Pakistan suffered an early exit from the T20 World Cup 2024 after failing to secure a top-two finish in the group stages. They were pooled together in Group A with India, USA, Ireland, and Canada.
Their defeat in the opening match against the United States (USA) proved to be a major setback for Pakistan, which they ended up losing in the Super Over. It was a huge upset in the context of the tournament, but a major victory for the USA which boosted their qualification to the Super 8s.
Pakistan-born Ali Khan was also part of the USA team in that match, where he finished with figures of 1/30, by picking up the important wicket of left-hander, Fakhar Zaman.
During a recent interview on a Pakistan channel, Ali Khan talked about USA's upset win at the World Cup and gave his opinion on why Pakistan might have lost that match.
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Ali Khan decodes Pakistan's performance against USA
The USA fast bowler, Ali Khan was speaking on the YouTube channel, Caught Behind, while discussing his experiences during the T20 World Cup 2024 and in particular about the USA's shocking win against Pakistan during the opening match of the tournament.
The podcast also featured former Pakistan cricketer, Rashid Latif. The host asked Ali Khan about the factors and reasons for Pakistan's Super Over defeat to the USA, when he shared his thoughts.
He said that Pakistan has a history of being unpredictable on the day, either producing a dominant performance or imploding themselves. The USA bowler felt that Pakistan had underestimated his team during the World Cup, which eventually led to the historic win.
"If we look at Pakistan's history, they'll either destroy you or they'll themselves fall. That's what happened to them that day. It was a lucky day for us. We had more belief than them and I think they took us lightly," the USA fast bowler said
The Pakistan team chose not to play any warm-up matches ahead of the start of the T20 World Cup 2024, and played their first match against the co-hosts USA, who were well aware of the conditions at the ground.
"It was Pakistan's first game at that ground, and we were familiar with the conditions, we play most of our domestic matches at that ground. So, we were used to the pitch conditions."
A major reason he felt, for Pakistan's defeat against the USA, apart from taking the opponent lightly, was that they did not play attacking cricket and took the game to the relatively inexperienced associate nation.
Pakistan had scored just 30 runs for the loss of 3 wickets in the powerplay. Ali Khan opined that the Pakistan batters lacked intent and their poor start in the first six overs contributed to them posting only a par-score on board.
They started the game well; they had a lot of support there. But they lacked intent right from the beginning, they were extremely slow in the powerplay. Only Fakhar Zaman showed intent as he hit a six in the very first ball, he faced but luckily, I got him out. I think Pakistan didn't play attacking Cricket.
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