our next match against South Africa.”

    Younis said he felt Nasir Jamshed fitted in better into the team as a specialist opener, which was the reason why they opted to give him another chance despite his poor run of form, which continued with yet another failure yesterday.

    “Look, we have 15 players here, so we try to pick up the best side on a day. So if it’s Nasir, or Sarfraz or Younis or someone else, whatever we feel is the right combination, that’s how we go about it,” said Younis.

    “I still feel that Pakistan do need an extra batsman in the lineup, but unfortunately our batsmen are out of form, and we’re not really getting what we were looking for from the seven batsmen.

    “The thing with Nasir is that he is a specialist opener and we needed one after the injury to Mohammad Hafeez.”

    Pakistan’s next match is against South Africa on Sunday, March 7, in Auckland.

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