ICC T20 World Cup 2021: Nobody Should Point A Finger Towards Other: Babar Azam To His Teammates

Pakistan captain Babar Azam asked his teammates to keep their bond intact after losing to Australia by five wickets in the second semi-final clash on Thursday.

Pakistan opener Mohammad Rizwan (67) and Fakhar Zaman (55*) propelled them to a competitive score of 176/4 in the first innings.

Pakistan knocked out by Australia in a riveting semi-final

Babar Azam started well, getting to 39 off 34 balls before holing out to David Warner at long-on off Adam Zampa’s bowling that ended his 71-run stand with Rizwan.

Australia’s bowling spearhead Mitchell Starc (2/38) controlled some runs in the death despite being hit by Zaman for a few sixes and was supported by Pat Cummins (1/30) and Adam Zampa (1/22).

Coming into defending their total, Pakistan leg-spinner Shadab Khan bowled a brilliant spell of 4/26 from his four overs to reduce Australia to 96/5 at one stage.

It was Australian wicket-keeper Matthew Wade and all-rounder Marcus Stoinis who scripted a marvellous chase with their uneaten partnership of 81 to enter the final.

At the end of the 17th over, Wade had just scored eight runs off nine balls, and it was Stoinis, the one who was taking a risk by going after the bowlers.

But suddenly, Wade shifted his gears and smoked one big shot to Hasan Ali over long-on for a six, followed by a flicking a boundary on the final ball of the 18th over.

Wade was dropped by Hasan Ali just before he hammered three consecutive sixes to Pakistan’s best bowler Shaheen Afridi to wrap the match in the penultimate over itself.

We have become a unit, and it must not be broken: Babar Azam

After being knocked out of the T20 World Cup, Babar asked his teammates not to point fingers at any individual but collectively take the failure and try to realise the mistakes they made.

“Everybody is feeling the pain. Where we made mistakes and where we should have done better, everybody is realising that through pain. Nobody will tell us this. We know. But we have to learn from this. We have become a unit and it must not be broken,” Babar told his teammates,” Babar said in a video uploaded on PCB’s Twitter handle.

“Nobody should point a finger towards the other, that somebody has done this, somebody has done that. We will learn from this and will not repeat our mistakes in the future. Am telling you, this bond must not break just for one defeat. This is the time to help each other,” he added.

Pakistan had won all five group stage matches to top the points table of Group 2.

Also Read: Babar Azam Can Become One Of The Greatest Captains Of Pakistan: Sunil Gavaskar