Post Pakistan’s seven wicket win in the T20 World Cup semifinal against New Zealand, former ODI World Cup winners Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis and the 2009 T20 World Cup winner Shahid Afridi were all praise for the Babar Azam-led team.
“Well done boys. Lot of criticism. There were a lot of talks but you proved everyone wrong. You guys are the superstars,” said Waqar Younis on A Sports. “Pakistan in the finals of a World Cup in Australia, Inshallah, history is going to repeat again on the 13th.”
Also in the dugout was the other pace sensation from Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup winning campaign in Australia, Wasim Akram who termed the result as a ‘comprehensive win’ and one that he saw coming even before the match began.
Earlier on the network, Akram had said, “Pakistan is one of top sides in the world to qualify for the semifinals. That’s their sixth semifinal. That’s where I think the confidence will be today. Overall if we look to compare this win with the 92′ World Cup, we as a team knew we could defeat New Zealand. There’s a self confidence that comes in psychologically when you face New Zealand. We’ve beaten them to win the tri-series recently. If we look at the World Cup (T20), out of the six games, four have been won by Pakistan and two by New Zealand. Take all the semifinals in the World Cups (T20 and ODIs), Pakistan have won all of them.”
Post-match, his former bowling partner, Waqar Younis credited team’s bowling on the win against the Kiwis in Sydney.
“Our bowling attack is the best bowling attack in the world. And it has proved the same today as well. When there’s reverse swing in the offering then the slower one of a quick bowler becomes very lethal. And today the way the bowlers used that slower one and read the pitch, it was just great to see. The plans were executed really well. Nothing went wrong. Our day, simple.”
Shahid Afridi on the other hand went gaga over Pakistan’s fielding effort in the semifinal.
“I had said this before as well that whichever team fields better will win,” the former Pakistan captain said on Samaa TV. “Today if you look at Pakistan, from the start they were outstanding. The language of every player looked fantastic and they fielded really well. Our fielding won us the match. Bowlers did their job, batters were brilliant. In all three departments, we were better than New Zealand, which is why the result was positive.”
He further added, “Shaheen (Afridi) made a strong comeback post injury. The importance of new ball is that when you pick wickets early on, it builds more pressure on the opposition. If we talk about New Zealand, they tried to build that pressure but missed out on it. The dropped catch of Babar (Azam) in the first over was beneficial for us. That was the key differentiator. New Zealand dropped three catches today. Pakistan’s fielding was much better.”
