Waqar rues his side’s ‘overall batting failure’

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Pakistan coach Waqar Younis has laid the blame for his side's exit from the Asia Cup at the hands of Bangladesh at the feet of his op order batsmen, saying that aside from a few good knocks, it's been a generally dismal tournament.

Pakistan lost to the Tigers on Wednesday, seeing the hosts advance to the final as they reached the 130 runs required with five balls to spare. Pakistan's top order had once again collapsed, leaving Sarfraz Ahmed and Shoaib Malik to do the scoring.

Malik is Pakistan's top run-getter in the tournament, with 108 in three matches, while Sarfraz is next, further down the list with 83 runs. Sharjeel Khan has scored 21 runs in those three games.

Waqar said of the loss to the Tigers:  "Both openers are new for Pakistan, Khurram Manzoor and Sharjeel is coming back after a long time so I think…

"Pitches are helping the bowlers a bit and I think that's put the batsmen in their shell. Even if you look at all the matches, in the first six overs, all the teams have lost two or three wickets.

"There was the odd innings – Malik played well, today Sarfraz did – but overall, it's been a batting failure for Pakistan.

"We batted very poorly in the first 10 overs, I think that's where the match was sort of…

"We just gave too much of a lead to them. This should have been easily a 160-170 pitch, but unfortunately losing wickets early on is not helping us. Even in the previous games also [that has happened].

"So I guess, bowlers gave their best and tried to pull the game back, and yes it did come toward us for a while, but that's the way Twenty20 cricket works."

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