Dubai: As Pakistan beat India for the first time in the ICC World Cup tournaments, Indian skipper Virat Kohli on Sunday said that Pakistan outplayed them and that some quality bowling from Pakistan didn't let them get off the blocks.
"We did not execute the things that we wanted to but credit is certainly due - they outplayed us today. When you lose three early it's very difficult to come back, especially when you know the dew is coming. They were very professional with the bat as well. Hitting through the line was not as easy in the first half as it seemed in the Pakistan innings, so when you know the conditions can change, you need 10-20 extra runs. But some quality bowling from Pakistan didn't let us get off the blocks. We're certainly not a team that presses the panic button, it's the start of the tournament, not the end," said Kohli.
Meanwhile, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam said that they executed their plans well and early wickets of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav proved to be helpful. "We executed our plans well and the early wickets were very helpful. Shaheen's wickets gave us a lot of confidence and the spinners dominated as well. The plan with Rizwan is always to keep it simple. We tried to get deep in the crease and from about the 8th over the dew came in and the ball came on nicely. This is just the start, we have confidence to build on now. It will remain match by match for us. The pressure on us wasn't that much - we weren't thinking of the record against India at all. I only wanted to back all our players who've been preparing well. When you play tournaments before a big World Cup, it helps and our players came in with a lot of confidence because of that," said Azam.
Shaheen Afridi, who was Player of the Match, said, "This is the first time we've beaten India and I feel proud. I knew it would be good for us if I got early wickets and that worked out. My idea was to get as much swing as possible. You don't get a lot here, but I wanted to get those breakthroughs and gave it 100%. In my opinion the new ball was a difficult to play, so credit goes to Babar and Rizwan. All the teams are difficult at the World Cup, we'll try to take this momentum forward and make the final."
