2nd ODI: Honour to get five wickets at home of cricket, says Hasan Ali

Pakistan pacer Hasan Ali accounted for a five-wicket haul in the recently concluded second ODI at Lord’s against England. However, it was not enough to avoid defeat against the hosts. England emerged victorious by a margin of 52 runs, despite fielding a second-string side. Ali even chipped in with the bat down the order, with his big-hitting playing a key role in avoiding an embarrassing defeat.

“I am feeling proud”

“I am feeling proud, it’s an honour for me to get five wickets at the home of cricket. And obviously, on the other side, I am disappointed because we lost the series but we are still looking forward and will come back strongly in the third game,” said Ali in the post-match press conference.

“Definitely, if I would have stayed on the pitch for a bit longer, the situation could have been different and I tried to put England on backfoot with my hitting but unfortunately, I couldn’t succeed. I do have regret that we have lost back-to-back matches,” he added.

The Pakistan pacer had words of praise for the bowling department. However, he admitted that the batsmen had to pull up their socks.

“Unfortunately we had a batting collapse”

“Look, I think Faheem Ashraf and Haris Rauf bowl a bit shorter and outside stumps. In every match, only two to three players perform. No doubt they (Faheem and Haris) have potential and they are skilful but they could perform today. In ODI cricket, we know 300 is a par score in ODI cricket but we restricted them to 250 and we came back in the game. But unfortunately, we had a batting collapse and we couldn’t build partnerships especially from our openers who were in form. It’s fine that Faheem and Haris leaked a few more runs but as a bowling unit, we did well,” said Ali.

“I played according to my natural game. As far as our batsmen are concerned, we have our coaches here, our batsmen know their mistakes but don’t forget they have done a lot for Pakistan. We played the last two series well and our top order did well in South Africa but unfortunately, we couldn’t replicate the performances here. Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan have been performing well recently,” he added.

Ben Stokes’ dismissal was key

Ali termed the dismissal of all-rounder Ben Stokes as a vital one, expressing his happiness

“Obviously, we all know (Ben Stokes) is a very good player and he has been doing very well for two-three years for England. That wicket was key for us and I am very happy to get him today. We know he can change the game anytime. We were planning and we worked to get him early and we came back in the game,” he stated.

The all-rounder believes that the players are struggling to make their presence felt in English conditions, having toured the nation after six years.

“It’s been six years that we have been coming here (England) but we play most of our cricket in Pakistan, UAE so change in conditions make a difference. Over here, the ball seams a lot which is causing trouble in batting,” he concluded.