Shoaib Akhtar tore into the England cricket team for winning the toss and opting to bowl first as they went on to lose to India by 68 runs in the 2024 T20 World Cup second semifinal at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Thursday.
“Ye mujhe koi bata de kis Einstein ne kaha tha England ko ke toss jeet ke aapne doosri batting karni hai, kaunsa sciencedaan hai inke paas (which Einstein told England to win the toss and chase, which scientist they have). A team that has three spinners, Axar, Kuldeep, who is a match winner, and (Ravindra) Jadeja; then they have (Jasprit) Bumrah. So kisne aapko mashvara diya ke India ke khilaaf toss jeet ke aap doosri batting kar lein (so who advised you to win the toss and chase against India),” said Shoaib.
“I don’t think that was a good decision,” he added.
“I am very happy to see India (win), a well deserved team that has full range of batting…I have been saying this since long (that) there is no batsman like Rohit Sharma, then Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya. These three batsmen, one of whom is an allrounder (Hardik), can win you a game by all means,” Shoaib said.
WATCH:
Ruthless Hindustan storms into the final…. pic.twitter.com/hWM6JYzz0I— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) June 27, 2024
After captain Rohit Sharma slammed his 32nd T20I fifty through a 39-ball 57 and along with Suryakumar Yadav, who struck 47 off 36 balls, helped India post a competitive 171/7 on a tacky pitch, brilliant spells from Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel, as they picked three wickets each, led to England falling in a heap as they were bowled out for 103 and help India book their place in the T20 World Cup final clash against South Africa.
England skipper Jos Buttler dismissed the notion that their decision to bowl first after winning the toss was what made the difference in the final result.
“With the rain around, didn’t expect the conditions to change that much. Don’t think it really did. They outbowled us. They had an above-par score. I don’t think that toss was necessarily the difference between the teams,” he said after the match.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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