A distraught Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq today admitted that he is clueless about how to stop the Indian juggernaut that has been rolling in the World Cup since 1992.
"I don't know. This is happening. You can't do anything about that. I think they are playing well. Today, it was a thoroughly professional performance from them. They batted and bowled well, so full credit to them," Misbah said at the post-match press conference.
Now that the match was over, the 40-year-old veteran did not want to dwell too much on the India game.
"I think the game is gone now. So we have to just concentrate on the next one. Every game we lose is hard, especially in the World Cup. You need to win the games," Misbah said.
The captain admitted that his team might have been affected by nerves while facing India in a World Cup match.
"I think it might be. As everybody knows, they are very good batsmen, some of the top batsmen in the world. I think they really played well today. And the kind of talent that they have, they showed it today.
"I think we could not really manage to score, our batsmen could not really convert their starts, and some of them just got out early. We need to learn. Like good players, we need to just carry on, go there and just try to do the job for the team. At the moment, even today, I think the guys were doing it before in the practice games, but I think we just lost three quick wickets in the middle, and from there on we just lost the way," he explained.
Misbah admitted that the team missed the fifth bowler and might have to revisit the move of opening with Younis Khan.
"Let's see. Actually, with these field restrictions, we are not actually getting the balance right because we need a fifth bowler. So that's why sometimes you have to just sacrifice another batsman. Let's see in the coming games. We'll just think about that.
