KARACHI: Pakistani all-rounder and former cricket captain Shahid Afridi has said cricketer and present head coach Misbah-ul-Haq needed “to get the scoreboard going” at the 2011 World Cup semi final against India but played slow, as he gave reasons for Pakistan’s defeat.
During the match which India won by 29 runs, the vastly experienced Younus Khan (13 from 32 balls) and Misbah-ul-Haq (56/76 balls despite a late flourish) took their time to settle down and struggled to rotate the strike.
“Many people speak about Misbah that he played a slow inning,” Afridi said in an interview last week. “First, it’s the nature of Misbah, this is his game. He takes enough time [to settle]. He strives to take the game to the end. But this situation required [from him] to get the scoreboard going.”
But Afridi also said as a captain, he "should have changed the plan to increase the runs a bit."
Pressure built as wickets started falling “back to back," he added.
“The Indian body language on the ground had changed a lot after they took out one, two of our players,” he said. “They had become so dominating, overwhelming our team. We had retreated into our shell and became a bit defensive. Had we continued driving up the scoreboard under that pressure, it would have released some pressure off of us. But it was a great opportunity that, I believe, we missed.”
Three match winners could not play in the 2011 semi final due to spot fixing allegations, “so it became difficult for me to balance the team,” Afridi said.
“Even if you lack one match winner, the team struggles, but I was lacking three,” the former captain added.
He said late Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer was a successful coach because he didn’t “do politics.”
“He won’t do politics … He knew the strengths of each player, he knew about the weaknesses so when a player wouldn’t perform, he won’t call him names but support him, he would back him,” Afridi said.
The 40-year-old cricketer, fondly known as Boom Boom, captained the national team between 2009 and 2011, before retiring from international cricket in 2017. He is well-known for his philanthropic work across Pakistan and has formerly worked with UNICEF and a number of national organizations.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article mistakenly combined two quotes by Shahid Afridi, which changed the context of his words about Misbah-ul-Haq. Arab News Pakistan regrets the error.
