Mickey Arthur: It’s unfair to start witch hunt against captain Babar Azam, Inzy

Babar Azam. Pic/File Pic

Pakistan team director Mickey Arthur reckoned that it's unfair to start a witch-hunt against skipper Babar Azam, chief selector Inzamam ul Haq and his coaching staff. South Africa beat Pakistan by one wicket in a thrilling encounter at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Friday.

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"They [PCB] are going to be blaming everybody, don't worry. It's just the way of the world. Yeah, look, it's unfair. It's really unfair to start a witch hunt, certainly on Babar Azam, on Inzi, on our coaches, on the management team," Arthur remarked at the post-match press conference on Friday night, when asked about whether the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has already started blaming the captain and chief selector for the team's poor show in the World Cup.

Pakistan suffered their fourth successive defeat in the tournament. But Arthur backed his boys: "What I do know is the boys have tried and the effort of the coaching staff, the effort of the players has been first-class. If they [PCB] would see the amount of effort that the players and staff put in, they would be amazed."

Batting first, Pakistan were bowled out for 270 in 46.4 overs. Azam (50) and Saud Shakeel (52) registered half-centuries, but failed to capitalise for their team to pass the 300-run mark. "I don't think we managed the last five overs particularly well tonight [Friday]. There was still, at one point, in the 45th over, I remember saying to the dressing room a run-a-ball gets us 295 and a little bit more would have got us 300. I know we would have defended 300 tonight. So, I don't think we managed that back end particularly well at all. And we left 10-12 balls [20 balls] out there that we didn't face," Arthur explained.