'We Were Praying During Rain Break - Don't Want Any More Game to Happen': Fakhar Zaman

Pakistan swashbuckling opener Fakhar Zaman opened up on his match-winning knock against New Zealand which kept his team alive in the semi-final race of the World Cup. Zaman played an incredible knock of 126 runs* off 81 balls in a must-win clash at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.

Chasing a mammoth 402-run target, Fakhar took apart the New Zealand bowling with his mammoth sixes which landed mostly in the crowd. He connected 11 sixes and 8 fours as Pakistan were 21 runs ahead in the game on DLS when the play was called off.

Talking about the aggressive intent in batting, Fakhar said that the team has decided to play with that approach only with every game crucial for them in the semis race.

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“We were chasing 400 and that was our plan, just to see off the first 4 overs and thankfully it was my day. To be honest, I was lucky a few times but really enjoyed this innings. We know every game is a do or die for us and we have decided to play aggressively and we are playing with that mind so everybody is just trying to score runs,” Fakhar said in the post-match presentation.

The southpaw said it was one of his best knocks in ODI cricket as he dominated the kiwi bowlers and played big shots on the will to keep the run rate high which worked in their favour when rain called off the play.

“This is one of the best (knocks in ODI cricket) but I will always rank my 193 in South Africa highly, but I really enjoyed this game and New Zealand are a great side, so definitely one of the best,” he added.

Meanwhile, Fakhar also admitted that the Pakistan team prayed for play to not resume during the rain break.

“We were also praying that we don’t want any more game to happen (while waiting anxiously in the dressing room during the rain break) because it was already 9 and half hours and we knew that DLS would come into the equation,” he said.

The southpaw further asserted that Pakistan will continue to play the aggressive brand of cricket.

“We wanted to play with that aggressive mindset and we will play aggressively in the next game also,” he added.