Pakistan crashed out of the T20 Asia Cup 2016 after an embarrassing loss to hosts Bangladesh at Mirpur. Fair to say, that the Pakistanis themselves are to be blamed after a performance which was simply brainless. But the most jolting aspect for Pakistani fans were the comments of skipper Shahid Afridi in the post match interview. Afridi seemed utterly clueless and admitted that he was indeed short of options.
Afridi, in his interview also congratulated India and Bangladesh for securing their respective berths in the final. The flamboyant all rounder was quick to state that the encounter against Sri Lanka would remain a crucial one. “I want to congratulate India and Bangladesh for qualifying for the final. We made too many mistakes. It wasn’t a good total, but the bowlers did superbly,” said a dejected Afridi.
“We have to do something very special at the World T20 because ours is a tough group. We’ve given youngsters plenty of opportunities, what else can you do? Sri Lanka is an important game, a win there will be good for our morale,” Afridi added.
Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza was delighted with the win and said, “It’s a big win for us, this was like a semi-final.” “Told the boys to just grab it, because we knew there would be plenty of such matches in the future. There was a bit of pressure in the middle, but we coped well. Final will be another pressure game, the trick is to just back each other. It’s a pleasure for us to play at home, thanks to the crowd for coming out in supporting us. Hopefully they’ll continue to do that.”