Lashing out at his batsmen, Pakistan captain Babar Azam on Friday said that the below-par performance of his team against Zimbabwe in the second T20 International has hurt him.
Zimbabwe, without regular T20 captain Sean Williams and senior batsman Greg Ervine due to injuries, won a low-scoring match by 19 runs, with Brendan Taylor leading them for the first time in seven years.
"Our performance today has hurt a lot and it was very poor cricket from us," Babar said after Pakistan's shock defeat to the lowly ranked Zimbabwean side at Harare Sports Club.
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The Pakistan captain said they should have won the match easily, adding that the middle-order has not been performing.
"Given that we chased down 200 totals in South Africa our performance today with the bat was very disappointing. We can't blame the pitch or conditions for it. Our middle-order is struggling a lot and we are not able to finish matches."
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Babar, who top-scored for his team, said one must also give credit to Zimbabwe for a fantastic bowling and fielding performance. "Yes the pitch was not that easy but as professionals this is no excuse for our performance."
Babar said Pakistan needed to address their problems ahead of the T20 World Cup later this year. "We knew how the pitch would play but none of us applied himself and we lost wickets at critical stages. I would like to give credit to Zimbabwe for very disciplined bowling and they didn't drop their catches. Their fielding was impressive. Our openers also didn't just give the start we needed."
"In the T20 matches before the World Cup we will try to plug in the weak areas and get a good combination going."
This was Pakistan's first defeat against Zimbabwe in the T20 format.
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