Nottingham,June 4: Pakistan batsman Mohammad Hafeez said the team’s ability to ignore criticism that came their way after the ICC Cricket World Cup opening defeat to the West Indies helped them focus on the right things in the lead up to their big clash vs England.
Pakistan were under quite of pressure as they headed into the World Cup on the back of a 10-match losing streak. It extended to 11 after their horror show against the West Indies on Friday in their 1st match of the quadrennial cricket tournament.
Pakistan had come up with a drab batting show as they were bowled out for 105 before West Indies gunned down the total in 13.4 overs.
However, on Monday, it seemed a different Pakistan side had turned up against England as they beat the tournament favourites by 14 runs in Nottingham. Hundreds from Jos Buttler and Joe Root weren’t enough for the hosts as Pakistan came up with an all-round performance to script a remarkable comeback.
“We don’t pay much heed to what people say. You feel bad when you get to know these things but you can’t get affected by these things. I don’t get bothered with these things and I am sure other players also do the same,” Hafeez told the reporters on Monday.
He added: “It’s true that when you lose your moral is low. At the same time, you need confidence.
“After losing the first match we had a team meeting and we spoke to each other and backed ourselves, gained confidence by recollecting our good performances. All those things worked today.
“We knew we needed to do something extra to get the win and we did it. If you had seen our performance today, every player pushed himself to do better.”
Hafeez stole the show with an all-round effort as he hit a 62-ball 84 after taking the attack to the two England spinners in Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid. Hafeez chipped in with the ball as well as he picked up the key wicket of Eoin Morgan during England’s unsuccessful chase of 349.
The senior campaigner said Pakistan were in desperate need of a confidence-boosting performance and that they are extremely happy after having got the big win against England.
“We were in need of this kind of a win since the past few games. We were missing that good feeling. We were playing good cricket but we weren’t able to do well in crucial stages in those matches,” Hafeez added.
“I believe the entire team is happy now. Yeah, I am the Man of the Match but all the players contributed to this win. It was a brilliant team effort.
“It was total self-belief (turnaround with the bat). Everyone was really motivated after the bad game against the West Indies. We are very much capable of winning matches for Pakistan. Everyone expressed themselves and that worked for us.”
