After leading Pakistan to a memorable six-wicket win against Sri Lanka, Mohammad Rizwan has revealed that every player in the dressing had that belief and were always confident of pulling off the biggest chase in the history of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.
Sri Lanka posted a high total of 344 and Pakistan needed some special performances to win in Hyderabad. Opener Abdullah Shafique and Rizwan played outstanding century knocks and powered their team to historic run chase.
“Whenever you perform for your country and the performance is like that, it is speechless for you. It was difficult because with a chase like that it’s always special. But the thing is for us, when we went into the dressing room after bowling, every player had belief that we were going to chase that. So that’s why the positive vibes were in the mind,” said Rizwan in the post-match presentation.
The wicket-keeper batter also revealed that there were two points during the match that proved to be key for Pakistan’s winning mindset. The first came when Kusal Mendis was dismissed after playing a stunning 77-ball 122 knock, leaving Pakistan the task of limiting what could have become an insurmountable total.
“At that point we decided that 340-350, if we restrict them to there we’re going to bowl very well. You saw in the middle of our overs, when Hasan Ali comes on, Shaheen Shah Afridi comes on and Haris Rauf, they bowled very well and restricted them then,” said Rizwan
“We really must give credit to Kusal and Sadeera (Samarawickrama — Sri Lanka’s other century maker on the day). They played very well, but we knew that the pitch was very good and if the target was 350 we could chase that,” he added.
As far as the second crucial moment is concerned, it came when Babar Azam was dismissed for 10 to leave Pakistan 37/2 and in trouble in their reply.
It was at this point that Rizwan revealed that he and Abdullah Shafique (113) decided not to overly worry about the run rate, instead wanted to take their time and built a big partnership and finish well.
“Unluckily they got Babar Azam, but this is a team game and at that time we decided to go with a deep partnership. Basically, a chase of 300-plus is always… it’s a good track, a supportive wicket for us. If we go deep and just turn the innings into a T20 innings towards the end, that’s what we decided,” he said.
Interestingly, at one point in his impressive innings, Rizwan went down with a cramp and was aided by Dasun Shanaka. And he joked after the game that it was quite a dramatic reaction:
“Sometimes it’s cramp, sometimes it’s acting,” he said.
Adding further detail in the post-match press conference after the match, Rizwan said he is sometimes susceptible to cramping.
“I think I will give credit this time to our physio Cliffy (Cliffe Deacon). He gave us some kind of magic, I don’t know what you call it, cramp medicine. At the moment I’m fine. Sometimes it comes, sometimes it doesn’t come,” Rizwan said.
After registering two wins in two matches, Pakistan are in second position in the points table behind New Zealand on net run rate, with a big fixture against India in Ahmedabad up next on Saturday.