Former Pakistan captain and all-rounder Shahid Afridi has clarified his comments over allegedly holding Misbah-Ul-Haq responsible for the 2011 World Cup semi-final defeat. Pakistan, whose captain was Shahid Afridi, during the 2011 World Cup, tasted a loss to India in the historic game in Mohali. The retired and iconic cricketer, who earlier seemed to have criticised Misbah for his uncharacteristic knock, has set it straight.
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India and Pakistan met for the fifth time in the 50-over World Cups with the former winning all the previous clashes. India, who elected to bat first, dragged themselves to 260 in their stipulated overs as Sachin Tendulkar top-scored with 85 and Suresh Raina providing a handy finish. The tourists began well; however, their vastly inexperienced players like Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, and Misbah-Ul-Haq could not create the desired impact as Pakistan fell 29 runs short of the target.
Shahid Afridi took to his official Twitter handle and enlightened about his views that the batting effort was a collective failure in the game. The 40-year old stated that his batting was equally responsible for the loss, failing to withstand the pressure and that the blame is not on a single batsman.
Unfortunately I have been misquoted in this interview. The 2011 defeat was due to batting failure of the team. The batsmen including myself didn't sustain pressure of the chase. No blame on any individual! pic.twitter.com/pgZFrnSWfH
— Shahid Afridi (@SAfridiOfficial) September 29, 2020
What Shahid Afridi initially said?
Shahid Afridi, who gave an interview to Arab News, mentioned that Misbah-Ul-Haq’s nature is to play like it, taking his time to settle in and taking the game deep. At the same time, Afridi claimed that in that particular game, the right-handed batsman needed to up the ante to get the scoreboard going. The pressure enhanced continuously as wickets began tumbling rapidly. Afridi, Misbah, and Younis played their last 50-over World Cup four years later.
“Many people speak about Misbah that he played a slow inning. First, it’s the nature of Misbah, this is his game. He takes enough time [to settle]. He strives to take the game to the end. But this situation required [from him] to get the scoreboard going. He [Misbah] should have changed the plan to increase the runs a bit. Pressure built as wickets started falling back to back,” Afridi said in the interview with Arab News.