Mike Hesson, the head coach of Pakistan, pushed his team to bounce back from the crushing loss in the T20 World Cup match in Colombo, saying that “fearless” Ishan Kishan’s raiding fifty was the difference between his team and India.
India defeated Pakistan by 61 runs in a Group A encounter in Colombo on Sunday night to guarantee a spot in the Super Eight, led by Kishan’s aggressive 77 off 40 balls.
“I think he’s fearless. He’s able to score on both sides of the ground. So, he’s not just committed to the leg side. We know he’s incredibly strong there, but he can reverse. So, if you’ve got spin, especially in the power play, it can be a challenge,” PTI quoted Hesson as saying in the post-match press conference.
As promised by Hesson, Kishan destroyed Pakistan’s spin-heavy approach on a slow Premadasa wicket by scoring 66 runs off 37 balls against slow bowlers.
Hesson said that Kishan’s strategy made his spinners uneasy.
“I think the fact that he’s in a rare vein of form, applied a lot of pressure to our spinners and probably took them away from the basics, which the pitch was actually doing a lot when we bowled nice and slow and into it, but outside of that, no one really scored better than a run a ball.
“Other than him, Dubey was slightly better, but it was tough. And that (Kishan’s innings) certainly was a standout amongst the whole match, really. The way Kishan played took the game away from us,” he added.
The coach, who was born in New Zealand, acknowledged that the team was saddened by the crushing loss and that their task now is to bounce back and perform to their full capacity in the ICC showpiece.
Pakistan was bundled out for 114 after failing to put up even a small resistance in the chase of 176.
Pakistan now sits third in Group A with four points, behind leaders India and the USA, who also have four points but have a higher net run rate of 0.788 than Pakistan’s -4.03.
To advance to the Super Eights, Pakistan must now defeat Namibia in their last league game.
“We know that it’s a huge event — Pakistan against India. We’ve won five (T20I) games on the bounce, we’re confident, but today we got outplayed. There’s a pretty disappointed dressing room in there at the moment, because they know how much it means to Pakistan,” Hesson said.
“We didn’t play as well as we could have, but we know in tournaments like this it’s not always going to go your way. So, our job is to pick ourselves up and make sure that we’re very good in two or three days,” he added.
In order to perform better when playing under pressure, Hesson also urged Pakistani players—particularly batters—to have faith in their own judgment.
“Look it’s very much when a guy’s putting you under pressure — are you going to stick to your basics or are you going to go away from that? And I think that’s going to be a real challenge because as the tournament progresses, we’ll be put under pressure again.
“And it’s how we respond when we’re under the pump. All these guys are international players, they’re all good players, but when the pressure comes on, are they going to trust the decision making or are they going to probably go outside that? That’s something we’re going to have to get better at,” he added.
