"Pakistan lost the plot after 15 overs, players under pressure": Kirsten

Perplexed by Pakistans sudden disintegration in the T20 World Cup match against India here the teams recentlyappointed head coach Gary Kirsten said his batters lost the plot after 15 overs and are under pressure after failing to perform at their bestPakistan are on the verge of being eliminated from the tournament after consecutive losses to debutants USA and archfoes India The loss to Rohit Sharmas on Sunday was a classic case of implosion with the side going from 804 in the 15th over to ending at 1137 while chasing a modest 120Kirsten emphasised the significance of strike rotation particularly on challenging surfaces like the one here He said his team failed to follow the strategyI think certainly on a pitch like that it is really really important to be able to rotate the strike So I agree with you that sometimes its fun to watch a game like this where its not only about hitting boundaries Kirsten said in the postmatch press conferenceBut you also have to be able to use 120 balls really well As I said we did for 15 overs and then we lost the plotwere losing too many wicketsAs a batting unit you cant lose as many wickets as we are losing Players have got to take responsibility when that opportunity comes he addedAlso ReadT20 World Cup 2024 Jasprit Bumrah should be teams No1 player Anil KumblePakistan were guilty of consuming 59 dot balls during the chase Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah did the most damage with figures of 314 in his four oversThe sides next game will be at the same venue against Canada on Tuesday It will be a virtual doordie encounter for the runnersup of the last editionThese guys are all international players and theyre aware that when theyre not performing at their best that theres going to be pressure put on them Thats understandable Kirsten who has coached the 2011 ODI World Cupwinning Indian team saidbut a lot of these guys have played a lot of T20 cricket around the world over many many years and its really up to them to decide how theyre going to take their games forward the South African statedAsked if the team lacks the ability to handle pressure Kirsten stressed upon the importance of continual growth and adaptation in the fastpaced world of international cricketIm having a look into the environment and looking at what the issues are I look at these players Ive watched them play many many years on TV and kind of getting to know them theyre fantastic guys Kirsten who was appointed just a few weeks before the World Cup saidAlso ReadHow can Pakistan still qualify for Super 8s of T20 World CupI mean theres a lot of very disappointed guys in the change room now I think for me the most important thing for every international player is that you continue growing he explainedThe game is changing pretty much every year So if youre not up to it and youre not improving youre going to get found out somewhere On what exactly was the teams strategy while chasing Kirsten said the focus was on capitalising on loose deliveries and rotating the strike However he expressed disappointment over the teams loss of momentum during the crucial phase of the inningsI thought we did that brilliantly for 15 overs We kept it at a run a ball and then we lost wickets and then we stopped scoring ones and then we were looking for boundaries and once youve got to that point it was always going to be hard So the message was to do what we executed on for 15 overs the coach saidAmid the disappointment of defeat Kirsten found solace in the teams bowling performance especially in the death overs It got better and better and weve tracked their stats over the last 15 odd games and theyve been an incredible bowling unit from overs 10 to 20 I think our record between overs 10 to 20 as a bowling unit is up there with the best he saidWeve got four fantastic seamers and Imad Wasim I thought bowled really well today as well So weve got some nice options on the ball with the team and I think were going to be a difficult team to bat against if we bowl like that he addedKirsten diverged from the criticism aimed at the dropin pitches of the Nassau stadium refraining from joining the bandwagon of discontent Despite witnessing a series of lowscoring matches he remained diplomatic about Sundays wicket and the chatter surrounding its uneven bounce which has been dubbed dangerous in several quartersI think it wasnt dangerous I mean the odd one rose up but not many Generally it kept a little bit lower it was difficult to score from both batting sides and also a fairly slow outfield so it was never going to be a big total said KirstenI would have said 140 would have been a really good score on that pitch so India didnt get that and so I thought we had the game added the South AfricanThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter 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