Sharjah: Islamabad United skipper Misbah Ul Haq was a disappointed man after losing to Karachi Kings. Within minutes after his reign as the captain of the champions of Pakistan Super League (PSL) ended at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Wednesday night, Misbah admitted: “It’s hard to take a defeat like this. You need to move on. Let’s see how next year goes on.”
Forty-two-year-old Misbah isn’t sure whether he can lift the trophy next year. In the post-match press conference he was repeatedly asked about his future in international cricket and he kept saying: “It’s not the time to answer that question. I will go home and decide.”
Misbah feels his team bowlers did a great job.
“Bowlers did very well to restrict them to 126. It was keeping low, but still it was gettable. We just lost early wickets. Pressure kept building and they took wickets regularly. We batted badly.”
What has hurt Misbah the most is the fact that the target was gettable. “I think the pitch played differently, it was a low bounce pitch and the ball was not coming but again a 127 run target should have been achieved. We didn’t bat well and Karachi built pressure by taking wickets. It was a chaseable target but we batted poorly.”
Misbah even admitted that his performance was not up to the mark. “In a pressure game like today it’s important that senior players should contribute. We needed good partnerships as it was a run-a-ball target. So when as a senior player you don’t contribute, pressure comes on your team and on you and that’s one of the reasons.”
Misbah — maintaining his cool — even answered to a query on whether his team are similar to the Pakistan national side and the players crack under pressure due to a lack of contests in domestic competitions.
“I think our batsmen can improve by performing in such pressure games. Obviously there are problems in our domestic cricket and we need to work on that. We need to improve our domestic cricket and that will help our batting standard.”
Misbah even turned philosophical. “The way we lost this game is disappointing especially chasing 127 runs on a Sharjah pitch. Any team losing this way will think that it should have been won.
“We did well in this PSL as defending champion and we should have gone beyond this stage but that is how it is as Karachi did well and played well, so they are in the next stage.”
Did losing Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif (who were suspended for alleged spot fixing) affect his team? “Obviously they were two good players. Sharjeel was in good form and Khalid played a key role in last year’s win. It’s tough to get a replacement for a good player so it was tough and it affected our performance.”
Misbah also commented on the final at Lahore. “We wanted to play the final but we are not there so it’s disappointing but for the people of Pakistan it’s going to be a big match. They want to see a live match there. The last time when Zimbabwe came they came in big numbers, now they are waiting and have shown their interest. So it will be a big event for them.”
