Pakistan bid farewell to the ODI World Cup 2023 on a losing note as England handed a 93-run defeat to Babar Azam's brigade in their last league match at the iconic Eden Gardens stadium in Kolkata on November 11, Saturday.
Batting first England posted a monstrous total 337/9 riding on impressive fifties from Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes and Joe Root. In reply, Babar's men faltered and were bowled out for mere 244 to suffer their fifth defeat of the tournament. Babar yet again failed to rise to the occasion as he could only score 38 off 45 in Pakistan's losing cause. Babar ended up scoring 320 runs in nine games.
Babar became the focal point of criticism after Pakistan's nightmarish campaign in the World Cup 2023. Many fans and cricket experts also advised Babar to quit captaincy in middle of the tournament.
Meanwhile after the match Babar issued a cracking reply to all the naysayers as he expressed his desire to continue leading Pakistan.
"We will sit together and take stock. We'll take positives from this and discuss mistakes. I'm keen to lead the rebuild," Babar said in the post-match presentation following Pakistan defeat against South Africa.
It was Stokes (84), Root (60) and Bairstow (59) who steered England to a big total. Haris Rauf, who leaked the most runs in a single edition of the World Cup, snared three wickets. Meanwhile, riding on David Willey’s three-fer reduced Pakistan to a lowly total of 244. Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid too chipped in with two scalps each respectively. Agha Salman with gritty 51 remained the top scorer for Pakistan.
Pakistan ended up five of the nine matches they played in the World Cup 2023.
Talking about Pakistan's defeat against England Babar said,“We conceded a few too many runs. We bowled a few loose deliveries towards the end. And out spinners' aren't taking wickets, which doesn't help. That has a big effect because you need to take wickets in the middle overs. The pitch is very true and the margin of error is very low for fast bowlers, which explains the big scores we have conceded."
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