Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed rued yet another batting collapse and targeted his bowlers once again as South Africa inched ahead in the Wanderers Test. Pakistan were well-placed at 169-5 before losing three wickets on the same score and conceding a lead of 77. Sarfraz Ahmed (50) and Babar Azam (49) were going great guns but lost their wickets to poor shots, according to the skipper.
“I think if you talk about our day, we had a chance to get to 262 runs but we didn’t get it,” Sarfraz was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. “When me and Babar were batting, we were thinking we should play positive cricket. Unfortunately, I couldn’t score more than 50. If I’d scored 50-70 more runs, the position would have been be much better.”
The wicketkeeper batsman said a few bad shots put his team well behind in the match.
“I think we played a couple of bad shots. I think my shot was a bad shot, and Babar’s too. If you see the last five wickets, there were three bad shots. Mine, Babar’s and Faheem [Ashraf’s]. If we hadn’t played those shots, maybe would be in a much better position.”
The skipper also blamed a less than impressive bowling effort in the final hour which allowed South Africa to recover from 45-4 to 135-5.
“Our bowling, especially the last 45 minutes, we weren’t up to the mark,” he said. “We bowled really well overall but the last one hour we didn’t bowl well. At the moment we are only bowling well in patches. If we bowl well consistently throughout an innings, I don’t think South Africa will score.”
