{"id":379990,"date":"2023-10-14T16:03:38","date_gmt":"2023-10-14T16:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/blog\/2023\/10\/14\/it-didnt-seem-like-an-icc-event-mickey-arthur-on-india-pakistan-world-cup-match-cricket-news-times-of-india\/"},"modified":"2023-10-14T16:03:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-14T16:03:38","slug":"it-didnt-seem-like-an-icc-event-mickey-arthur-on-india-pakistan-world-cup-match-cricket-news-times-of-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/blog\/2023\/10\/14\/it-didnt-seem-like-an-icc-event-mickey-arthur-on-india-pakistan-world-cup-match-cricket-news-times-of-india\/","title":{"rendered":"It didn\u2019t seem like an ICC event: Mickey Arthur on India-Pakistan World Cup match | Cricket News – Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"

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AHMEDABAD: Even as he wasn\u2019t willing to dish out that as an excuse, Pakistan team director Mickey Arthur minced no words in pointing out the fact that his team did miss the presence of its fans, as a 1,30,000 partisan crowd cheered India to a seven-wicket win for the hosts at the Narendra Modi Stadiumin their 2023 ODI World Cup league clash on Saturday night.Pakistan\u2019s fans are yet to receive a visa to travel to India to watch the mega tournament.
\u201cIt didn\u2019t seem like an ICC event, I would be pretty honest. It seemed like a bilateral series, like a BCCI<\/a> event. I didn\u2019t hear \u2018Dil Dil Pakistan\u2019 coming through the microphones too often. That does play a role, but I am not using that as an excuse because for us, it was about living in the moment, about the next ball and about how we would combat the Indian players tonight,\u201d Arthur said post Pakistan\u2019s heavy drubbing.
Quizzed on whether Pakistan\u2019s fans should ideally have been here, Arthur offered a straight bat. \u201cI don\u2019t want to get fined just yet. I don\u2019t want to get fined,\u201d he quipped.
Pakistan\u2019s head coach Grant Bradburn too echoed his disappointment at the non-arrival of Pakiant\u2019s fans so far, saying that Saturday\u2019s outing \u201cdidn\u2019t feel like a World Cup game.\u201d
\u201cNaturally that was going to be the case. We are really sad that our supporters aren\u2019t here, they would love to be here and I am sure Indian cricket fans would love our supporters here as well. It was certainly unusual in that way, no familiar music for us today. So it did not feel like a World Cup game, honestly. We didn\u2019t expect anything else. We love the occasion and we are disappointed that we did not do justice to the occasion or justice to our many fans at home and globally,\u201d Bradburn said.
However, for someone who has coached international teams throughout his career, the South African was full of praise for the Indian team, while hoping to meet them in the final, despite the hammering on Saturday night! \u201cThis Indian team looks good. I think they\u2019re very well led by Rahul (Dravid) and Rohit (Sharma). They\u2019ve got all bases covered. I\u2019m looking forward to meeting them in the final again.\u201d<\/p>\n
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India vs Pakistan: Rohit Sharma, bowlers star in India\u2019s dominant 7-wicket win<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Arthur felt that Pakistan were \u201ctimid\u201d on the night. \u201cI just think we were a little timid tonight with our approach. I would\u2019ve liked us to take the game on a little bit more. It\u2019s a massive occasion as we know. I think we just went into our shells a little bit. To go for 155 for two, to 191 all out is just not on. Yes, credit to India, they bowled really well but I thought our performance was just a little timid,\u201d Arthur analyzed.
Asked if perhaps it would\u2019ve helped if skipper Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan could\u2019ve taken on the Indian spinners a bit more to increase the scoring rate, Arthur said, \u201cLook, they\u2019re classy performers. They\u2019ve done it day in and day out for Pakistan over an extended period of time. So, I\u2019m not going to sit here and castigate them for that. As I said, I thought we were a little timid. We could\u2019ve taken on the Indian spinners just a little bit more. It was a wicket that didn\u2019t turn massively. I thought we needed to put some pressure back (on India). But again, they (India) were building (pressure) and building nicely. I think we\u2019ve got to realise that there are two ways to skin a cat. We have had success by taking it deep, and then cashing in at the back end. That\u2019s been our style. We didn\u2019t play the Pakistan way tonight, and that was the disappointing aspect of it.\u201d
He stressed that having won two games out of three so far in their campaign, Pakistan weren\u2019t hitting the panic stations yet, in terms of dropping certain under-performing players. \u201cLook, it\u2019s too soon. I mean, we are 2 from 3 (in terms of wins). So, we\u2019re certainly not panicking yet. We\u2019ll go back and analyze this game to the nth degree. We\u2019ll have conversations about how we want to go forward. Australia is our next game, we\u2019ll have conversations about them. We\u2019ll look at conditions, and we\u2019ll make selection decisions based on our strategy and conditions for the next game,\u201d he explained.<\/div>\n