September 25, 2007	Tuesday	Ramazan 12, 1428

LAHORE, Sept 24: Former Test captain Intikhab Alam has expressed his disappointment over the way Pakistan lost the Twenty20 World Championship final against India in Johannesburg on Monday.

Talking to Dawn, Intikhab said in the end the team controlling their nerves better won the game.

“Ultimately, it was the game of nerves and I think India held it till the very end,” Intikhab said.

Regarding reasons of Pakistan’s loss, the former spinner opined that unnecessary reshuffle in the batting line-up and wrong shot selection by several batsmen at crucial stages of the match went against Pakistan.

“Overall it was a great match as it tilted either way at different stages. However, Kamran Akmal shouldn’t have been sent on one-down position in such a big match and I believe Shahid Afridi along with Imran Nazir should have opened the innings,” noted Intikhab.

While slamming Mohammad Hafeez for giving a dolly, Intikhab was also not happy with Younis Khan’s show, claiming the middle-order batsman has no place in Twenty20 cricket.

However, Intikhab commended Pakistan’s overall performance in the mega event.

“Pakistan played well indeed, as I was not expecting them to reach the final, and the credit goes to them for performing nicely,” he expressed.

Intikhab admired Misbah-ul-Haq’s performance but added that due to his one wrong shot selection in the end Pakistan had to pay a huge penalty.

“Misbah played well throughout the tournament but in the end he needlessly went for a risky shot (in the final) while he had four balls to score only six runs. That shows Misbah could not handle the pressure,” he maintained.

Interestingly, Misbah had committed the same blunder in the group match against India when he failed to score only one run off the last two deliveries as the match ended in a tie and Pakistan then lost on bowl-out.

Praising India’s performance, Intikhab said captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has shown that he has a cricketing brain.

“Dhoni’s field placements and use of bowlers were excellent under that tense situation. He did not bring Harbhajan Singh for another over after he was humiliated in his third over,” he said, adding Irfan Pathan bowled extremely well under tense circumstances.