September 16, 2007	Sunday	Ramazan 03, 1428

DURBAN, Sept 15: Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik has said that his team was unaware that their Twenty20 World Championship match against India would be decided on the basis of a bowl-out in case of a tie.

The Pakistan-India group ‘D’ match, played under lights, ended in a thrilling tie at Kingsmead, Durban on Friday night. India then performed better, hitting the stumps in the bowl-out stage to secure a victory.

“When the match ended in a tie, only then we came to know that this (bowl out) would be applied,” Shoaib said at the post-match press conference. “I just told my bowlers not to take pressure and try and hit the wickets but they were not successful.”

When Misbah-ul-Haq was run out off the last ball with the scores level, some confusion prevailed among the players with regard to the result of the match. The bowl-out followed, which India won 3-0.

“The match ended in a tie, so none of my players should be blamed (for losing),” Shoaib said. “The Indians were bettered prepared and they beat us in that part (bowl-out) but I think we did not lose the match in a way that we fought till the very end.”

He also dismissed the view that Pakistan would have been better served using the big-hitting Shahid Afridi higher up in the order, saying: “We needed one off the last two balls. Anyway he’s more useful to us after 12 overs.”

Shoaib also said it was unfortunate, after coming very close to an exciting victory, to lose the game against India in a bowl-out.

“I could not believe that we would lose the match after being so close at one stage, but then sadly we could not do well in the bowl-out.”

Meanwhile, the all-rounder agreed that Pakistan’s batting line-up needed to improve as it couldn’t perform well in the two preliminary round matches, against Scotland and India.

“Definitely we have to show improvement as our bowlers did a great job, especially Mohammad Asif and then their hard work was spoiled by a few batting flaws and I believe in the next stage of the tournament more precision and responsibility will be on the batsmen,” he asserted.

He expressed his disappointment over losing in bowl-out, adding he was not expecting the match would end that way.

“I was very unfortunate but Misbah-ul-Haq was on the wicket and he kept the target in reach with his strokeplay but unfortunately the last run could not be made, Misbah was run out and the fate of the match changed all of a sudden,” he said. “It is always sad to experience a loss but in a way it had some lessons for us too.

Now we have to lift the level of our game and put up a better performance in the coming matches against Australia and Sri Lanka or New Zealand,” he added.

When asked about the performance of Salman Butt, the vice-captain, Shoaib said the batsman was off colour in the first two games but hoped the left-handed opener would get rid of the bad patch soon to support the team.

Shoaib, however, added: “We cannot determine the performance of a player based on his showing in a couple of matches; we have to wait for a while as the tournament is not over yet.”

Shoaib further insisted the team had not been under pressure before the match, saying their morale was up for the next matches and they would do better. —Agencies