Dubai: A comprehensive win over Hong Kong is a perfect start but Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed said Sunday his team will have to raise the game by several notches to outwit arch rivals India in the much-awaited Asia Cup clash, Wednesday.
“As a captain, I saw a couple of things which we should work on. For us to go the distance in the tournament, we should have won this game (against Hong Kong) by nine or 10 wickets,” Sarfraz said.
“We also need to ball better with the new ball. We need to get early wickets with the new ball. It didn’t swing for us with the new ball; that is alarming for us. We will work on it in our next practice session. It’s a good win but to win against India we have to be at our best in all the three departments,” the Pak skipper added.
Left-arm pacer Usman Khan was the star performer for Pakistan and was adjudged the man of the match for picking up three wickets in an over that helped Pakistan bowl out Hong Kong for a paltry 116.
“When I came to bowl in the first spell, I tried to pick wickets with the new ball, but luck was not with me. In the second spell, I got the ball to reverse swing and I managed to take wickets,” Usman said.
Hong Kong skipper Anshuman Rath blamed his batsmen for not being able to put enough runs on the board. “Lots of soft dismissals. 120 (116) was not enough. It was a good wicket. Credit goes to the Pakistan bowlers,” he said.
“We got through the start, but we couldn’t convert it. One 50-run partnership is not enough to post a good total,” he added.
