ICC World cup: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 looks for enhanced batting performance
Pakistan Skipper and crushing all-rounder Shahid Afridi accepts that Pakistan ought to improve their batting in the quarter-final against the Caribbean today, and he himself should bat impressively.
The aggressive batsman, Afridi, at the moment is the leading wicket taker in the World Cup so far with 17 wickets under his belt and he has given away just 65 runs in six matches.
Pakistan has topped the Pool A with five victories out of six matches. However, they did not performed exceptionally well with the bat.
Shahid Afridi while talking to the media on Tuesday said that their success has entirely belonged to their bowlers so far, who bowled tremendously well and led http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 to the victories.
Afridi accepted that he himself not batted according to his reputation but will concentrate on my batting in today’s match against the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760. He knows that how vital his batting is for the team and he will definitely go for some runs in today’s
crucial encounter.
The Pakistan Skipper is often blamed for smashing big hits early in his innings when team required a responsible knock from him. The same happened during Saturday’s match against the Aussies.
On Saturday, Pakistan was chasing a small total of 176 runs and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 were under pressure but Afridi let the Aussies to come back in the match by hitting an unnecessary shot for a six but could not clear the fieldsman on long-on and was caught
by Brett Lee off the bowling of Jason Krejza.
However, Umar Akmal and Abdul Razzaq led Pakistan to a formidable victory over Australia by four wickets but Afridi’s batting was not an impressive one for other batsmen.
Afridi accepted that he played an unnecessary and irresponsible shot as a Skipper at such a crucial stage.
However, the Pakistan team seems to be the favourite to in their quarter-final against the Caribbean. Pakistan have lost only against the Kiwis in the tournament so far.
Afridi said that he is not thinking ahead about the semi-final against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 or Australia but concentrating on just quarter-final against West Indies. He added that this will help them to concentrate on today’s clash and to win that clash which will
be beneficial for the team to move further in the tournament and ultimately lift the Cup.
“We really worked hard before this World Cup,” Afridi said. “I think we never worked as hard in our career. We had very good (training) camp sessions, we’ve been taking our practice sessions very seriously.
“The coaches have done a great job with the guys, especially with the fielding. There’s a lot of effort behind this.”
West Indies will be reinforces by the return of Chris Gayle and Kemar Roach. However, now it will be a tough selection process for West Indies Selection board. Afridi persisted that Pakistan will go with the winning combination in the quarter-final.
“I think I’m happy with my winning combination at this stage,” he said. “You can’t change for a game like this.”
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