Pakistan coach Waqar Younis has voiced his confidence that there was “nothing wrong” with the third one-day international against England in Sharjah amid reports the match is under investigation over possible suspicious betting patterns.
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The Daily Mail is reporting that Tuesday’s fixture is the subject of an inquiry by officials from the International Cricket Council’s anti corruption and security unit (ACSU).
Pakistan’s erratic performance, with the bat especially, brought a quizzical reaction from many on social media at the time – including former England captain Michael Vaughan.
The hosts lost six wickets for 29 runs at one stage in an innings featuring three run-outs and several other hapless dismissals.
Michael Vaughan was able to delete the tweets he did suggesting that Pakistan threw away the 3rd ODI – here they are pic.twitter.com/l6lhrLNA1N
— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) November 18, 2015
But Waqar insists there was nothing sinister about the rush of wickets.
“I’m very clear about the Pakistan team, and there was nothing wrong with the game,” he said. “Yes, we lost the game – it’s unfortunate and these things happen.
“You lose and win games, but I have no doubt in my boys. I’m very satisfied in them.”
Mail Online quoted confirmation of an investigation from an unnamed ACSU source, who made reference to the remarks of Vaughan and others.
“After comments like that, we couldn’t ignore it – but we also had other reasons to look into it,” he told the newspaper.
The ICC made no comment on the matter when approached.
