June 17 (CRICKETNMORE) - Pakistan’s inability to back up Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam’s impressive partnership left captain Sarfaraz Ahmed frustrated following a heavy defeat to rivals India.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Rohit Sharma’s scintillating 140 from 113 balls helped India set a challenging total of 336\/5 but Fakhar and Babar kept Pakistan in the hunt with a brilliant second-wicket century partnership. But when Babar was bowled by Kuldeep Yadav with the score at 117\/1, a middle-order collapse was sparked, with four dismissals for 12 runs en route to an 89-run loss, via DLS method.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
It prompted further questions about the senior players in the line-up with 38-year-old Mohammad Hafeez, 32-year-old Sarfaraz and 37-year-old Shoaib Malik scoring just 21 runs between them batting at four, five and six.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
And the skipper admits that frustrating spell ultimately proved the difference at Old Trafford.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
“It was definitely a very disappointing and disheartening defeat,” said Sarfaraz. “We were going very well, especially if you talk about our batting.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
“Once we lost the first wicket, Fakhar and Baber had a good partnership and we said we just needed to stay at the crease. But then we lost too many wickets afterwards and that is why we lost.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
“You can’t just talk about only the senior players, the whole team is not performing well in all three departments – batting, bowling and fielding.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
“If you look at this game, our batsmen made a good start and Fakhar and Babar did really well but unfortunately we lost so many wickets – that was the turning point and why we lost.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Defeat leaves Pakistan ninth in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 table – three points behind the top four, having also played one game more than most of those teams.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
It was also a seventh loss in seven World Cup matches against India and Sarfaraz concedes that the rivalry is beginning to become slightly one-sided.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
“If you talk about World Cup matches, definitely,” he added. “We’ve not won a World Cup game against them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
“And with the rivalry in general, in the 1990s Pakistan had the upper hand but India are definitely better at the moment and that’s why they win more matches.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
“Even in this game, we won a good toss but didn’t capitalise despite having a pitch with a bit of moisture in it.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n
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