Pakistan stalwart Shahid Afridi called his country's performance "listless" and slammed the "abject surrender" against India on Sunday
Shahid Afridi
Shahid Afridi
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Pakistan stalwart Shahid Afridi called his country's performance "listless" and slammed the "abject surrender" against India on Sunday. But the perky former all-rounder is not giving up on Sarfraz Ahmed's team that lost by 124 runs to India at Edgbaston last week.
"Pakistan has a great chance to turn things around against the number-one ranked ODI team. South Africa, in its opener against Sri Lanka, looked an extremely formidable side, possessing a strong batting line-up and firepower in its bowling," wrote Afridi in a column for the International Cricket Council website.
Afridi pinned his hopes on the batsmen. "I think we can post a score of around 300, only if we apply ourselves with the bat and build a solid foundation. The task might seem uphill after the batting disaster against India but it isn't impossible. We should retain the batting line-up that played against India since our bench strength isn't that great either," wrote Afridi.
Pakistan beat the South Africans in the 2015 World Cup at Auckland and Afridi, who figured in that 29-run win at Eden Park, remembered that match. "At that time, we had been almost written off before the match but succeeded in recording a famous win. It can surely happen again," Afridi concluded.