With not even a ball being bowled, the conditions in Mohali has already started to ignite a difference of opinion between the Pakistan and New Zealand team.
The state of argument has gone beyond the obvious analysis of whether the pitch is a bowler friendly wicket or a batsman favouring one, as the main question hanging over everyone’s head is which country does it favourIJ
Kiwis coach Mike Hesson believes the conditions in Mohali are very similar to that they have in New Zealand. However, Afridi rejected it outright.
When asked about New Zealand coach’s opinion, Afridi said, “From my experience here, its always been a good pitch. The pitch is covered now, and we have time till tomorrow. To say that it’s in New Zealand’s favour, I don’t agree. The pitch will be same for both the teams and more important is how we play on it.”
Prior to Afridi, Hesson said playing Pakistan many times recently will help them, particularly in a conditions which is similar to that of New Zealand.
“It helps both sides because we know each other pretty well. Obviously we played those games in New Zealand conditions. Mohali is probably more like New Zealand conditions than perhaps Nagpur and Dharamsala,” he added.
Afridi may not have agreed with his counterpart coach’s view, but he still had nice things to say about them.
“They are playing really well in this format. Their win against India on a good spin track was amazing. The team is well balanced and have good spinners,” Afridi explained during a pre-match press conference.
‘Boom Boom’ Afridi is also not ready to say much about Tuesday’s crunch game against the Black Caps as he is looking to do all the talking in the field.
“There is a time to talk and there is a time to act. Now is the team to act on what has been spoken. We spoke over two days and planned, and tomorrow is action time,” he said.
Afridi is also looking too deep into the criticism which he or his teammates receive. “Even before the tournament started, people had written us off. But, I have stayed away from Twitter and Facebook.
I have just kept me on one side because I know how people are reacting back home. Whatever happens there is a thing for the future, but right now all we can do is perform well,” he explained.
Pakistan skipper added that the reason behind India’s defeat was because of too many mistakes his team had committed.
“The team that wins, wins because it makes lesser mistake than the other side. We made more mistakes, we did not read the pitch right and also lost the toss.
If we had won the toss, we would have also bowled first because the conditions were overcast and the pitch was covered for most part of the day,” he explained.
He undoubtedly had good things to say on Kohli’s knock. “I won’t give any excuse, but Virat Kohli was the biggest difference. In the Asia Cup too, he had singlehandedly won the match.
In the last match India played well and won, but that’s history now. For me, tomorrow’s match is the most important and the team’s focus is on that,” he said.
Earlier, Mike also reckoned it will be tough to play against an ‘unpredictable’ Pakistan side.
“They are unpredictable, but very skillful. They have got a lot of pace of left-arm variety and with Irfan they have a difference in terms of bounce. Their bowling attack in particular is very challenging. As a batting unit, they are relatively predictable in the way they play and that gives us more opportunity with the ball,” he signed off.