LAHORE, Oct 05 (APP):Pakistan Cricket Captain, Sarfraz Ahmad gave credit to Sri Lankan bowlers for striking victory against the world number one in the first T20 international of three match series here on Saturday night at Gadaffi stadium.
“The Lankan bowlers, pacers and spinners, bowled really well and never let us to bat with freedom getting early break through and they deserve the victory”, he said in his post match comments after his side lost the match by 64 runs.
Sarfraz blamed the batsmen for not realizing the responsibility.
“Six of our players were playing in the side after a long gap as they were given a chance after a long time but most of our batsmen could not stay at the crease to build the innings”, he said.
The home captain expressed disappointment for losing the T20 match after his team’s fine performance in the one day series at Karachi where it wrapped up the event 2-0.
He expressed the determination that his team will make a come back in the coming two matches.
“After losing early wickets our batsmen failed to bridge in the gap and Lankan bowlers mounted pressure on us by taking wickets”, he said adding “Defeat does not mean that we are written off, we still have a chance as there is always a room to improve.”
He said Lankan got a good opening start and then their bowlers did a good job with variety of bowling to shatter Pakistani batting order.
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The Lankan captain Dasun Shanaka expressed his delight over the victory on part of his young side from which two players made their debut.
“I am very happy that we were able to beat world number one team”, he said.
The Lankan skipper said the fine opening stand was the key factor which consolidated their innings and led them to a good total.
“Our top order batsmen did a fine job for the team to build the knock then the bowlers pacers and spinners got together to restrict Pakistani batsmen from stroke play getting wickets at interval”, he said.
He said it was honour for him to lead a young side which beat a mighty opponent.
“Definitely we will be aiming to build on this success to show consistency in the coming two match which are very important for us”,he added.