Pakistan all-rounder Ayesha Zafar said that the team is working on all three departments of the game and will \u201cput up a good show\u201d against archrivals India while speaking to the media in Dubai on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, it is India vs Pakistan, but this is just another match. We are trying to take the matches day by day,\u201d said Ayesha, when asked how the team was preparing for the all-eyes clash on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is our second match, so we are hoping to put up a good show and go towards winning it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pakistan notched a compact 35-run victory against Thailand for their opening match in the Asia Cup, with an early batting powerplay stutter being remedied by a stable half-century by Muneeba Ali and a disciplined show from the bowlers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot specifically focus on one thing, overall we have focused on all three,\u201d she said, when asked about which facet \u2013 batting, bowling or fielding \u2013 the team was most focused on in the lead up to the next matches.<\/p>\n
She expressed confidence in Pakistan\u2019s spin attack, who played a starring role in the team\u2019s first win, \u201cgiven the fact that these are spinning wickets, and we have world class spinners available\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFielding has been one of the factors on which we have been putting in a lot of work. Our mentor also said we cannot compromise on fielding, because it is something that can win you matches,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the result in cricket matters a lot depending on the type of pitch made and the conditions on the day,\u201d she said, when asked to evaluate Pakistan\u2019s first-innings score of 119 in the first match against Smriti Mandhana of India playing a knock of 120-odd alone, and whether it indicates a significant difference in the planning and preparations between both teams.<\/p>\n
Mandhana made a blistering 124 in 64 balls during India\u2019s dismantling of Hong Kong on Thursday, which led the team to setting a target of 194 before eventually bowling out Hong Kong on 56 to secure a mammoth 137-run win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think 120 was a winning total on that pitch that day, and in the end what matters is that we won,\u201d said Ayesha, adding that Pakistan took their \u201clearnings from that day\u201d, and that it was possible that the pitch was \u201cplaying a little better today\u201d to assist India in putting up the highest score of the tournament thus far.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are fully prepared and will try our best to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we have strategised for India,\u201d she said, adding that the Green Shirts have prepared how to tackle the arch rivals \u201cplayer by player,\u201d and that they will apply those strategies on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Speaking about the hot and humid conditions of Dubai, which visibly affected players during Pakistan\u2019s first match, Ayesha said that they are definitely \u201ca challenge, and not just for us but for all the other teams as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut as we see, some good matches are happening so we are going to take this as a challenge and try and overcome it, and play good cricket.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi also visited the team in Dubai, following his tour of England amidst controversy regarding the board\u2019s decision-making around the men\u2019s test side.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe encouraged us, and told us to put up a good show regardless of winning or losing,\u201d said Ayesha, when asked about the meeting.<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s last encounter against India in the T20 World Cup in June resulted in a heavy 64-run defeat. Pakistan\u2019s last few matches against India follow a similar trend, with the team last having defeated India in the 2022 edition of the Asia Cup, in a stunning 18-run defeat in Sylhet. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pakistan all-rounder Ayesha Zafar said that the team is working on all three departments of the game and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-879734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}