The defending champions only have a game against Bangladesh left and are left relying on other results in the group to sneak them through to the last four. That is a situation Pakistan have found themselves in regularly in recent tournaments – though this one looks less likely to happen – and it is one Rizwan does not much care for.
“As a captain, I don’t like depending on others. If you are good enough, you show it by winning and keeping things in your hands. Waiting on other teams, I don’t like worrying about their results. What matters is that India and New Zealand beat us. They played strong cricket and we didn’t play well. If we get a chance [to sneak through] then so be it.”
Rizwan acknowledged the side would have to face difficult questions about their performances here. Their exit is confirmed if New Zealand beat Bangladesh in Rawalpindi on Monday and, if so, will mark the third ICC white-ball tournament in a row in which Pakistan have exited before the knockouts.
“We made mistakes we’ve been making in the last few matches. These aren’t new mistakes. We’ve been making them in the last four games. We work on them, but we are humans, our players are humans, these mistakes happen”
Mohammad Rizwan
His own innings today – a 77-ball 46 – will come under scrutiny much in the way that Babar Azam’s innings in the opening loss did. It was far more inert until a late acceleration, but his dismissal was one of three quick wickets in the middle which robbed Pakistan of whatever momentum they had built.
“When you lose, you’re obviously disappointed and it’s a difficult time, difficult questions come up,” he said. “We made mistakes in all three departments, that is why we lost today.
“In our team meeting yesterday, we had said we’ll target 270-280 on this, given the outfield was slow, the pitch was slow. If we’d got 280, the result might have been different. Saud [Shakeel] and I started building up a partnership, over which we took some time, but after that our shot selection was poor. That gave them a chance to take wickets and put pressure on our middle order. They built on it, and we couldn’t stabilise ourselves.
“We made mistakes we’ve been making in the last few matches. These aren’t new mistakes. We’ve been making them in the last four games. We work on them, but we are humans, our players are humans, these mistakes happen. We’re trying to work on those, we’re trying to put the effort in to resolve those. What I believe is that India’s effort was greater than us, they were braver than us. That is why they got the result. We made mistakes, maybe because when we had to show bravery in some moments we didn’t show enough. In our fielding we needed to show more energy, but maybe we were lacking in that, and so made mistakes.”
