Hasan Ali ‘certain’ Pakistan will bounce back

Pakistan pacer Hasan Ali has said that the Men in Green will bounce back strongly in the next match against Zimbabwe after Australia thumped Sarfraz Ahmed’s men by nine wickets in the second T20I of the tri-nation series between hosts Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Australia.

Billy Stanlake’s devastating bowling spell — four wickets for eight runs — put Pakistan on the back-foot right from the offset and Ali believes that the moisture and the good line and length of the Aussie pacers played a key role in Pakistan’s defeat.

“We have a good team and will bounce back strongly in the next match,” Hasan Ali said in a press conference after the match. “Due to early start, there was moisture on the pitch which helped the bowlers. They [Australia] bowled really well with good line and length which resulted in early wickets.”

He added: “We lost 3-4 wickets in the first few overs, which was instrumental in deciding the result of the match,” he said.

Ali also stated that had they won the toss, Pakistan would have bowled first as well, while he also went on to praise the explosive innings by Australian captain Finch at the top of the order, which ensured that Pakistan did not even get a sniff of an opportunity to get back into the match.

“Finch played really well and took advantage of good batting conditions in the second innings,” he said.

In the scenario Australia win all of their matches in the series, they will replace Pakistan as the number one ranked T20I side of the world, however, Ali was quick to brush aside these notions and said that he is hopeful that Pakistan won’t let that happen.

“We are aware that we will lose our top spot in the rankings if Australia win the series, which is why we will try our level best to ensure we don’t allow that to happen,” he said.