First ODI: Imam 'very disappointed' after failing to finish game with Babar

Opener Imamul Haq was disappointed after he failed to finish the game against South Africa despite sharing a 177-run partnership with Pakistan captain Babar Azam.

Imam, who made 70, quickly departed after Babar’s dismissal which started a collapse in which fast bowler Anrich Nortje took four wickets in four overs.

From 186 for one, with more than 18 overs in hand to reach a target of 274, Pakistan slumped to 203 for five before Mohammad Rizwan and Shadab Khan steadied the innings again in a sixth-wicket stand of 53.

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But both were dismissed before Faheem Ashraf hit the winning run off Andile Phehlukwayo off the last ball.

"To be honest, I'm very disappointed [in not finishing the game]," Imam said. "I've been waiting one and a half years since my last hundred. I haven't had that many opportunities in the last year. You don't always get what you want, but I've got two more games to make up for it," said Imam in a virtual press conference after the match.

Imam believes that Pakistan batsmen need to convert their fifties into hundreds, inorder to register more comprehensive victories rather than taking the game to the last ball.

"If you want to win big tournaments and become a top three team… it's not as if we don't talk about this in our meetings, it gets discussed, that if your top three get set in white-ball, then in other teams they don't just make 100, they get 150. That is what we're trying to do, like Babar [Azam] and I were set today, we should finish the game. We were playing an ODI after a long time. We want to learn from our mistakes and turn these 70s and 80s into match-winning knocks and turn a win like this into a seven- or six-wicket win," he added.