Mohammad Rizwan believes Pakistan can beat any team in the T20 World Cup semi-finals after they romped into the last four with another clinical win over Namibia on Tuesday.
The wicketkeeper-batter was deservedly named man of the match for his 50-ball 79* as he put on 113 with skipper Babar Azam (70) to take Pakistan to an imposing 189-2 in their 20 overs.
Namibia managed 144-5 in their 20 overs to lose by 45 runs in Abu Dhabi.
With four wins in as many Super 12 games, Pakistan became the first team to reach the last four from Group 2. They will face the runners-up of Group 1, likely to be Australia or South Africa, but Rizwan said his high-flying team isn’t concerned about that.
“We don’t see the rival team,” said Rizwan. “Whoever comes in the semi-finals we can take them on and the way our team is doing we will win that as well.”
It was Rizwan’s second man-of-the-match award after he hit 79* against arch-rivals India in their opening game.
Rizwan said Pakistan had entered the Namibia match with a different plan, batting first after winning the toss.
“We want to see how we do if we bat first and the plan given to us by [the] coaches was to score 190-plus and thankfully we managed that,” said Rizwan.
Pakistan made a slow start, scoring just 59 runs in the first 10 overs before smashing 130 in the next 10.
“I think Namibia’s bowlers bowled the first six overs very well and that is why we did not get quick runs, but later on Babar and I got acceleration and that helped,” said Rizwan.
He and Babar also put on an unbroken 152-run stand to overhaul India’s below-par total.
“People used to say that we are not power hitters but we are managing and thanks Almighty doing well,” said Rizwan of the opening stands with Babar. “We support each other and that is paying good rewards.”
Pakistan face Scotland in their final Super 12 game in Sharjah on Sunday.
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