Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi has eulogized the efforts of his boys in the World Cup as his team got an achievement of semi-final although the expectations were considerably lesser. Pakistan lost by 29 runs to India in Mohali's contest in which they showed iffy batting techniques while chasing of 260, doing not great job with the ball and desolately in the fielding department.
Afridi said, "The batting had been challenging again for us as there were no opening stand greater than 44, we were consistently struggling for building partnerships throughout the tournament. In the semi-final clash, we could not succeed in making partnerships and chose bad shots selection at the wrong time as well". Afridi's XI lost only one game in six games before entering into knockouts as they had lost three key players involved in spot fixing scandal named Salman Butt (opening batsman), Muhammad Aamir and Muhammad Asif (two tricky pace bowlers). They beat Sri Lanka, Australia and West Indies to clear their route to Semi-Final. Afridi had announced before starting the tournament that his team had strength to play in Semi-Final.
He said, "I am proud of my team and the boys have done a great job in this World Cup. Youngsters are very capable and did excellent job. Winning and losing is something unusual but we really played a good cricket and no one can expect from us like this, as a captain, I am very pleased". Pakistan was the runners-up in 1999 when they lost to Australia while in 2003 and 2007; they were eliminated before the knock-out stages.
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