Winning the toss and asking Indian cricket team to bat was a silly mistake, says Waqar Younis
Pakistan legend Waqar Younis revealed that former skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed made a wrong decision by putting India into bat during the encounter between the Indian cricket team and Pakistan in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Sarfaraz Ahmed's charges were hopeful that the overcast conditions would suit their bowlers, which would help them pick up early wickets. However, the Indian cricket team openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma safely negotiated the new ball and did not let the Pakistan bowlers settle once the pair got their eye in.
Indian cricket team vice captain Rohit Sharma played a blistering knock of 140 which propelled India to 336-5 in their 50 overs. The total proved too steep an ask for Pakistan as they fell short by 89 runs, via the D/L method.
"I think Pakistan got it totally wrong against India in 2019 starting right from the toss. I think they were hoping that the pitch will do a lot more and they will get early wickets which will put India under pressure. But, India had very seasoned openers and they did not really let the bowler settle. And, the pitch did not really do much and once they got going it was very difficult to stop them. They piled up so many runs to which Pakistan had no answers at all," Waqar Younis revealed on Q20, GloFans, a unique chat show.
Sachin's innings one of the best I have seen: Waqar Younis
Waqar Younis was a part of four India-Pakistan encounters at World Cups and knew that the Indian cricket team firmly had an upper hand over neighbours at the global competition, with the former winning all seven of their match-ups.
The former pacer recalled the 2003 World Cup quarterfinal between the two nations, an occasion where the Indian cricket team emerged victorious.
Pakistan had posted a stiff target of 275 and had a fantastic pace attack, boasting the likes of Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar and Waqar Younis. However, it was not to be their day as Indian cricket team legend Sachin Tendulkar produced a fantastic innings of 98 to help the Indian cricket team win the game by 6 wickets.
Opening up on that innings by the Indian stalwart, Waqar Younis termed it as one of the best World Cup innings that he had ever seen.
"Sachin Tendulkar's innings against Pakistan in 2003 is hard to be described in words because he played so well and especially because the Indian cricket team was under pressure on that day and we were good at bowling. Probably even if you would ask Sachin about this, he might also say the same thing, that it was probably one of his best innings. The way he faced Shoaib Akhtar, Wasim Akram and me under pressure and the way he attacked and got early runs, I think it was amazing innings, one of the best innings I've seen," Waqar Younis stated.