LAHORE                -              Pakistan captain Babar Azam said that his team badly needed victory in the T20 international and achieved it by beating Bangladesh in the first T20 match of the three-match series to end a losing streak.

Speaking during the post-match conference here Gaddafi Stadium on Friday, Babar said: “We badly needed a win and finally, we got it against Bangladesh and this victory will add to our confidence and help us in performing better in the remaining two matches of the series.”

The captain expressed his delight on the success and said it will help the green shirts in retaining their number one status in the T20 international. He praised the performance of the bowlers and said they bowled with good line and length to restrict the opponents at a modest total. “The wicket was not easy, as the ball was not coming as per the expectations but our bowlers did a good job to put pressure on the rivals batsmen,” he said.  Babar gave victory credit to the bowlers and the man-of-the match and the top scorer veteran all-rounder Shoaib Malik, who scored a steady half century.

“Malik played with responsibility and built the innings and on the other hand, bowlers overcame the factor of a difficult surface and worked really hard to put pressure on the Bangladesh batsmen,” he said. Babar said he looks forward to the similar performance in the coming matches to attain desired results.

Shoaib Malik expressed his delight on his team’s victory and said he felt good that he duly contributed in team’s success. He termed the pitch ‘difficult’ for hard hitting and stroke play and said despite this factor, Pakistani bowlers put in resolute efforts to cause difficulties Bangladesh batsmen.  The former captain said fine bowling on part of bowlers and exceptionally good fielding led Pakistan to success. “The way our bowlers performed was remarkable knowing the difficulties in way of accurate bowling on a difficult track and our fielding was brilliant and all these factors led us to victory,” he said.

Shoaib said overall performance of Pakistan team was good and he is confident that it will continue the flow of success in the coming two matches to win the series.  To a query, he expressed his delight and satisfaction for guiding the team to success with a responsible knock. “I just want to advise the young players to learn to deal with the pressure and to develop a culture to finish off the game in a demanding situation by batting with responsibility and performing to the expectations.

“One must look for the chance to take a single or hit a boundary keeping in view the nature of the delivery and sensible batting is solution to it,” Malik concluded.

Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah Riyad said it was a good game and Pakistan won it mainly due to the batting and innings of Shoaib Malik and fine bowling of home bowlers.  He said the wicket was difficult to play and the ball was not coming to the bat and his team fell short of 10 to 15 runs. “The more ball was getting older, the more it was not coming to the bat and we have to look into aspect to deal with it in coming matches if such a situation arises again,” he said.  Bangladesh captain said missing of run out chances and dropping of catches contributed to their defeat and they have to overcome this factor to come better in the next game.

He appreciated the performance of Pakistani bowlers and the innings of the Shoaib Malik and termed his knock ‘highlight of the match’ and said the veteran batsman kept the hopes alive with a solid innings becoming an example of the young players.

“Before going into the match we will sit together to review our performance and to take measures to overcome gray areas and by doing so we will be coming stronger in the next game,” he said.