Pakistan opener Sahibzada Farhan has promised an aggressive and positive approach when his side locks horns with arch-rivals India in their high-voltage clash on February 15.
Pakistan withdrew its boycott of the fixture late on Monday night, setting the stage for one of the marquee contests of the tournament.
“We’ll go in with the same mindset as we’ve had in previous matches against India, including the Asia Cup. The plan is to stay positive and play attacking cricket,” Farhan said at the post-match presentation.
Farhan starred in Pakistan’s 32-run win over the USA, smashing a fiery 73 to earn the Player of the Match award. He revealed that he had felt in sublime touch even before stepping onto the field.
“The way I practiced yesterday, the ball was coming onto my bat really well in the nets. I told our batting coach Hanif Malik that I had a good feeling about this match,” he said.
“I was confident. I even said I would finish the match in a way that earns me the Player of the Match award. I’ve set myself a target of winning at least two or three such awards in this World Cup.”
Captain Salman Agha said Pakistan are comfortable whether setting or chasing a target, though they prefer putting runs on the board.
“We are comfortable chasing, but we like to bat first and post an above-par total and then defend it. We have a flexible batting order — the top three are ready to go hard, and the finishers can be promoted if needed. If we lose early wickets, we also have batters who can take the game deep,” Salman said.
After narrowly edging past the Netherlands in their opener, Pakistan delivered a far more assured performance against the USA.
“It was a clinical performance. We started well with the bat and built through the middle overs. With a world-class bowling attack, once we scored 190, we knew we could defend it,” he added.
However, the skipper admitted there were areas to improve. “There’s always room for improvement. We’d like to bowl better in the power play and be more clinical overall. Those are things we’re working on.”
USA captain Monak Patel expressed disappointment at his team’s middle-overs bowling, which he felt proved costly.
“We bowled well in the power play, but leaked too many runs in the middle overs. We pulled things back at the death, the pacers did well,” Patel said.
With two losses severely denting the USA’s hopes of progressing to the Super Eights, Patel said his side is determined to end the campaign on a positive note.
“We’ve been playing good cricket and came here confident, but small mistakes cost you at this level. We want to finish this World Cup strongly with two wins.”
