06 October,2009 07:36 AM IST | | Majid Bhatti
A loss in cricket can never escape intense scrutiny in Pakistan cricket. As the 2009 World T20 champions returned home empty-handed after their loss in the Champions Trophy semi-final to New Zealand, skipper Younis Khan & Co had some more swing bowling to tackle as it were.
Yesterday, Jamshed Khan Dasti, who heads the National assembly standing committee for sports stated that he has a report to suggest that Pakistan deliberately lost the match to Australia on September 30 to put India out of the competition.
An Australia loss and a win over the West Indies would have helped India qualify, but Pakistan lost narrowly to eventual champions Australia off the last ball.
Brett Lee and Nathan Hauritz were the unbeaten batsmen when Australia won by two wickets. Dasti said that he would summon Pakistan captain Younis Khan, coach Intikhab Alam and Board chief Ijaz Butt shortly to explain the loss to Australia as well as New Zealand, who beat Pakistan in the second semi-final of the competition on Saturday night.
The batting efforts of Kamran Akmal (44), Mohammad Yousuf (45) and Misbah-ul Haq (41) went in vain against the Aussies. Misbah was out hit wicket.
Talk of match-fixing surfaced again when Pakistan captain Younis Khan was asked at the pre-match conference before the game against Australia as to whether Pakistan would lose to throw India out of the tournament.
Younis MiD DAY that he was fed up with such talk and was livid at the suggestion.
