Pakistan’s South African head coach Gary Kirsten reflected on his team’s performance following their ICC T20 World Cup 2024 Group A match against India.
The Nassau County Stadium in New York witnessed one of the most interesting cricket matches that went to hell. As they always say, matches between India and Pakistan never fail to offer tremendous moments and there was no shortage of them yesterday.
The match was like a real roller coaster full of ups and downs, but in the end it was Rohit Sharma’s Indian team that came out on top. Thanks to the victory, India have now increased their lead over Pakistan to 7-1 in the history of the ICC T20 World Cup. At the moment, while India only needs a win to seal their spot in Super 8, the road for Babar Azam’s team has become very difficult.
Gary Kirsten’s team now has to win the remaining two Group A matches against Ireland and Canada in the coming days. But even so, they will have to wait for other results to also fall in their favor and those 4 points in those two games will not be enough. After the defeat, Kirsten reflected on Pakistan’s loss.
Gary Kirsten expresses disappointment after Pakistan’s sudden defeat to India
Gary Kirsten, who took over as Pakistan’s head coach just last month, has already tasted what it is like to be the head coach of his national team. The South African appeared devastated during his appearance at the post-match press conference at Nassau County Stadium in New York.
He started by talking about how disappointing it was for his team to lose the game like that. Gary Kirsten admitted that the target of 120 would never be easy for Pakistan if Team India had managed to score just that amount.
After getting off to a good start in the chase, the Men in Green lost consecutive wickets, which proved costly, something Kirsten feels should not have happened.
“A disappointing loss, that’s for sure. I knew 120 was not going to be an easy target. If India got just 120, it wouldn’t always be the easiest. But I think we had the game at 72-2 with six or seven overs left. “It’s disappointing not to cross the line from the position we’re in.” – Kirsten told reporters in New York.
Kirsten admits Pakistan made too many mistakes
Gary Kirsten then spoke about the team’s poor decision making while batting as they only needed to run the ball to win the contest. The former India head coach also claimed that this is how international cricket works and cryptically warned his players against making similar mistakes.
“Maybe it’s not that good decision making. You’ve got the game going, you run a ball, eight wickets in hand, you make decisions at that moment. That’s the game. That’s international cricket for you. You make mistakes like that. “I think we made some bad decisions in important phases of the game,” concluded Gary Kirsten.