Former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ramiz Raja was extraordinarily crucial of the Pakistan cricket crew after they went down preventing towards New Zealand within the Cricket World Cup 2023 warm-up match. The Babar Azam-led aspect scored 345 with the assistance of a century from Mohammed Rizwan and a gritty 80 from the skipper. However, that was not sufficient as New Zealand had been in a position to chase it down with 6.2 overs to spare. Raja stated that Pakistan are getting a behavior of dropping and identified that if the bowlers fail to carry out on the massive stage, the crew should rating greater than 400 runs.

“I know it was just a practice game, but a win is a win. And winning becomes a habit. But I feel Pakistan are now getting a habit of losing. First they lost in Asia Cup, and now here. Pakistan scored 345 and it was a great run-chase. If these are the pitches – and you will get such pitches in India – you will have to score 400 if your bowling keeps misfiring like this. You will have to change your tactics, take risks. And we don’t do that. We play defensively for first 10-15 overs and then shift gears,” he informed reporters.

Rachin Ravindra and returning Kane Williamson performed key knocks as New Zealand chased down 345 to thrash Pakistan by 5 wickets in a World Cup warm-up match on Friday.

Chasing 346 for victory, New Zealand misplaced an early wicket earlier than Ravindra (97) and Williamson (54) placed on 137 to place their crew heading in the right direction and so they achieved the goal with 6.2 overs to spare in Hyderabad.

Mohammed Rizwan hit 103 and Babar Azam made 80 in Pakistan’s 345-5 after electing to bat first however the Kiwi batsmen made the entire look simple towards an assault lacking tempo spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi.

Williamson, who returned from a six-month lay-off attributable to his knee harm and performed the match solely as a batsman, regarded spectacular in his 50-ball keep earlier than he retired out.

(With AFP inputs)